'A convicted steroid cheat': Fans — and Conor McGregor — critique ESPN's top MMA fighters of the 21st century

After releasing its top 100 athletes since 2000, ESPN decided to compile separate top 10 lists of mixed martial arts fighters for both men and women in the same time period.

As with any completely subjective list, fans immediately took issue.

For the women's list, ESPN's methodology was vague and also littered with pandering statements.

The outlet claimed that the women on the list were "shattering stereotypes" and elevated the sport "to unprecedented heights."

Without giving names of who composed the list, ESPN supplied its list of "top 10 fighters in the history of women's MMA."

1. Amanda Nunes
2. Cris Cyborg
3. Ronda Rousey
4. Valentina Shevchenko
5. Joanna Jędrzejczyk
6. Rose Namajunas
7. Zhang Weili
8. Miesha Tate
9. Megumi Fujii
10. Holly Holm

The vagueness of ESPN's list requirements left fans to wonder if the fighters were listed by legacy and popularity or by sheer talent. Certainly by popularity and in terms of bringing eyes to the sport, Rousey was a huge pioneer. However, she was easily beaten by the list's 10th-ranked fighter, Holm.

Similarly, Fujii is a legend in the sport, but with few notable wins in her career, she would struggle to be competitive with any woman on this list and many more who aren't on it.

UFC legend Conor McGregor was quick to criticize the ranking, pointing out that No. 2 Cris "Cyborg" Justino has tested positive for banned substances multiple times.

"Cyborg is a convicted steroid cheat let's not forget," McGregor said in a since-deleted X post, BJPenn.com reported.

UFC President Dana White once called Cyborg a "nightmare" and a "dirty" fighter after bringing her into the UFC after her steroid usage.

Other fans took issue with Rousey's placement, with one saying that she is "criminally high on this list."

ESPN was also vague in its description of the male category, describing it as a "top 10 of the greatest fighters in men's MMA."

This wording varied slightly from the women's list, adding the word "greatest" to the preamble.

The list was ranked as follows:

1. Jon Jones
2. Georges St-Pierre
3. Anderson Silva
4. Demetrious Johnson
5. Khabib Nurmagomedov
6. Fedor Emelianenko
7. Randy Couture
8. Chuck Liddell
9. B.J. Penn
10. Kamaru Usman

Fans were far more critical about the men's list, and while many agreed that it wasn't too shabby in terms of fighter greatness and relevance to the sport, it still left confusion about how it was determined.

Along with the quintessential "where's Conor" posts, notable names left off that received frequent mention were UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo and two-division champion Daniel Cormier.

A fan on MMA Mania made a compelling argument as to why McGregor should be added to the list, arguing that his accolades are worthy of recognition even if he didn't defend his belts.

"Not surprising. McGregor can rightly claim to be the most 'successful' MMA fighter, but not the greatest fighter. Even with his horrible recorded [sic] going back 6 years, he could have been considered in the top 10 if he had defended his belts," the fan wrote.

"The bottomline [sic] is that Conor made the most of his opportunities and become [sic] incredibly successful, but he has not been a serious contender in some time. His best days are behind him and he may be remembered more for his antics outside the cage than for his victories in it."

While other fans noted that the list is not a "popularity contest," it is indeed hard to tell.

ESPN's previous top 100 list — which contained many MMA fighters — was unsurprisingly criticized, as well.

The network's own host Pat McAfee called it a "s*** show" and criticized ESPN for trying to make a list of this kind in any form.

"There is a top 100 list that is coming out from ESPN's people and I'll tell ya what, it is the epitome of everything that everybody hates about ESPN," McAfee stated. "What they chose to do about ranking the top 100 athletes of the 21st century ... what a s*** show."

Even in the obvious attempts to pander to female athletes with the rankings, unknown athletes were placed ahead of actual female sports legends like Venus Williams and WNBA pioneers Candace Parker and Lisa Leslie.

All things considered, ESPN fared decently on its male MMA list but still seem to suffer from wanting to appear just woke enough with female audiences. This severely hinders ESPN's ability to make lists of overall athletes or even female-specific ones.

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