Where the GOATS thought of as prospects when they started?

Doug Money

Brown Belt
@Brown
Joined
Nov 28, 2019
Messages
2,932
Reaction score
1,328
Im talking about Fedor, Silva, GSP and Jones. I recall Bones beeing seen as a young talent with a bright future but not a lot of hype. Silva wasnt feared when he came to the UFC and in Pride he was seen as a 2nd tier chute box guy. I also remember Fedor surprising Bas and Quadros when he ragdolled Herring. Cant remember anything about St. Pierre.
So did any of the GOATS have a hype train behind them when they started off?
 
I think Bones qualifies and maybe GSP too.
Despite being (basically) undefeated in RINGS, Fedor didn’t enter PRIDE with a lot of hype. He turned a few heads by beating Schilt but was fully expected to lose to Herring.
 
Being a prospect and being a hype train are different things.
 
Yes, all of them did. Virtually no prospect starts out as a 2-1 favorite over someone proven, they go out there, beat up that guy and then the hype train starts rolling. That's what happened with most of them, except GSP who already had pretty good wins outside the UFC.

Silva wasn't a prospect by the time he got in the UFC, but he certainly had hype in Pride if only due to his win over Sakurai, not to mention the time he kneed Newton's skull. Also made Stiebling bleed like a pig when he was the "Brazilian Killer".
 
No one thought much of Fedor until he beat Heath Herring out of the ring. He was a slightly chubby stoic Russian, and not an Ivan Drago 1800 PSI killer lookalike. In fact he was an underdog in that fight.

GroundedRingedAmericanavocet-size_restricted.gif

CrazyBitesizedDogfish-size_restricted.gif
 
Ask Molly Meatball Macann, laugh now, you don't know what's coming.....
 
Of the GOATs:
GSP was a prospect and heavily marketed by ufc.
Silva not so much a prospect, he was already a vet and a champ abroad before he came over.
Jones rose up quickly and became one of the youngest champs.
Fedor was not billed to be a top rising HW until years into his career in japan
 
Im talking about Fedor, Silva, GSP and Jones. I recall Bones beeing seen as a young talent with a bright future but not a lot of hype. Silva wasnt feared when he came to the UFC and in Pride he was seen as a 2nd tier chute box guy. I also remember Fedor surprising Bas and Quadros when he ragdolled Herring. Cant remember anything about St. Pierre.
So did any of the GOATS have a hype train behind them when they started off?
yeah with Jones i think he was first described a unorthodox and creative...kinda like Yair i suppose but not has hyped as some of these prospects nowadays
 
GSP and Jones were highly touted. Fedor and Anderson overachieved:)

Depends... Pride thought about hirin´No Rush, but they backtracked...

It iz what it iz.


Im talking about Fedor, Silva, GSP and Jones. I recall Bones beeing seen as a young talent with a bright future but not a lot of hype. Silva wasnt feared when he came to the UFC and in Pride he was seen as a 2nd tier chute box guy. I also remember Fedor surprising Bas and Quadros when he ragdolled Herring. Cant remember anything about St. Pierre.
So did any of the GOATS have a hype train behind them when they started off?
Suren Balachinski had more hype than Fedor in RTT...

Spider was considered a high level prospect in Pride.

SAKU G. was already thrown to the wolves in his very 1st fight...
 
A lot of these GOATs got their titleshots very eary in their careers, so people didn't really have time to watch them grow as a prospect.

GSP got his title shot at his 7th pro MMA fight
Jon Jones got it on his 13th pro MMA fight.

Meanwhile Khabib got his title shot at his 26th pro MMA fight. So it's always funny to me when people focus on title defenses as the main metric for GOATness...
 
GSP was labelled as the Future before facing Hughes the first time.

turned out putting a 7-0 only fighter Vs the WW goat at that time,
who was 36-4 was a little too soon.

Even tho GSP was probably already the better fighter at that point.
 
A lot of these GOATs got their titleshots very eary in their careers, so people didn't really have time to watch them grow as a prospect.

GSP got his title shot at his 7th pro MMA fight
Jon Jones got it on his 13th pro MMA fight.

Meanwhile Khabib got his title shot at his 26th pro MMA fight. So it's always funny to me when people focus on title defenses as the main metric for GOATness...
obviously khabib wasn't ready for that level of competition at those stages of his career....
 
I think Bones qualifies and maybe GSP too.
Despite being (basically) undefeated in RINGS, Fedor didn’t enter PRIDE with a lot of hype. He turned a few heads by beating Schilt but was fully expected to lose to Herring.
he was only +140 against herring per tapology........
 
Fights before major promotional title shots:

Jones - 6-1 in UFC
Silva - 1-0 UFC
GSP - 2-0 UFC
Fedor: 2-0 Pride
Aldo: 5-0 WEC
Mighty Mouse: 4-1 WEC/UFC (BW), immediately placed in tourney for inaugural 125 FLW title

So yeah, absolutely. Some were granted major pushes to the title, while others were steadily taking out contenders in a more normal but still quick progression to the title.

Jon had the most fights before his title fight. Which is both amazing as he was definitely considered an amazing prospect (he was only 3 years into his career when he beat Shogun), but also because that was fairly close to back when Jon Fitch had the longest ever win streak at 8-0 before a title shot. Jon was in essence 7-0, and he only got his title shot because Rashad pulled out and Jon stepped in on short notice. 9 years later he's still #1. Crazy.
 
he was only +140 against herring per tapology........
But most ppl weren’t picking him to win, is my point. He wasn’t hyped to the moon going into the Schilt and Herring fight. If you pull up the Fedor-Herring fight on Fight Pass, they show the pre-fight interviews and stuff. Both Bas and Quadros pick Herring to win the fight.
 
Depends... Pride thought about hirin´No Rush, but they backtracked...

It iz what it iz.



Suren Balachinski had more hype than Fedor in RTT...

Spider was considered a high level prospect in Pride.

SAKU G. was already thrown to the wolves in his very 1st fight...

PRIDE once showed interest in GSP?

No shit? Do you have a source for that?
 
Back
Top