Do you think old school fighters had more heart than today's's fighters?

G

Gracious Warrior

Banned
Banned
Joined
Dec 11, 2020
Messages
1,627
Reaction score
5,314
Ok I won't try to seem like an expert about MMA because I only been watching for like 6 years and just mostly UFC stuff so I didn't get to watch a lot of the great fighters in their prime. But thankfully there's fight pass and I can go back and watch any of the great fighters from the previous generation.

And that brings me to my topic. I been watching a lot of old pride events and I'm just stunned by how tough some of these guys were. Some of the beatings these guys took were just unreal like sakuraba against arona and wanderlei, and kharitonov against reem, big nog against Sapp etc. So many crazy horrific ass whoppings took place in pride and these guys just never quit. The same can be said for some early UFC events I watched too. It just seems like old school fighters were built different and were more willing to suffer until the end.

Just seeing some of these old school guys at work makes me wonder if they were just tougher guys than the guys we have today? It sure seems like it to me. But maybe I'm wrong idk
 
Last edited:
When you condense the general population into a group known as 'fighters who are fighters and will give up everything else just to fight', you have early MMA.

When the money increases, the number of gyms increases, the level of professionalism increases, the SAFETY increases, more people will participate.

So absolutely, those old school fighters will have more heart P4P because they are the extreme few.
 
Gracious Warrior said:
Ok I won't try to seem like an expert about MMA because I only been watching for like 6 years and just mostly UFC stuff so I didn't get to watch a lot of the great fighters in their prime. But thankfully there's fight pass and I can go back and watch any of the great fighters from the previous generation.

And that brings me to my topic. I been watching a lot of old pride events and I'm just stunned by how tough some of these guys were. Some of the beatings these guys took were just unreal like sakuraba against arona and wanderlei, and kharitonov against reem, big nog against Sapp etc. So many crazy horrific ass whoppings took place in pride and these guys just never quit. The same can be said for some early UFC events I watched too. It just seems like old school fighters were built different and were more willing to suffer until the end.

Just seeing some of these old school guys at work makes me wonder if they were just tougher guys than the guys we have today? It sure seems like it to me. But maybe I'm wrong idk
Click to expand...
there are a couple things I think should be mentioned:

1. Fighters almost all used steroid openly in the past. Testosterone gives increased pain tolerance, cardio, aggressiveness etc. (fighters still use steroids but its not nearly as prominent and untested. I.e. they aren't 5x test levels fight night)
2. Some of the old school fights were with much less skilled guys... they were really figuring out alot of things even including ground and pound... The fighters are more likely to submit or have much more effective strikes today than in the past.
3. Defense is much better in MMA today and there is an actual financial gain from fighting today. In the past these guys fought for 10K and they didn't have a reason to Preserve their health for a longer career. Today, it would be smarter for lets just say... George St Pierre, to avoid a war and give himself a longer career making good money.

So in the past you had a lot of actual tough guys trying to beat the crap out of each other instead of great athletes trying to have a meaningful successful career so they can retire with a good nest egg.
 
Darren Elkins
Justin Gaethje
Tony Ferguson
Edson Barboza
Niko Price
Brain Ortega
Anthony smith


All of these guys have fought in some of the most insane fights and have taken ridiculous damage and would probably be willing to die.
 
Yeah def. For example in boxing, you had guys dirt poor from crazy, violent, hardscrabble backgrounds like Jack Dempsey who were full of rage and venom. Tons of fighters like that from old era. Even early mma had guys who just wanted to bleed and make bleed. Its just different now with the media, social media and the money in the sport now. Hagler said "its hard to get up and do roadwork at 6am when youre sleeping in silk sheets." For study yall should watch Rocky 3.
 
HunterAcosta said:
Yeah def. For example in boxing, you had guys dirt poor from crazy, violent, hardscrabble backgrounds like Jack Dempsey who were full of rage and venom. Tons of fighters like that from old era. Even early mma had guys who just wanted to bleed and make bleed. Its just different now with the media, social media and the money in the sport now. Hagler said "its hard to get up and do roadwork at 6am when youre sleeping in silk sheets." For study yall should watch Rocky 3.
Click to expand...

BlueHugeIndianrhinoceros-size_restricted.gif
 
I don't think they did, but I'm not nostalgic for last year like many Sherbros.

Look at Gaethje vs Chandler. How can you top that when you talk about heart and grit?
 
Don't blame the fighters when it's the ufc and the refs that are at fault for early stoppages.
 
I have been watching since UFC 6. I have seen every great fighter ever in this sport, and guys are just as tough now as ever. For some reason though, it isn't as fun to watch as it was in the PRIDE era. Still love the sport today though too.
 
Siver! said:
When you condense the general population into a group known as 'fighters who are fighters and will give up everything else just to fight', you have early MMA.

When the money increases, the number of gyms increases, the level of professionalism increases, the SAFETY increases, more people will participate.

So absolutely, those old school fighters will have more heart P4P because they are the extreme few.
Click to expand...
This is very well said!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,266,589
Messages
57,411,877
Members
175,696
Latest member
Aussie James

Share this page

Back
Top