After Saturday night's KO victory over the most dominant UFC heavyweight champion ever, Stipe Miocic, if for whatever reason you thought DC didn't belong in the GOAT conversation, you do now. He's proven time and time again that he can impose his style on whoever he faces, with the exception of one Jon Jones. Speaking of Jones, I'm steadfast on keeping him as the GOAT. He's never truly lost, there are legends all over his resume, including Cormier twice, and he has an exceptional finishing rate. As for the PED speculation, I don't think this should disqualify him right now. It's pretty accepted that Jones tested positive due to "gas station dick pills" for lack of a better term. There's no hard evidence right now that Jones intentionally tried to cheat. Plus, what he did test positive for was clomiphene, or estrogen blockers. Sure, clomiphene is what's used for people on steroid cycles, but it was proven that clomiphene did in fact exist in whatever penis pills Jon Jones was using. It's not like he popped for something REALLY bad like TRT or anabolics. Unless something else pops up, I do not feel guilty in having Jon Jones is the true GOAT (even though he does kind of seem like a shitty person, although that shouldn't disqualify anyone). So where does this leave Daniel Cormier?

This is probably an unpopular opinion, but for me, Daniel Cormier is #2 on the GOAT list, ahead of Georges St. Pierre, Demetrious Johnson, and Anderson Silva among others. Since I don't feel that there is a valid argument that Silva should surpass DC, I'll pass on an argument for him. And no, title reign is not a factor; If Jon Jones doesn't exist, Daniel Cormier would very likely be undefeated at both light-heavyweight and heavyweight. He's already undefeated at heavyweight with 14 fights, a super impressive feat. Regardless, I'll start with GSP.

For me, GSP is solidly in at #3, still subject to change. He's fought bigger and more talented guys overall than Demetrious Johnson, which is important for the GOAT conversation. However, GSP is behind Cormier. What I mentioned before about Jon Jones not existing is one of the main reasons why I have DC firmly in at #2, over GSP and others. Even though Jones does in fact exist, DC's credentials are still good enough for #2. Now, while St. Pierre's resume is very impressive, it still doesn't stack up to Cormier's. First, DC has been fighting against guys who have been bigger than him in every single one of his fights, except for one (Jeff Munson). When you consider a man of DC's stature essentially dominating every single one of his opponents, with the exception of Jones and Alexander Gustafsson, that means a ton. Plus, he beat Gus, and both fights with Jones were very competitive. You can't say the same for Georges St. Pierre. Yes, I know, everyone weighs in the same, but GSP has usually been the larger guy in his fights. There's no denying GSP's legendary wrestling and that piston of a jab, but he hasn't dominated opponents with the same frequency of Daniel Cormier. Yes, GSP could wrestlefuck opponents for close to 25 minutes, but I wouldn't put his wrestling and tenacity on the same level of DC. Also, as a whole, DC's victories have largely been much more convincing that GSP's. Georges got beat up bad by Hendricks, and to an extent Carlos Condit. Plus, fights like GSP vs Thiago Alves just aren't that impressive to me. For as good as GSP is, to have someone on the ground for as long as he had Alves there, you gotta finish him. You just have to. Oddly enough, this is something DC referred to about the Miocic-Ngannou fight, where he mentioned that if he had Francis on the ground for as long as Stipe did, he would have finished him. And I believe him. Fights like the Alves one occurred far too often for me to put GSP over Cormier. While both men were absolutely dominant, DC clearly had much more of an impressive killer instinct.

Another reason I have DC ahead of GSP is because of George's hiatus from fighting. Sure, I get it, people were definitely cheating and it was sort of noble I guess for GSP to vacate and take time some time off and let the sport clean itself up. But you know who wasn't taking time off and still dominating the cheaters and non-cheaters? Daniel Cormier. Whether DC didn't know about the cheating or just didn't care, no one was good enough to beat him, except for the GOAT GOAT. In terms of GOAT status, this is important to me in my rankings.

Finally, people were clamoring for Georges to move up in weight his whole career, and he never did (in his prime). It took until he was 37 or 38 to be lucky enough to have old-ass Michael Bisping hold the 185 belt for GSP to even consider the move up in weight. DC dominated at heavyweight, moved down to 205 where he largely dominated as well, and just moved back up to defeat the UFC's best heavyweight champion ever. And he's 39! I have nothing against Georges St. Pierre, but he's not better than Daniel Cormier. To drive the point home, GSP got KO'd by Matt Serra for crying out loud, not even submitted. Unacceptable. Now let's analyze why DC is more of the GOAT than DJ.

I don't think this is even remotely close to the GSP's case against DC, but for thoroughness' sake, here we go. Demetrious Johnson can become the longest reigning champ in UFC history on August 4th, bar none. Not a small feat, for sure. Also, he's been as dominant in his weight class as Jones, DC, and GSP were in theirs for what seems like forever. His skill level has been unmatched for the duration of his time at 125, and it has been extremely apparent. I'd like to note also that I don't think there's as much of a knock against DJ's competition than people like to talk about. I'm from the house of thought that DJ was just that much better than everyone he's faced. There's no reason to believe that anyone DJ has faced at the top is no more or less well trained than anyone else in any other weight class. That just doesn't make sense to me. Where I do knock DJ is his versatility in weight class. 

Like GSP, DJ has been so successful at his natural weight class that many have pleaded for DJ to move up to 135 for some "super fights", to really test his skills. DJ has basically ignored all requests, for various reasons, which I can respect. He can create his own legacy as he pleases, but relative to who's in the GOAT conversation, this takes you down a notch or two. However, we do actually have a small sample size of DJ at 135, unbeknownst to some. Many years back, DJ fought Dominick Cruz at 135, and it wasn't pretty. Cruz, who's really known as a counter-striking point fighter most of the time, was very aggressive with DJ and tossed him around the octagon like a child. Cruz had his way the whole fight and Demetrious simply looked small and over-matched. If you have Fight Pass, I'd recommend checking this one out. In any case, this is a big boo-boo for DJ's GOAT status. Although not required, the ability to move up and down weight classes with similar success must be held in high regard, as it is not easy to do. Side note: For those complaining that Jon Jones never fought at heavyweight... Please. Who would you favor against Jones at heavyweight? Regardless, this must be factored in when weighing Demetrious Johnson's GOAT status against Daniel Cormier's.

Finally, and very quickly, DC is ahead of DJ because the consequences of punches and kicks simply are drastically increased as you move up the weight classes. The chances of a flush strike landing (or fluke strike) and knocking you out are much greater in Cormier's weight classes than DJ's. This must be considered, especially since DC has avoided this catastrophe his whole career, with the exception of one time against Jon Jones. The consequences of DJ getting caught with the same strike in the same place are just not the same; the power difference is too massive to ignore. Now that we have a baseline for GOAT rankings, here you go.

1. Jon Jones

2. Daniel Cormier

3. Georges St. Pierre

4. Demetrious Johnson 

5. Anderson Silva

*Anderson Silva comes in at five because his PED accusations are very shady, considering the history of Brazilians cheating. Also, for what it's worth, if Silva and St. Pierre were to meet at 185, both in their primes, I believe it would go something similar to Silva-Sonnen 1 without the miracle triangle choke with a minute left.