Crocop was in his prime during his UFC Run.

[hymn]

Said no one ever, Fedor was a huge favorite going into the fight everyone thought werdum would be kod in the first round. As for the coach, coaches often times innaccurately judge the abilities of their fighter so I would not think much of it.

It was a popular topic of discussion around the Arlovski and Rogers fights and who if not his damn coach, who stated he was physically slowing down (which was evident to sherdoggers as well) would be positioned to judge his state.

Fedor had 0 losses and took no damage before the werdum fight, how can he be past prime while overeem, hendo, mousasi, Jeremy Stephens, Cowboy and all muay thai fighters have more fights and are still world class?

He had plenty of injuries and a long career in judo, sambo and mma behind him. I don't know why you waste time trying to come up with some kind of inane comparative formula when it's obvious fighters age at different rates.

 

[Towerworld]

Cro Cop fights better in a ring this as a fact. imo He's never been comfortable in the cage but most of the time finds a way to make it work.

Lack of footwork skills, hes good at dutch kickboxing throwing punches cover throw kick rinse and repeat but horrible moving backwards. Any version of Crocop gets killed by top 5 UFC HW’s unfortunately.

 

[Taric]

a) Cro Cop was in like 50 professional fights before he ever came to America
b) Cro Cop is a little overrated. He's only beaten one top 5 fighter in Josh Barnett. He doesn't have the same kind of resume that Fedor and Nogueira did in PRIDE

 

[iwillbebackin3weeks]

he didnt even train for a cage fight and he also sad that injuries were probably the reason for his "bad" run

stfu

 

[Towerworld]

he didnt even train for a cage fight and he also sad that injuries were probably the reason for his "bad" run

stfu

So when conor relunctantly admits a knee injury and staph infection its an “excuse” but whwn crocop says it its just a fact?

 

[iwillbebackin3weeks]

So when conor relunctantly admits a knee injury and staph infection its an “excuse” but whwn crocop says it its just a fact?

just lol

 

[stinkynecklace]

Hard to argue that considering he looked good last night and Nelson looked like complete shite. If Cop was past prime then he would be way worse than Nelson.

Crocop has always taken care of his body, Nelson never has. What you saw was the long term differences in lifestyles. When Big Country was in his prime he got away with neglect, he no longer can.

 

[Taric]

According to ur logic moose is not on his prime now. But his fans say he is. So officialy we can all call them biased nutthuggers

Cro Cop fought the reigning LHW champion in his 4th fight. He fought Nogueira for the HW championship in his 10th fight.
Mousasi fought for his first title against Babalu in his 29th fight. The first UFC champion Mousasi fought was Machida in his 40th fight.... It's a little different.

When people say Cro Cop fought elite fighters out the gate, they mean it. He really did. Mousasi cannot make the same claim. Mousasi himself wasn't considered an elite fighter until he beat Babalu for the Strikeforce championship. Cro Cop was considered elite the moment he started MMA. So by the time Cro Cop was into his 30th fight, he'd already been through the ringer.

 

[jeremyemilio]

According to ur logic moose is not on his prime now. But his fans say he is. So officialy we can all call them biased nutthuggers

Who says Moose is in his prime? He's clearly past prime. He's still a great fighter. But are we really trying to pretend he's the best he's been? Crazy talk. (Although Moose really has taken a lot less damage than Cro Cop had when he entered the UFC.)

 

[jeremyemilio]

you mean like shogun getting subbed by forrest griffin

... and then beating Chuck, who owned the UFC LHW division before the Pride fighters came along, and then giving Lyoto his first loss and capturing the LHW belt, and then beating Forrest in the rematch.

Yes.

Thanks.

Excellent example.

 

[Typrune Goatley]

He looked fantastic at the GP, which was within a year of his UFC debut. Did not look slow or out of his prime in any way. Go back and pull threads from the Pride nut huggers at that time. NONE of them were saying he’s out of his prime. They were ALL convinced he was going to run through the UFC HW division...... and then magically, and coincidentally, he falls completely out of his prime right as he enters the UFC lmao. More like he was humiliated by better competition, just like a majority of top Pride fighters were.

Cro Cop had the first surgery of his life after the OWGP and before his UFC debut. He had 100 fights by this point. He won his UFC debut but was KO'ed bad by Gonzaga in the next fight. His leg was twisted and he had about 7 more surgeries during his UFC run and each kept him out of training for a few months.

And "humiliated' by better competition does not make sense. He was top 5 and even top 3 for about 5 or 6 years. Several of the PRIDE fighters became UFC champs like Werdum, Anderson, Nog, Rampage, Shogun. Even Hunt, Hendo and Reem fought in title fights and countless main events.

 

[jeremyemilio]

Thats what im saying, roy is clearly more past prime than crocop meaning that he was further past prime in the first fight aswell.

Ohhhh... okay, I'm following you now. You're commenting on the fact that that it's very rare for the older, more battle worn fighter to lose the first match and then come back and win the second.

Yes. Okay. That's an interesting topic and well worth discussing. It's an anomaly for sure, and really doesn't happen very often. But I don't think that really tells us much about a fighter's "Prime."

At any rate, Roy IS the younger fighter. That hasn't changed just because he's an outlier in this particular situation. Also, even if we take age out of it, Cro Cop has spent the 8 years since his loss to Roy keeping in shape and beating up lesser and sometimes smaller fighters and taking just the one loss by sub, while Roy has spent that time eating burgers and getting KOd twice and having his face bashed in by the likes of Stipe, DC, Hunt, Reem, Lewis, et al.

Are you really saying you can't figure out why Nelson would be the one who ended up being the worse for wear after that?

 

[cmw43]

Like half of Sherdog, you don't even understand what "Prime" means.

Cro Cops first fight in the UFC was his 53rd career professional prize fight. Every single one of those previous fight took place at the world class level.

Show me another fighter with 52 career professional, world class, prize fights behind him that you think is in his "Prime."

Drives me crazy on this site, when guys get old after a long career and people start saying they're still in their prime and just losing because they were never any good.

 

[Typrune Goatley]

Another question, how good would prime Nelson be in Pride considering his easy wins over cop and nog?

Nelson is 2-6 versus PRIDE Heavyweights.

Wins - Cro Cop, Big Nog

Losses - Barnett, Overeem, Werdum, Hunt, Cro Cop, Sergei

 

[Vintersorg]

You’re a fanboy, tell me how crocop was past prime 10 years ago when he’s on a win streak and athletically 100x better than Country now.

He had time to train more and to try to adapt to UFC rules and fighting in the octagon. He also adapted his style to rely on his strength and dirty boxing more, where as during his first UFC run he was trying to fight like a young man and was already getting injured and not as fast as before. You can say he fights smarter now, but that doesn't mean he was in his prime during the first UFC run.

 

[nope]

Said no one ever, Fedor was a huge favorite going into the fight everyone thought werdum would be kod in the first round. As for the coach, coaches often times innaccurately judge the abilities of their fighter so I would not think much of it.

Fedor had 0 losses and took no damage before the werdum fight, how can he be past prime while overeem, hendo, mousasi, Jeremy Stephens, Cowboy and all muay thai fighters have more fights and are still world class?

You're retarded or smthing. Do some research before posting bullshit.

 

[aerius]

How many left high kick knockouts did you see from him during in the UFC? Or even attempts?

More like how many left kicks, period.
You could probably count the number of left kicks he threw in the UFC on your hands and have fingers left over.
Mark Hunt of all people has thrown more kicks in the UFC than Cro Cop, and that's just sad.

 

[wisdom blows]

The GG headkick broke him for good.

 

[snaportap21]

Thats my argument, crocop was performing at 60% at 44 but pride fanboys claim he was at 20% at 35 lol so his losses apparently didn’t count.

He had a long string of injuries in the UFC. Look into it. Idk 20%, but they're still not his prime. One version had better conditioning, however, the other has more functionality with diminished cardio, but also a toolbox better associated with his current athletic prowess. You gotta remember, these are fighters. As they get older their tools change, they may not figure what works best as they age within the sport.

 

[Xaero]

While CroCop was semi-retired, Roy Nelson was getting his shit pushed in by Werdum, JDS and Hunt.