He is the most accomplished UFC heavyweight on paper, but if he's getting school by a little guy, twice, at his own game, is he the best? The eye pokes were iffy, no doubt.

He should be down 2-0 against DC and if he loses the third, he's definitely not better than DC, obviously(!). You can get semantic with title defences but if you get repeatedly schooled by a fighter, you are not better than that fighter. You can have a better record but you're not a better fighter than him.

You mentioned finishes, like I said they were against old men and guys like JDS, who's young but has so much mileage. Even Ngannou, it was a great win but it was against an incomplete fighter much like Conor/Poirier's wins over Max Holloway don't count for much because he was such an incomplete fighter at the time. Ngannou seems to have shored up his TDD as the Blaydes fight showed (much like Lima did against Koreshkov, his 2 Rory fights being night and day in terms of TDD), if Stipe beats him again then fair enough, but at the moment that win doesn't hold up that well; he outwrestled a guy that was hopeless at wrestling.