We all agree Pride era Fedor, Cro Cop and Big Nog would still be the top 3 today, right?

[Sano]

Fedor fought massive brawlers and well I would also favor Gary Goodridge against Nganou.
Speed kills especially when its combined with power like Fedor had. Ngannou doesnt have a technical defense game like prime Arlovski or Crocop to nullify that at least to a point and make Fedor pay.

Ngannou believed his own hype and had a bad performance, but I would hardly think that he would be the favourite against Goodridge (as much as I like the guy). No Ngannous doesn't have the technical defense like Cro Cop, but he has an iron chin. I'm with you on that Fedor would be a clear favourite going into the fight, but underestimating someone is a sure way to lose.

I'm 100% sure no one would have said that Goodridge was a favourite over Ngannou before the Stipe fight. We don't know his full potential yet, let's see if he can perform better if he has the right mentality.

 

[GSP_37]

Crocop's PRIDE FC speed, power, reflexes, confidence would have resulted in more LHK KO's.... as long as no one kneed him in the nuts repeatedly.

 

[Dreaming Dead]

Ngannour wouldn't even crack the top 10. He would just be the exotic african fighter. A heavyweight Papy Abedi.

 

[Typrune Goatley]

They’d all be serving 10 year bans from USADA.

Yeah. So much cleaner in the UFC.....

Brock, Reem, JDS, Jones, Rothwell, Barnett, Mendes, etc....

And now people speculating on Francis and GSP and Paulo Costa...

'Murica! UFC! USADA! Home of the clean!

 

[BBMN]

You've "never gotten" the love for Nog?

Ban this man

By love I mean one's willingness to think he's in heavyweight GOAT contention.

Seems like a swell guy and that's fine to love him for that, but I have never looked at his skill set and thought, "He'd probably be at the very top of the division if he was in his prime today."

 

[GENERAL AZUL]

I don't know about Crocop

 

[BBMN]

Nog has more top 10 HW wins than anyone ever. Including Fedor. Nog submitted Cro Cop in Pride...

You did read the opening post, yes?

Again, if you drop Prime Nog into the UFC in say 2011, or 2014, or 2017, he's not in the Top 3. I think he was great for his time. But we're not discussing 2005, per OP's wishes.

 

[BBMN]

Because Nog beat the shit out of a majority of top heavyweights in his day.

I assume you're a newer fan and that's fine. I'd go watch some of Nogs earlier fights.

I have about 40 Pride DVDs.

And you seems to not understand what OP is asking. He wants to know what we think of Prime Nog's chances in recent years within the UFC.

I think he is limited, and would not be Top 3. He's limited to his ground game, but its 2018, not 2004... there's lots of guys with solid ground games now. Plus he's not physically imposing. Heart? Sure? BJJ? Sure. These alone do not get you into the top of the division for the past decade or so.

 

[lukeuidswords]

By love I mean one's willingness to think he's in heavyweight GOAT contention.

Seems like a swell guy and that's fine to love him for that, but I have never looked at his skill set and thought, "He'd probably be at the very top of the division if he was in his prime today."

His body of work/resume is unmatched. It's even better than Fedor's.

You did read the opening post, yes?

Again, if you drop Prime Nog into the UFC in say 2011, or 2014, or 2017, he's not in the Top 3. I think he was great for his time. But we're not discussing 2005, per OP's wishes.

Prime Nog smokes Ngannou and takes one of those lactic-acid filled arms home with him. You can take that to the bank. He'd get to Overeem's chin and fading endurance too. Werdum is a tossup. Stipe is a tossup. But the guy had crazy endurance, durability and skills everywhere.

 

[wilKO]

You did read the opening post, yes?

Again, if you drop Prime Nog into the UFC in say 2011, or 2014, or 2017, he's not in the Top 3. I think he was great for his time. But we're not discussing 2005, per OP's wishes.

I think he'd beat Ngannou who is number 2...

 

[Bamboozled]

I have about 40 Pride DVDs.

And you seems to not understand what OP is asking. He wants to know what we think of Prime Nog's chances in recent years within the UFC.

I think he is limited, and would not be Top 3. He's limited to his ground game, but its 2018, not 2004... there's lots of guys with solid ground games now. Plus he's not physically imposing. Heart? Sure? BJJ? Sure. These alone do not get you into the top of the division for the past decade or so.

His boxing is more than fine, he has a granite chin, and he's one of the craftiest fighters of all time.

 

[BBMN]

His body of work/resume is unmatched. It's even better than Fedor's.

That's not being discussed.

Prime Nog smokes Ngannou and takes one of those lactic-acid filled arms home with him. You can take that to the bank. He'd get to Overeem's chin and fading endurance too. Werdum is a tossup. Stipe is a tossup. But the guy had crazy endurance, durability and skills everywhere.

I think Prime Werdum starches him. Ubereem puts him in a coma. Lesnar if he avoids an early sub hurts him worse than he did Mir. Cain crushes him. JDS... well that would be interesting. Ngannou gets further exposed..... if Nog can get ahold of him. Stipe hurts him.

 

[blaseblah]

I think prime JDS would smoke prime prime Nog. Awful stylistic matchup.

 

[BBMN]

I think he'd beat Ngannou who is number 2...

If you think beating Ngannou means you're obviously in the Top 3 of the past decade....

Ngannou is a product of 2018 being shallow, and marketing. He's not some perennial Top 5 guy.
If you wish to pedantic and argue that Nog is obviously in the Top 3 today, purely based upon Ngannou's title shot, than I really really don't think you're looking at the big picture.

Nog would probably be considered in the Top 10, and yes, could sub Ngannou. That doesn't mean he would be considered a perrenial Top 3 for for any period of time past 2009.

 

[wilKO]

He is top 3 today though. I guess if you nitpick you can come up with a top 3 Nog wouldn't feature in but it's arguable. He could beat Overeem who has been top 5 for a long time. He could and did beat Werdum who has been top 5 for a long time.

@BBMN

 

[PEDS Help me Post]

Fedor would do great

Nog might be rank 5-10. His BJJ isn't going to win him fights in 2018. No one except 1-2 guys in the entire sport win by submissions anymore. It's an outdated skillset.

Cro Cop was a 1-dimensional striker and, more importantly, he weighed 225 lbs..


People don't wanna admit it, especially because the HW division is really, really, Hey.. wait a minute, Mark Hunt is a top 3 fighter.

YEah, they'd do great.

Outside of Fedor, they shouldn't - the sport should have evolved past guys with their skillsets - but they would.

Part of the reason nobody wins by submission anymore is because none of the HW's actually know how to do any of them except Werdum and Minakov.

 

[Robbie Corleone]

Yeah. So much cleaner in the UFC.....

Brock, Reem, JDS, Jones, Rothwell, Barnett, Mendes, etc....

And now people speculating on Francis and GSP and Paulo Costa...

'Murica! UFC! USADA! Home of the clean!

100%, at least they’ve gone some sort of legitimate testing in now though so it’s not the Wild West.

 

[indymmj]

I still to this day think active Cain is the best heavyweight I have ever seen, been watching watching MMA for awhile. Fedor, Cro Cop and Big Nog will still hold there own but theres a lot bad match-ups for Cro Cop and Cain when was active mauls all of them with a chance of being caught in sub by Fedor or Big Nog

 

[lukeuidswords]

That's not being discussed.

Yes it is. I guess you don't know how GOAT discussions work.

I think Prime Werdum starches him. Ubereem puts him in a coma. Lesnar if he avoids an early sub hurts him worse than he did Mir. Cain crushes him. JDS... well that would be interesting. Ngannou gets further exposed..... if Nog can get ahold of him. Stipe hurts him.

Prime Werdum didn't "starch" an old shot post-hip surgery Nog, so I don't see how he'd do it to Nog at his peak before all the wars wore him down.

Watch more classic Nog fights my guy. Fedor hit him with shots hard enough to put a hole in a Challenger II and still had to work all the way to the final bell.

 

[SuperNerd]

Unlikely.