Chuck Liddell without Pride Fighting

I was talking about the first fight in Pride 20 which had special Pride vs. K-1 rules. I'm pretty sure it was 5x3min rounds, if the fight went to ground it was stood up after 30secs and there were no judges. Cro Cop of course was getting the better of Wand standing but Wand was able to strike with him and took him down several times.

I never liked that fight. Even before it happened, I thought it shouldn't have happened. Just seemed pointless. Especially when, afterwards, people were clamoring that Wanderlei won. Man, was I glad for the rematch. Mirko, rightfully, left no doubt. It's unfortunate that Wanderlei fell the way he did.
 
Its beyond doubt that Wand was on PEDS.

Chuck would likely have beaten Wand if he fought in the UFC, wand got dropped in most fights he was in.

Shoguns striking is a little overrated, most of his KO's are from when guys were on the ground, and he was very reliant on his stomps and soccerkicks, theres also no way he would get chuck to the ground. Id still pick him as the favourite.

Tito would have been the only dominant LHW champ the sport had if all the UFC and Pride guys were in one org, until Bones came along at least.

haha this is seriously the most retarded statement ever...chuck would of got destroyed in his prime by the guys in pride during their prime...and the tito comment is just terrible...tito would of died against a prime wand, shogun, hendo, rampage, arona, and i would even give the nod to saku if they fought....

and wand and hendo will always be more respected over chuck and tito imo bc they both nutted up and fought dominant HWs
 
Wand and Shogun are a matter of speculation, but what Rampage did to Chuck in that first fight (an all-time great fight that doesn't get mentioned enough) made it look like Chuck was for Rampage what Tito was for Chuck.

It could have set up LHW for the same hot potato nonsense we saw before Jones took the belt. Rampage beats Chuck, Shogun and Wanderlei beats Rampage most of the time and who knows about them vs. Chuck.
 
Last edited:
Just rewatched randleman and arona, they got shogun down easily but shogun still managed to get up/sweep without much effort. I think Tito would have been able to hold him down but randy would have trouble (he might be able to wall clinch for a while but still get beaten in the end).

I can definately see both of them taking Shogun down but was Tito's top control better than Arona's or Nak's? you could argue he's a better wrestler but which really strong grapplers has he held down?

Big difference between Shogun and Wanderlei, the former really just defends from his back where as the latter is trying to sweep or escape almost constantly.
 
If it was in the UFC he would still lose against Rua and Rampage, Wand fight is razor close.

In PRIDE all of them beat Chuck.

and at anyone saying well if they used PEDs blablabla (Rua,Wand etc), you do realize how easy it is to pass the drug test in the UFC?

Its more of a IQ test than a doping test.
 
Chuck after losing to Rampage the 1st time went on to win 7 consecutive fights against 5 fighters. They were.

Couture 2x
Jeremy Horn
Babalu
Tito 2x
Vernon White

If you replace those 5 names with Wanderlei, Shogun, Rampage, Arona, Hendo & Lil Nog the results would be drastically different. Chuck would of only won 3 or 4 of those seven fights. Maybe 5. That 7 fight run by Chuck in the UFC isn't that impressive. The list of fighters he was unable to fight is far more impressive than the fighters he beat during that stretch.
 
I can definately see both of them taking Shogun down but was Tito's top control better than Arona's or Nak's? you could argue he's a better wrestler but which really strong grapplers has he held down?

Big difference between Shogun and Wanderlei, the former really just defends from his back where as the latter is trying to sweep or escape almost constantly.

i don't even think he is.. arona is a much better version of tito..
 
I never liked that fight. Even before it happened, I thought it shouldn't have happened. Just seemed pointless. Especially when, afterwards, people were clamoring that Wanderlei won. Man, was I glad for the rematch. Mirko, rightfully, left no doubt. It's unfortunate that Wanderlei fell the way he did.

If it had been in regular Pride rules Wand would have probably won back then since Mirko hadn't developed his legendary TDD yet.
 
haha this is seriously the most retarded statement ever...chuck would of got destroyed in his prime by the guys in pride during their prime...and the tito comment is just terrible...tito would of died against a prime wand, shogun, hendo, rampage, arona, and i would even give the nod to saku if they fought....

and wand and hendo will always be more respected over chuck and tito imo bc they both nutted up and fought dominant HWs

Tito beat Wand a year before Wand became champ, Tito and Arona both competed at the 2000 ADCC in the same weightclass where Tito got bronze and Arona got first, this was after Tito had only been training BJJ for 3 years and was still in college. Rampage trained with Tito while they were in their respective orgs and Rampage said Tito would usually get him down and was toughest partner he had. Tito isnt as awful as you think.
 
I can definately see both of them taking Shogun down but was Tito's top control better than Arona's or Nak's? you could argue he's a better wrestler but which really strong grapplers has he held down?

Big difference between Shogun and Wanderlei, the former really just defends from his back where as the latter is trying to sweep or escape almost constantly.

I would pick shogun as a favourite, but if prime shogun were to fight randy, tito and chuck i think he might lose to one of them just due to having an off night or what have you.
 
Rampage, Shogun and Wand beat him imo. Lil Nog fight would be interesting, I think Chuck would end up taking him down and winning a decision.
 
chuck would have dummied wanderlei...again, lost to shogun and of course as we already saw lost to rampage
 
Much better is an exaggeration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCh7WFLg_L4

here is Tito vs Arona at ADCC 2000. Tito got Arona down several times and was on top for a long time, Arona didnt get Tito on his back once.

He did, takedown into side control at the end that won him the match.

Really though I think its Arona's top control and standup that mad ehim the better fighter, granted he was limated standing but those lowkicks were a brutal weapon that could either knock opponants down or force them to try and close the distance leaving themselves open for a takedown.

I'd say a match vs someone like Chuck would have shown the difference, I'd have probabley favoured Liddel to catch him at some point but those kicks could have inflicted some damage and/or Arona could have caught him in someone trying to "just stand up". Tito on the other hand never really looked like he had much of a chance vs Chuck even in his prime years.
 
2003-2006 Chuck would have lost to Pride's top 3 LHWs.

Pride had different rules, different judging, and a different shape and size of fighting surface, so it is hard to say what would happen with Pride guys in the UFC. Imo, Wand would struggled to be a top lhw in the UFC with wrestlers allowed to lnp, as would have Rampage (no yellow cards to stop Randleman from grappling with him like Rashad did) and Shogun. Randy was the man from 2003-2005 at lhw, and he would have been able to take down and grind on all of those guys. Chuck was a UFC champ not only because he could strike, but primarily because of his Tdd to beat Randy and Tito.
 
i don't think chuck could handle the pride elite, prime wand, shogun, rampage!!

This. There is no doubt in my mind that Rampage would demolish Chuck, well because he did, twice. There is no doubt that Shogun would demolish Chuck (he did also). Prime Shogun was on another level. His 2005 gp run and also the way he demolished Rampage with strikes.

Wandy vs Chuck would have been interesting. I would pick Wandy to win, however Chuck is a counter striker and Wandy comes straight in. It would not be a total shock if Chuck caught him with a heavy strike and finished the job. Chuck did have that killer instinct. But Wandy had that insane ability to recover. He also had great cardio and when a guy can throw very powerful shots over and over again and seem to never get tired, that is something that is very difficult for an opponent to deal with.

I don't think I have ever seen someone at LHW (or even MW) throw all out powerful bombs in succession over and over again like that. If anyone has experience throwing successive bombs on a heavy bag for even like 20 seconds and knows how tired that gets you. Wandy would just continuously bomb on people. The combination of the volume & power of his strikes would overwhelm opponents. Basically, Wandy was a violent, violent man.
 
Back
Top