Rarely in sports do you see an athlete separate themselves from their competition and cement themselves as the undisputed best. No, I am not necessarily talking about G.O.A.T.s here. I am talking about the athletes who when you ask someone on the street “who is the best ______ player right now?”, the same person is mentioned over and over again. Some great historical examples for this are Michael Jordan, Barry Bonds, Wayne Gretzky, Mike Tyson, etc. Currently, I think that there are eight athletes that meet this criteria.
Sports where this distinction of “who is the best player” is harder to make include basketball, golf, tennis, and soccer. In basketball, Jokic is an undeniable force, yet Embiid won MVP over him this year, and some people still give LeBron or Giannis the title of most dominant. In golf, it’s a neck and neck race between Scheffler and Rahm, and the same situation appears in tennis between Djokovic and Alcaraz. In soccer, Haaland just had the best Premier League season of all time, but Mbappe is still considered by many to be at the top of the sport.
So, what are the sports where players are undeniably the best? Let’s start with who I consider to have the most separation from their competition:
HOCKEY: CONNOR MCDAVID
In an age where the skill level and competition is the highest it’s ever been, somehow McDavid makes it look like he’s playing a league below where he should be. Simply put, everyone else looks like they are in slow motion when he’s on the ice, and the NHL might not be challenging enough for him.
Since being drafted first overall in the 2015 NHL draft, McDavid has played 569 games, scored 303 goals, and recorded 547 assists for a total of 850 points. No other player in the NHL is within even 100 points of this mark since 2015. He has won five Art Ross Trophies for tallying the most points in a season, four Ted Lindsay Awards for being the league’s most outstanding player (voted on by members of the Players’ Association), and three Hart Memorial Trophies for league MVP (voted by members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association). It’s important to note though, similar to Bergeron not winning the Selke Award every year because he wins it too much, McDavid could win the MVP every year, but the league has to share the wealth and keep other players happy.
FOOTBALL: PATRICK MAHOMES
Similar to how Steph Curry revolutionized basketball with his three point efficiency, Mahomes has single-handedly changed football with his playground-style scrambling and last second sidearm passes. Given any time in the pocket at all, he is able to pick apart defenses and make throws from angles that seemed impossible before he entered the league. Now, those “impossible” throws happen every time he plays, making him a walking highlight tape on Sunday afternoons.
In 80 career starts, he is a nutty 64-16, throwing for 24,241 yards recording 192 touchdowns. That’s 2.4 a game…an absolute fantasy machine. He’s also been selected for five Pro Bowls, two All-Pro selections, and two MVPs. Oh, he’s also won two Super Bowls and won the Super Bowl MVP in both. Though there are other top class quarterbacks in the league like Joe Burrow and Josh Allen, nobody is close to taking Mahomes’ crown as the king of the NFL.
BASEBALL: SHOHEI OHTANI
Shohei is like the older sibling in a kids wiffle ball game. He is simultaneously the best pitcher and batter on the squad, and it seems unfair to let him do both. He is a unicorn of the sport, and with his contract expiring at the end of this season, every expectation is that he will become the highest paid player in history, and by a large margin.
Since entering the league in 2018, Shohei has a career batting average of .273, with 423 RBI’s, and 166 home runs. Also since entering the league in 2018, Shohei has pitched 470.1 innings, thrown 597 strike outs, had an ERA of 3.08, and won 66.1% of his games on his pitching record. You will not find a player in the modern era that has had more production for their team than this guy. For this reason, he was named rookie of the year in 2018, was selected to the All-Star team three times, and won NL MVP in 2021 for his mind boggling season at the plate and on the mound.
RACING/F1: MAX VERSTAPPEN
Verstappen is in the midst of the greatest F1 season of all time. While some credit is due to Red Bull’s ridiculously quick car, nobody dares question the greatness of Verstappen’s talents on the track. He has won the past eight races, obliterating the competition at every turn (literally), and he’s got his sights on his third straight World Drivers’ Championship. If he were to take the next three race weekends off (including sprints), he would remain in first place. That’s how far ahead he is.
I’ve been watching more and more F1 recently, and each day I learn more and more about Verstappen. For example, just the other day I learned that Max is also one of the best in the world at sim racing, which is an online racing simulator that houses very serious competition (including former F1 champions). This is a great video detailing how he succeeds in both competitive fields:
MMA: JON JONES
Throughout his career, Jon Jones has seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. The only thing is, all of his low points have occurred outside of the octagon. This guy simply doesn’t lose when it comes to fighting in the UFC, and it’s crazy to think about when all he does is fight in championship matches.
Jon didn’t compete for three years between his last two fights due to legal troubles, and when he came back, he moved up a weight division to heavyweight and was immediately put into a championship match against Cyril Gane. I covered the match in a previous blog, but in short, Jones kept it short, submitting Gane in the first round. Jones is slated to fight past champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 on November 11th to defend his title.
HOT DOG EATING: JOEY CHESTNUT
No, I am not joking with this one. A2Z’s other writer, Jack, wrote a great article after Chestnut’s eighth straight (16th career) win this past fourth of July, and Joey needs the recognition he deserves as one of the greatest athletes of our lives. His year after year dominance is something that hasn’t been seen in sports since the Usain Bolt days of track, and he doesn’t expect to retire anytime soon.
I’d bet that 99.9% of the world can’t put down 7.6 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Sir Chestnut did 7.6 hot dogs per MINUTE, for 10 minutes straight. This is a feat that makes less sense the more you think about it.
WOMEN’S SWIMMING: KATIE LEDECKY
I’m not going to sit here and act like I watch women’s swimming on a regular basis. I tune in for the Olympics to cheer for our country, and every once in a while I see some absurd stats produced by Katie. Just last week she left everybody off the screen to claim another individual swimming world title.
The win margin that she has for every race is absurd. This great article was written seven years ago, and Ledecky has only become more dominant over the years:
https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/just-how-dominant-is-katie-ledecky/
BOXING: TERRENCE CRAWFORD
Boxing is a sport that I should watch more than I do. I watch all of the big fights like Tyson vs Fury and Mayweather vs Pacquiao, but I really should pay more attention to other matches that don’t pull in as much attention. This past Saturday I was too wrapped up in the UFC matches to watch Crawford vs Spence Jr, but with his win, Crawford became the undisputed world champion in two divisions with four belts.
This makes him the first undisputed welterweight champion since the four-belt era began. This also comes after Crawford was able to unify all four junior welterweight belts. He is doing things that have never been done before, and because of that, he deserves to be on this list.
If I missed anybody, or if you had any changes that you would make to the list, let me know in the comments below!
My picks as well. Mike drop.
-Marie