Wandy, Fedor or Minotauro, who had the greatest legacy in Pride?

[m25105]

After the spectacular performance by Wandy (and hats off to Stann for standing, trading and being respectful after the loss, I can't stress that enough that despite rooting for Wand that my opinion of Stann improved immensely) and the crowd reception of Wanderlei, I'm wondering as of right now who had the biggest legacy in Pride?

Fedor fought and defeated great fighters such as Herring, Schilt, Coleman, Fujita, Nogueira twice and Cro Cop. I'm not afraid to admit that there were fights that should've happened, but considering the circumstances you can't really lay the blame on anyone. Nogueira and Cro Cop pretty much kept the contenders down by defeating them and at other times sometimes fights were declined against Fedor.

Nogueira is pretty much immortalised in MMA with his victory over Bob Sapp after he was manhandled for an entire round (to those unaware, the first round in Pride was 10 minutes), debuting the Anaconda choke, defeating great fighters such as Cro Cop, Herring, Barnett, Kharitonov, Schilt, Coleman and Dan Henderson. In fact despite losing against Fedor twice I'd say his resume is better in fighters who he beat (Which kinda makes Fedor beating Nogueira all the more awesome).

Then you got Wandy, the man who ruled Pride's middleweight (light heavyweight) division with incredible fights against Rampage twice, Mezger, Sakuraba three times, Yoshida twice, Dan Henderson, Fujita, Cro Cop, Nakamura, Kondo and Mark Hunt. Everytime the fighters got introduced during the Pride Wanderlei would always get the biggest pop from the crowd (only Sakuraba got more love, cause he's Sakuraba and that's reason enough).

Looking back now, I think Wanderlei had the biggest legacy in Pride followed close by Nogueira with Fedor at third. Now before I get assaulted by Fedor supporters "He was undefeated in Pride", yes I know that. But because of the circumstances he couldn't compete against the other big names among the heavyweight. We all know we would've have loved to see Fedor against Kharitonov, a rematch with Cro Cop and a bout against Barnett. I think this is why I couldn't place him as number one.

Thanks in advance to those that took the time to read.

 

[Hitman81]

1. Fedor
2. Wand
3. Crocop

 

[VorTeX Raptor]

From that list

Fedor
Wand
Big Nog

 

[Hanri]

1. Fedor
2. Nog
3. Shogun

imo

 

[istay]

Fedor
Nog
Wand

 

[bjpenngoat]

i think crocop has a stronger legacy in Pride just due to his spectacular finishes and the absolute FEAR opponents had before the fights even began. Nog did beat him and had a fantastic run and its very close, but man crocop was so mysterious and deadly. He captured peoples imaginations much more so than Nog did. Crocop was never in any trouble in any fight save for the randleman ko and Fedor. even in the Nog loss he was beating the piss out of him till he was caught.

 

[Idonotbelieveit]

what others have said..

fedor
wand
nog

 

[Riodejaneirofan]

Nog
Wand
Shogun
Fedor

 

[Groundmaster]

Wand
Fedor
Nog

Fedor came a bit to late to compare with Wand in Prides heyday and to early for Nog to do so.

 

[BuffaloEmperor]

i think you have to say 1.) fedor 2.) wanderlei 3.) big nog.
i say fedor first b/c he was undefeated and the way he defeated everyone left to room to even question who was the most dominate Pride Champ. as for saying fedor didn't fight everyone and what not. i dont agree i think the only fight fedor really missed out on in pride was the barnett fight. but they gave barnett a chance to fight fedor ,but josh claimed he wasn't in "the best shape" for the fedor fight, but ended up fighting on the same card as fedor.
wanderlei is #2 mostly because he was undefeated for 5 years and beat everyone except mark hunt(heavyweight) , cro cop(heavyweight), and hendo(freak).
big nog #3 primary b/c he lost to fedor twice and was the first pride fc heavyweight champ ,but wasn't greater than fedor.

 

[priderulez]

Fedor...obviously
then Wanderlei
Igor too

Now if u ask who my favorites are, the list looks like that:

Wanderlei
then Fedor

 

[m25105]

Included a link with a more detailed explanation about the circumstances in regards to Fedor.

 

[sk8h8]

fedor
crocop
shogun

fuck the other guys

 

[GrindingANARCHY]

Fedor
Wand
Nog
Shogun
Hendo
Gomi
Sakuraba

 

[SpaceCommissar]

Well, you bring up good points, and I don't think anyone would actually be wrong by arguing for either guy as having the greatest legacy. I think the answer to that may be more individual than we'd like to admit, mostly stemming from the question: How do you define 'the greatest legacy'?

Since Wandy fought in another weight class than both Nog and Fedor, it's hard to compare their legacies since the opposition was different and even though they all share a few opponents (Cro Cop comes to mind), they still mostly competed against different opponents.

As for Nog vs Fedor, who were in the same weight class, it's still hard to determine just because of what you bring up: Nogueira and Cro Cop were cleaning among the contenders. Nogueira may have had more difficult opponents, yet you can't ignore the fact that Fedor beat him more than once and also went undefeated as their HW champion.

I'd like to say that they all had great legacies, and leave it at that.

 

[Mouloudo]

Fedor
Wand
Shogun

 

[bjpenngoat]

Fedor
Wand
Crocop
SAku
Nog
Gomi
Shogun

 

[NunoBernie]

i think crocop has a stronger legacy in Pride just due to his spectacular finishes and the absolute FEAR opponents had before the fights even began. Nog did beat him and had a fantastic run and its very close, but man crocop was so mysterious and deadly. He captured peoples imaginations much more so than Nog did. Crocop was never in any trouble in any fight save for the randleman ko and Fedor. even in the Nog loss he was beating the piss out of him till he was caught.

That defeat was a great showcase for CroCop AND Minotauro.
The brazilian was getting killed, but he managed to create a submission out of the blue. As for Mirko, he was really firing on all cilinders. One split second distraction and he paid for it.

As for Pride legacy, I think CroCop is quite a few steps ahead of Minotauro and quite a few below Fedor.

 

[XRaided]

1. fedor
2. nog
3. wand

and in regards to fedor not fighting a few of the top HWs at the time, it's not like wand cleaned out the LHW division either. due to circumstances he never fought guys like liddell (because rampage beat his ass), shogun (because they were team mates), rogerio nogueira (..??..). etc.

while wand's reign at the top was unmatched at LHW, he did lose. fedor was ruling the HW division, the most prestigious division, and went undefeated.

 

[Seven30]

So the fact that Fedor was pretty much unanimously considered the P4P G.O.A.T. at the time still places him behind 2 other fighters ranked behind him on that list....including a guy that he beat rather thoroughly? Makes sense...