On Saturday, Ohio firefighter Stipe Miocic beat Daniel Cormier to retain his UFC Heavyweight Championship. In doing so, Miocic defended the title for the fourth time, a UFC heavyweight record, and won a fight that everyone seemingly had decided was for the status of Greatest UFC Heavyweight of All Time: Cormier, the only man to simultaneously defend belts in two UFC weight classes, was also looking for a legacy-defining win in his retirement fight.

The idea of Miocic-Cormier III being the fight to determine the GOAT seemed completely logical coming into the fight, and Miocic’s unanimous decision win truly felt like a historic, crowning achievement. But I don’t think you can conclusively award that title until you really take a full look at the breadth and history of that division. So let’s take a glance back, and try to more deeply examine Miocic’s place in UFC heavyweight history.

Miocic has one distinct advantage right off the bat: throughout history, the UFC heavyweight division has been more defined by what-might-have-beens than truly realized greats. Bas Rutten was one of the most complete fighters on Earth when he became champion in 1999, but retired soon after without defending the belt. Frank Mir was just 25 when he broke Tim Sylvia’s arm in less than a minute to win the title in 2004, but he destroyed his leg in a motorcycle accident a few months later and his career never fully recovered.

At his peak, former WWE champion Brock Lesnar was one of the most incredible pure talents in MMA history, but recurring bouts of diverticulitis kept him out for long stretches. Fedor Emelianenko, still considered by many to be the all-time heavyweight GOAT, flirted with signing with the UFC for years but never actually came over. Even Cormier, indisputably one of the greatest heavyweights ever, spent the majority of his UFC career at light heavyweight.

Then, there’s the story of Cain Velasquez, the man who destroyed Lesnar in October 2010 to win the title. Velasquez at his best was, in my opinion, the single greatest heavyweight to ever grace the sport. Cain was a swarming, powerful wrestler with withering ground-and-pound, and in a division full of flabby guys with cardio issues, he never, ever tired. He kept coming and coming until you were dead.

There are few heavyweights ever that I can imagine being able to conquer peak Cain. Junior dos Santos caught him with a flash first-round knockout to take his title in 2011, only for Velasquez to repay him with two truly brutal beatings over the next two years. Velasquez’s second title reign of 896 days still stands as the longest in UFC history, but no sooner did he rise to the top did he start to run into constant injuries – multiple torn rotator cuffs as far back as his fight with Lesnar, and then several devastating knee injuries that limited him to maybe one fight a year after he became champion. When Velasquez tapped out to jiu-jitsu ace Fabricio Werdum to drop the title in June 2015, he hadn’t fought in nearly two years. When Francis Ngannou knocked him out last February and forced him into retirement – his first fight in two and a half years – he was a shadow of his former self.

Based on pure peak ability alone, Velasquez to me takes the title of Greatest UFC Heavyweight of All Time – I think the man who showed up in Anaheim to fight Brock Lesnar 10 years ago wears down both Miocic and Cormier. But Miocic, especially, could probably really hang with prime Cain. Stipe is a truly advanced boxer who has shown the ability to effectively switch up his approach mid-fight, and he’s developed into a extremely strong functional wrestler. Cain was a freak of nature, but the first JDS fight showed that even he wasn’t immune to getting knocked the hell out by someone powerful enough, and Miocic has more power than most.

That alone makes me feel like Miocic is truly worthy of the title of UFC heavyweight GOAT. I think Cain at his best was a better fighter, but I absolutely think Stipe could have beaten him. And when you consider the way their careers have unfolded, we’ve seen more of the elite version of Stipe than we got to with Cain.

Miocic’s rise to the top wasn’t completely linear. His 2012 TKO loss to Stefan Struve – a 7-footer best known for how his incredibly long limbs splayed about in bizarre ways when he got knocked out – now looks like one of the all-time weird MMA results, and he additionally hit a speed bump when he lost to JDS in 2015. But his time atop the heavyweight division, which started when he beat Werdum for the title in 2016, has been the closest we’ve seen to an all-time great heavyweight having a fully realized dominant reign where they take all comers.

Again, the record for most successful defenses of the UFC heavyweight title is four, which seems incredibly paltry when you consider that it’s the oldest belt in the promotion. Heavyweight has never had a Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva or Jon Jones who rules the roost for years. Miocic, who turns 38 years old tomorrow, may be the best chance that division has had in years at having that type of champion.

Based on what he’s done already, I feel confident in saying Stipe Miocic is, in fact, the Greatest UFC Heavyweight of All Time. But if he can put together even a medium-length title reign this time around – beat Francis Ngannou again, beat a Curtis Blaydes or Derrick Lewis, hell, even beat Jon Jones, who continues to make noise about a move to heavyweight – he’ll lock it down tight.

Miocic has secured his place in history by conquering Cormier, but I feel that his resume isn’t yet complete. With a few more wins, Miocic can walk away with the type of legacy that we probably won’t see again for a long, long time.