CroCop In The UFC , Exposed ? or Injures ?

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MMAlover123

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Was CroCop exposed as someone that wouldn't of cut it as someone that could become champ in the UFC or was the time he signed in the UFC in 2007 that he was past it , wear and tear , years of injuries from kickboxing and MMA accumulated ? ( the guy had been fighting since he was 22 years old)

It wouldn't seem so to me as the year before became the PRIDE grand prix champion ( which arguably was the peak of his MMA career ) after beating Barnett ... what do you guys think ?.
 
many factors

1) better competition, more grapplers
2) PED testing
3) cage & elbows

I believe he was only like 31 or so at the time. The age/injury/longevity in kickboxing/mma excuse is bullshit. guys like semmy schilt & peter aerts, mark hunt have been through much worse and won titles at 37+ in kickboxing (except hunt). HWs usually last the longest out of all classes because the only real detrimental factor is speed and durability, which until 35 would not be noticeably different



Even right now at LHW/HW, belfort, rashad, rampage, teixera, machida, frank mir, bigfoot, DC, gonzaga there all pushing 34-36 and there prime was when they were around the same age cro-cop entered the UFC (30-33) just a few yrs later. liddell & silva were both champs at 36 & 37, hughes at 34

guys like tex, shad, machida, DC, belfort .etc, there all still revalent in the top 5 despite being about 35 or 36
 
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He was older. Nog coture, mir,fedor, shogun,wand,liddell bj penn, gomi,,.........................they are old man. not bad fighters
 
ironball said:
many factors

1) better competition, more grapplers
2) PED testing
3) cage & elbows

I believe he was only like 31 or so at the time. The age/injury/longevity in kickboxing/mma excuse is bullshit. guys like semmy schilt & peter aerts have been through much worse and won titles at 37+ in kickboxing. HWs usually last the longest out of all classes because the only real detrimental factor is speed and durability, which until 35 would not be noticeably different
Click to expand...

You can't act like just because one fighter wasn't shot after a certain amount of damage doesn't mean another one won't be.

Not saying Cro Cop was shot but each fighter is subjective man.
 
He achieved the goal he had in his mind for years. Lack of motivation, injuries, cage, different rules which took some of his most lethal weapons etc.
 
Th3Sav4ge said:
He was older. Nog coture, mir,fedor, shogun,wand,liddell bj penn, gomi,,.........................they are old man. not bad fighters
Click to expand...

I don't know...he was arguably the 2nd best HW at the time. I think over confidence may have been a factor. IIRC he never even bothered training in a cage.
 
Cro Cop absolutely belongs in UFC.

There was numerous proponents on SD asking for Iishi's admission in UFC.

Now? Back to back losses to Mirko.

Cro Cop now has learned to elbow off his back, should he be taken down.

New tricks for an old dog.

Do you mean to tell me he wouldn't beat such fighters as Mitrione, Jordan, etc.?
 
Long career before getting to the UFC.

Game had passed him by.

Didn't want to learn how to utilize the octagon and related skills.

Lack of motivation resulted in what we got to see.
 
MMAlover123 said:
Was CroCop exposed as someone that wouldn't of cut it as someone that could become champ in the UFC or was the time he signed in the UFC in 2007 that he was past it , wear and tear , years of injuries from kickboxing and MMA accumulated ? ( the guy had been fighting since he was 22 years old)

It wouldn't seem so to me as the year before became the PRIDE grand prix champion ( which arguably was the peak of his MMA career ) after beating Barnett ... what do you guys think ?.
Click to expand...

Were Chuck Liddell and randy couture exposed after the pride fighters came to the UFC and beat them?
 
Biggest factor was shape and size of the Octagon. Look at the Eddie Sanchez fight. Someone as shite as Sanchez was getting away from him all night and CC was missing every kick. Then look at his highlight reel from PRIDE, cutting off opponents in the ring and catching them in the corner was his speciality. He was a real bully in the ring.

I believe that gave him a shot to the ego, not being able to force opponents to the corner anymore, that and PED withdrawal, ofc.

I don't believe the step up in opposition was anything real, PRIDE had a much better HW div than UFC ever did, and regarding grapplers, CC was able to take care of grapplers like Barnett and Coleman.

But also, by the time he was in the UFC, he had close to 30 MMA fights and 'round 25 kickboxing fights. That will wear you down, if not by injuries than mental fatigue.
 
And by the way, who says that he was at his peak in 2006? He showed his best performance, but that doesnt mean that he was physically at his peak. On that day in 2006 Cro Cop was unstoppable because he was ready to die. He said that he would stop fighting if he had not won that belt. That was his day and i belive that he would have smashed anyone.
 
UFC CroCop kept his LHK foot on the mat so who knows. Nobody knows why he didn't unleash his best weapon in the UFC.
 
dude was roiding in pride like many other fighters

he obviously didnt look the same in the ufc, much slower and tentative
 
As much as Crocop was a dangerous fighter, we also know he had ups and downs, and had quite some holes in his game.

The rules and the cage in the UFC favour grapplers a lot more than the ring in PRIDE, wehre people just couldn't spend much time there.

If you add the fact that in PRIDE you can kick/knee the head of a downed opponent and make grapplers pay cash for a faled attempted takedown, you can imagine that the cage is quite a different world for a fighter who spent his life in a ring.

Other factors might enter the equation, like slowly being shot, overconfidence, lack of motivation, lack of adaptation to the new environment and so on...

Also. at the PRIDE 2006 OWGP, Crocop had a quite "easy" run. Minowa, Yoshida, and then the night of the final, he made quick work of an undersized Wanderlei (but always dangerous) before facing Barnett that was coming from a 15min war againt Minotauro earlier that evening.
 
RagingBeringola said:
As much as Crocop was a dangerous fighter, we also know he had ups and downs, and had quite some holes in his game.

The rules and the cage in the UFC favour grapplers a lot more than the ring in PRIDE, wehre people just couldn't spend much time there.

If you add the fact that in PRIDE you can kick/knee the head of a downed opponent and make grapplers pay cash for a faled attempted takedown, you can imagine that the cage is quite a different world for a fighter who spent his life in a ring.

Other factors might enter the equation, like slowly being shot, overconfidence, lack of motivation, lack of adaptation to the new environment and so on...

Also. at the PRIDE 2006 OWGP, Crocop had a quite "easy" run. Minowa, Yoshida, and then the night of the final, he made quick work of an undersized Wanderlei (but always dangerous) before facing Barnett that was coming from a 15min war againt Minotauro earlier that evening.
Click to expand...

Wrong, Wand was bigger than CC in that fight!
 
ironball said:
many factors

1) better competition, more grapplers
2) PED testing
3) cage & elbows

I believe he was only like 31 or so at the time. The age/injury/longevity in kickboxing/mma excuse is bullshit. guys like semmy schilt & peter aerts, mark hunt have been through much worse and won titles at 37+ in kickboxing (except hunt). HWs usually last the longest out of all classes because the only real detrimental factor is speed and durability, which until 35 would not be noticeably different



Even right now at LHW/HW, belfort, rashad, rampage, teixera, machida, frank mir, bigfoot, DC, gonzaga there all pushing 34-36 and there prime was when they were around the same age cro-cop entered the UFC (30-33) just a few yrs later. liddell & silva were both champs at 36 & 37, hughes at 34

guys like tex, shad, machida, DC, belfort .etc, there all still revalent in the top 5 despite being about 35 or 36
Click to expand...

Different athletes age very differently. Fedor hit a physical decline in his early 30s, as did GSP. Meanwhile Anderson and Machida remained elite despite being almost 40, and others still like Randy and Hendo had some of the highlights of their career past that mark. This can be tallied up to both the differing styles and how they respond to a loss in speed, durabiity and strength as well as the simple fact every human being is unique and so are their bodies.

But I do agree with the points you made about the game passing him by, and even as a fan the PED situation cannot be overlooked. I believe he also had numerous injuries in his run, although that can be chalked up to his body getting old as previously stated.
 
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Far less adaptable than Fedor. As MMA grew, CCs particular set of skills became one facet of a bunch.

...And we knew from the Randleman fight, his chin wasn't Huntlike!
 
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