Kalugin ranks Khabib third, McGregor fourth in all-time UFC greats

In response to Vlad Matveev's top-10 greatest UFC fighters list, Kalugin argues for including additional criteria beyond titles and opposition quality when evaluating greatness. He emphasizes the importance of considering fighters' contributions to popularizing MMA, peak performance, fight dominance, commercial impact, and records. Kalugin's proposed top-10 includes Jon Jones first, GSP second, Khabib Nurmagomedov third, and Conor McGregor fourth, followed by Jose Aldo, Alex Pereira, Anderson Silva, Demetrious Johnson, Islam Makhachev, and Amanda Nunes. He defends including Khabib and McGregor by arguing that greatness encompasses not just titles and defenses, but the scale of a fighter's influence on the sport. Kalugin notes that both Khabib and McGregor significantly expanded MMA's reach geographically and inspired countless followers to take up the sport.