Rewatch An older fight more people should watch - Chuck Liddell vs Guy Mezger at Pride 14

[Royce Greasy]

I remember enjoying this card at the time , I had a copy on vhs , thats what we had before dvd’s , Vitor Vs Herring was really interesting and Matsui’s upset of Pele was the moment of his career , before the fight people thought he was going to get killed

The Herring/Belfort fight was bullshit with the 20 kilo rule in effect I still thought Heath did enough to beat Vitor but whatever.

 

[Elvis.]

The Herring/Belfort fight was bullshit with the 20 kilo rule in effect I still thought Heath did enough to beat Vitor but whatever.

I thought Heath won at the time as well , how did the 20 kilo rule work again? I remember that because of it Vitor had the option of knees on the ground for the fight which he declined, but did it also mean in case of a tie he got the win ? Or am I hallucinating and I totally dreamed that last part ?

 

[Richard Fannin]

I thought he won the fight against Sakuraba.

I thought Mezger won the Arona fight back then, but I remember it as a boring fight so I haven't rewatched it many times... Mezger was winning the fight on points, and I think that at the very very end of the fight Arona did a reverse Hendricks and went 170% , so he got the split decision

The Sakuraba one is more complicated, it was a draw, and it was still back in the days when in case of a draw, the smaller fighter (Saku in that case) got the nod... plus, Mezger was exhausted at the end of the fight, while Saku still seemed fresh and wasn't even breathing hard.
I honestly think that Ken was right to remove Guy from the fight, because an overtime wouldn't have favored the gassed Lion's Den elite...

Mezger also put on a really good fight against a green Lil' Nog (lost a split decision with him when Rogerio only had 5 fights under his belt)

Guy's Pancrase days were also pretty damn cool, his rivalries with Semmy Schilt, Yuki Kondo, Suzuki and Funaki were badass
And of course, submitting Tito Ortiz was also pretty damn cool

And sure it was a very green Tito, but Frank Shamrock always gets mad props for beating Tito, and that was just 3 fights later

 

[Local Plata]

Yeah, haven't watched this in decades. But that's the one fight that makes me disagree with all the "chuck had an iron chin" fans.
Dude's comparing him to Henderson, even Hunt and Nelson... C'mon.

Huh? Because of the knockdown? Where chuck instantaneously stood up, took a kick directly to the face, then threw punches back?

 

[TrueBias]

I don't think you could kick/stomp with them.

he does kick in this fight, maybe JUST stomps?

 

[Starman]

I've been going through my old Pride DVD's and this was a decent fight that I thought you guys might enjoy :

Guy Almost got him, but Chuck pushed through and was able to knock him out in the next round.

Been years since I've watched it, but I remember enjoying it. I always thought Guy Mezger was criminally underrated. In a parallel world he got with a different gym and won a title belt.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

he does kick in this fight, maybe JUST stomps?

I think you're right. I think banning kicks was in the UFC.

 

[Vil7]

Not sure about that Frank was insanely good but to beat Tito at the time but having said that Guy did also beat Tito so its hard to say if I were to bet I'd go with Frank over Guy.

Yeah I thought it might be an unpopular opinion because of Frank's accomplishments. I think that that Frank would struggle to get a takedown & the fight would end up being a kickboxing match with Mezger picking him apart.

 

[Royce Greasy]

Yeah I thought it might be an unpopular opinion because of Frank's accomplishments. I think that that Frank would struggle to get a takedown & the fight would end up being a kickboxing match with Mezger picking him apart.

Frank never really struggled against his opponents at getting td's, he took down Goes, Rutten, Zinoviev, Inoue, Kosaka etc, but in reality I think this could be really close because Guy is really good better than what he appears, btw if it did take place on the feet Frank has insane power in his punches watch his fight against Baroni he won that fight with one punch after that Phil was rocked for the entire rest of the match so Frank can brawl like no other. In the Cung Le fight I personally thought Frank was very close to stopping Cung at one point but luckily for Cung he broke Frank's arm because Le was getting lit up against the fence at one point in the fight.

 

[MarloStanfield]

I vaguely remember Chuck vs Victor being a banger