What individual dominated their sport more than any other dominated theirs?

[Longy]

This thread requires the Bradman histogram.

[Longy]

Obviously decided to post it twice as it is so amazing!

[arbboy]

Incredible graph.  Hard to argue with his dominance when you see it like that and you realise how good some of the batsmen in the 'pack' behind him were.

[AndrewT]

How about Michael Phelps? Far more medals than any other swimmer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_top_Olympic_swimming_medalists

The thing about swimming is that once you've won one gold it's easy to pick up more.

"You won a gold for swimming 2 lengths on your front. Now try it on your back. Now do 4 lengths. Now do 2 lengths as part of a team where everyone does the same style. Now have a go where you do the same but everyone else does different styles". Suddenly you've got more gold round your neck than Mr T.

It's a good explanation of how you can get more than in other sports - but doesn't really explain why one swimmer would get so many more than other swimmers

He did it longer, for one thing. Mark Spitz won nine golds yet retired at 22.

[vegaslover]

On Feb 3rd 2008 Tiger Woods shot 65 and came from 5 or 6 shots behind during the 4th round to win the Dubai Desert classic.

After that weekend the gap between his world ranking points and Phil Mickelson's world ranking points in second place was bigger than the gap between Phil Mickelson in 2nd place and the guy ranked 1000th in the world.

He was 423 world ranking points in front of Mickelson and Mickelson's total world ranking points on that day were 394.

The top 200 were listed here.

http://www.golftoday.co.uk/tours/rankings/world_wk05_08.html

I can't see footballers as dominating their events and some of the athletes and tennis players might benefit from the level of the opponents faced in their era. Tiger dominated a sport played against 150 runner fields most weeks and was so far ahead of a guy that became a multiple major winner and is already in the golf Hall of fame. Of the first 32 Golf World Championship events he won 16 of them.

Talyor in 2nd for me.

this is obviously a very powerful argument indeed

just out of interest, Nicklaus won 18 majors (19 2nds, 9 3rds) as part of 110 tournament wins over a 44 year career, only focussing on a comparatively light schdeule every year

does that amount of success over such a long time count for anything, or were fields so comparatively shallow in those days that Tger's achivement is that much better?

(i appreciate we are talking about 1 and 2 all time, so its semantics, but anyway)

I think the quality of the fields have to be taken into account, as well as the workload. Sooo hard to define between eras though. Woods has the benefit of modern science in terms of training, nutrition, equipment etc that old Jack didn't have.  But then you can only beat the field you are up against.

[tikay]

Bradman must be a contender, different gravy.

Surprised no mention of Babe Ruth though, some of his records still stand to this day, including "on-base plus slugging", whatever that is.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth

Click to see full-size image.

[superwomble]

Click to see full-size image.

I didn't realise Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington had the same father!

[Boba Fett]

Some MMA candidates

Ronda Rousey
Anderson Silva
Georges St. Pierre

I was going to say, MMA has some great candidates.

Anderson Silva entered the UFC in 2006 18-4 and won 16 on the bounce over the next 6 years, usually in devastating fashion, including a dethroning and twice annihilating of Rich Franklin who, himself was a pretty dominany force with a 22-1-1 record when they first fought. He's lost twice to Chris Weidman, but no body thinks that's because Weidman is a better fighter (good as he is). Hopefully he's back with his recent Diaz win, but I think we're all braced for a retirement, if not now, then following one of his next couple of fights.

Georges St Pierre entered the UFC 5-0 and appart from his novice loss to Matt Hughes (in his prime) and a shock defeat by Matt Serra (legend) he's went 20-2 as a UFC Welterweight, including avenging both losses. Not having any of this Jonny Hendriks was robbed rubbish either. GSP clearly won 3 rounds of 5.

Talking of Matt Hughes, he was pretty dominant before GSP came along and spoilt the party. His 45-9 record has an 18 win streak, followed by two quick losses, then a 19 fight winning run broken only by a loss to BJ Penn smack bang in the middle. The game evolved and time is unforgiving, but 1998 - 2006, Matt Hughes was unarguably the greatest welterweight on the planet.

And what about Jose Aldo at Featherweight? 25-1, 15 straight in WEC/UFC, hasn't lost since 2005. Much as I love Conor McGregor, I just don't see a dethroning when they meet. Utterly dominant champion.

Not to forget Fedor Emilianenko too. Until Fabricio Werdum broke the spell in 2010 Fedor was 31-1-1 and the loss was a controversial 1st round 17 second doctors stoppage. Ignoring that and the NC against Big Nog due to an accidental clash of heads, Fedor won 31 straight against a murderers row on heavyweight/open weight killers. If only the UFC deal could have been done.

Ronda Rousey is 10-0, and that includes 9 1st round stoppages, and 8 armbar submissions. Cat Zingano's 9-0 streak is coming to an end saturday 28th Feb.

Jon Jones (sadly, cos he's a dick) has been utterly dominant, at least he was until Alex Gustaffson was robbed at UFC 165. He's gone 5 rounds in his last 3 fights and I think once he loses to Alex at the rematch this summer, much like with Fedor, the spell will break, and he'll look human again.

Finally, you have to mention Demetrious Johnson. 21-2-1, and his only loss in UFC was to Dominic Crus at Bantam Weight. As a Flyweight, he looks unbeatable for the foreseeable future.

Forgot about Jones who deserves to be there after cutting through a historically elite lineup of LHW's, I did consider the rest but didnt list Fedor because he lost to guys that are doing ok but arent champs in UFC (Werdum, Henderson, Bigfoot) and with nog and Cro Cops performances in UFC I was harsh with his non-signing to the UFC to prove he was the best.

Johnson and Aldo are great champions but, imo, in newer divisions that dont have any all-time great fighters.  Didnt go for Hughes because he lost to Penn and his win over Newton was a complete robbery but its probably being harsh as he completely dominated the division for a time with elite wrestling in a time where the majority of MMA fighters couldnt wrestle.

[Marky147]

Could have a separate juicers thread for Olympic athletes, cyclists, and mixed martial artists

[Bazzaboy]

Vasyl Lomachenko (amateur boxing) had a 396-1 record.

[kinboshi]

Vasyl Lomachenko (amateur boxing) had a 396-1 record.

Lost one.

[The Camel]

While Phil Taylor has obviously been amazing in his chosen career, to put him a list with people like Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Michael Phelps ect etc seems completely incongruous.

Darts isn't any more of a sport as poker or chess.

All 3 take alot of skill to be a champion, but that doesn't make them sports.

[arbboy]

While Phil Taylor has obviously been amazing in his chosen career, to put him a list with people like Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Michael Phelps ect etc seems completely incongruous.

Darts isn't any more of a sport as poker or chess.

All 3 take alot of skill to be a champion, but that doesn't make them sports.

Why is golf any more of a sport than darts? 

[kinboshi]

Here we go again

[The Camel]

While Phil Taylor has obviously been amazing in his chosen career, to put him a list with people like Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Michael Phelps ect etc seems completely incongruous.

Darts isn't any more of a sport as poker or chess.

All 3 take alot of skill to be a champion, but that doesn't make them sports.

Why is golf any more of a sport than darts? 

I'm not saaying it is or isn't.

But Taylor dominating darts was more akin to that fella who lost 4 games of draughts in 30 years than Usain Bolt smashing every sprint record imagineable.