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Ricky tried to make everybody his bitch every line up. It was from being a kid to his retirement season. He went out on top. He left making everyone his bitch and they played catchup with the vacancy.
In the America's there has been many champions who get compared to him but they still haven't had the special thing he had to win. It was a beat them down all the time attitude even when he was off. He figured the game out like no one since. Villopoto was his closest emulation but not the same level.
By that logic I say if it were a championship when they were at peak:
1st Ricky
2nd Ryan (even tho he was not part of this)
3rd Eli (so far, he is not.done)
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RC does like to say the riders now are much more talented than he was. Hannah would say that too. That he just wore them down.
But the numbers don’t lie. Look at the figures. RC is in a different league. That’s all you can really go on, everything else is conjecture.
In that case Tomac is definitely at the same level as RC, maybe just not as refined or in an era where he can capitalise as heavily.
Pretty similar to Herlings really. Unbelievable all-timer talent, without the championships to fully back it up.
No one is even close to that. Eli won three in a row and that is awesome but not even close to RC.
RV over Tomac
Bubba over Tomac
I think its funny how some people comment on "how stacked the field" is now. Compared to most of the 1980s it isn't stack at all!
Being an old dude I have got to see most every one race over the years. Raw speed wise I think Stewart, RV and RC all had more than Tomac.
For that fact it's too bad you guys never got to see Bob Hannah in his prime, or how sucking smooth David Bailey was.
To me, who only saw RC's final couple years, I'd say it's 60/40 for any given race in favor of RC due to his consistency. If Tomac were to close out the 22 MX title in a similar way he was able to with SX and we just compared Yamaha Tomac to RC I'd probably still give the nod to RC, but just barely. It's all conjecture and I think it's fun thinking about it and seeing everyone's opinions. No sense getting upset about it.
Pit Row
Tomac over Bubba in MX
Tomac won three titles in a row. That closes that deal. Who else has won three in a row?
Just watched an RC Southwick compilation of wins from 97 to retirement and honestly he looks easily as fast if not faster as the top guys today.
He really is the undisputed GOAT in my mind, even accounting for era etc. Certainly for the time being at least.
Fun bench racing topic tho.
Listen, I'm fine with the argument that nobody in history could match peak James' pace on a Supercross track. I do happen to think Villopoto had something for him, but I'm not hard disagreeing with the statement.
But outdoors is different. People seem to get blinded by the FMOTP title that he earned in SX and apply it to MX. Let's break down his outdoor career, save 125s because I really don't think it's reasonable to use 125s to assess a professional rider's career.
'05- Carmichael had the pace on Stewart 9 times out of 10. Stewart did have a disadvantage by being on the 250, so let's say we don't count this season against him as much.
'06- he's on the 450 now, and he still got waxed by Carmichael. Did he get a few moto wins? Yes. Was he able to stay in front of Ricky for the first half of a lot of motos? Yes. But Carmichael had no problem making those late race passes on him. It was easy to tell who had the upper hand.
'07- still got beat by a Carmichael who was on his retirement tour. Same story as '06.
'08- perfect season, high water mark of Stewart's MX career. Was it incredibly impressive? Yes. Does it boost his career resume a bit? Yes. Was it against one of the weakest 450 fields ever? Also yes. It's not like he went 24-0 against true title contenders. No disrespect to Alessi, Ferry, etc., but we all know they weren't ever real title contenders in any other seasons either.
'09 - '12 - did he race outdoors, or was he SX only that whole time? I forgot, but if he did race at all, it wasn't notable.
'13- waxed by Villopoto and Dungey all season. Can't use the "he was aging" excuse because he was 27. That's not old enough to excuse the lack of pace he could maintain against the title contenders that season. He led and won a couple motos, but they came while being hounded by RV, or RD, or Canard. He never came through the pack, passed the top guys, and won.
Did he have a good outdoor career with a very high peak? Yes. But he didn't do enough to earn the status in MX that he did earn in SX as FMOTP.
Rc all day....
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