That exact same point could be made about Fedor as well.
Fedor has fought a little over a handful of fights since Zuffa bought Pride (how long ago was that now?), and the quality of his opponents has not been, shall we say, top drawer.
Sylvia, and Arlovski are passed their sell-by date, Brett Rogers (who??), leading up to Werdum, who, in fairness, imo is a top-ten HW fighter.
But is Wedum v Fedor the pinnacle of what we want to see in HW MMA?
Is Fedor an MMA legend?
Absolutly.
However, since the sale of Pride, has Fedor been both over-rated and over-hyped?
Equally; absolutly.
Even the prospect of a Fedor v Overeem fight doesn't fill me with any great excitement.
Like it or not, UFC IS the pinnacle of MMA, and the champions of the UFC are seen by most commentators as the de-facto World Champions, and for Fedor to cement his percieved legacy as the number 1 HW, he must join UFC and challenge for the UFC HW Title.
re: fedor
I would like to see him fight more as well, he's fought 6 times since Pride was bought. Compared to the UFC champions like Silva, St. Pierre, etc that have had 9 fights since pride was sold, it's a little low. However, he's had recurring hand fractures, which does put him out for a bit.
I think the competition he's fought has been pretty good at the time.
At the time Fedor fought them:
Rogers was ranked #6
Arlovski was ranked #3
Sylvia was ranked #4
Werdum was ranked #9
He took on 4 top 10 contenders at HW during his last 6 fights. All of his opponents had a significant weight advantage over him as well.
Go back to the pride days and you'll find he fought these other fighters that were top 10:
Nog (twice)
Cro cop
Schilt
Herring
Compare that to Lesnar, at the time of his fights:
Couture #4
Mir #3 (mir wasn't ranked in top 10 for their first fight)
Carwin #4
Or Werdum (both fighters ranked above Fedor), who only fought one top 10 fighter before he fought Fedor (and he lost that one).
I believe all of Fedors opponents had better records than Lesnar's opponents at the time he fought them as well. So Fedor: Overhyped = debatable, some people claimed he was the god of MMA, I personally liked to watch him fight, but the rabid fans did get old.
Overranked = Not hardly. If he's overranked, than everybody else on the top 10 list must be as well since he's fought and beat more ranked contenders than any other HW at top 10 right now.
The UFC the pinnacle of HW mma? I can agree to that. They have more top 10 ranked fighters than any other org. Which is a sad state of HW mma. Their top dog has only 6 fights. They have another guy on there with only 8 fights.