Do you think Kevin Randleman always fought in wrong division?

[Deleted member 196663]

He is an athletic beast. By today's standards he'd be fighting at middle or welterweight. Even small hw Fedor looked much larger than him.

Same advice given to Rumble Johnson.

 

[dsdoubled]

We're talking about a long time ago, but Im pretty sure Randleman wrestled at just 167 lbs in college in the early 90s. But then shows up 3 years later at a Vale Tudo event looking like the monster we all know and love. He was overmuscled for HW but was such an athletic freak that he made it work well regardless.

 

[Deleted member 457759]

I think he was always on steroids. In pride his legs looked like they belonged on a race horse.

 

[FleXS]

no. he was a special athlete that never had fighter IQ or heart. the only man to knockout crocop IN HIS PRIME. that left hook and gnp was devastating.

yea his fighter IQ was bad and he never listened to his corner. The pride where Bas says that and Mark Coleman looks at him "like yup you nailed it" from randlemans corner always makes me laugh.

 

[Karelinator]

What weight he was NCAA champ at ?

177?

 

[bandicoot]

A 219 pound man fighting at WW?

Johnny Hendricks?

 

[hasar]

But Rumble Johnson is like 6'2 and has much larger frame. Monster is 5'10. Lombard made WW. Kevin could make 185.

 

[moreorless87]

Idk if he never had heart, I just think his frame led him to gas out and he got extremely tired.

I don't actually think Randleman was lacking in "heart", it was generally more chin, cardio or sub defence that did him in.

 

[MilesAbove]

I miss the days of no weightcutting.

 

[lapollarecords]

A 219 pound man fighting at WW?

 

[stin4tw]

Randleman was probably around 4-5% body fat when he was in Pride. As a Columbus native, I've heard from many OSU-wrestling alum that he was on something post-college (some said even during).

No way he would have made MW, let alone WW.

 

[CarbonIsotope**]

Randleman was probably around 4-5% body fat when he was in Pride. As a Columbus native, I've heard from many OSU-wrestling alum that he was on something post-college (some said even during).

No way he would have made MW, let alone WW.

lol.

Hes the most obvious juicer since Bob Sapp, come on now...

I have no issues with it though since it was a free for all in pride.

But lets not pretend that he would look anything like that as a natural.

 

[Metallicalabran]

nope, because in LHW or MW he had been lose his SPEED ADVANTAGE

in MW and LHW the pool talent is deeper too

 

[Jamoke]

He wrestled at 177 in 1993 at Ohio State, so its not insane to think he could have fought as a MW. At his prime though (especially in Japan) fighters just didn't cut weight like they do now. I think he would have been best at LHW as he rarely had a problem with his strength.

You know who else wrestled at 177? Bobby Lashley.

Randleman fought at 205 and came close to fighting for the Pride title but lost to Rampage. Then he lost to Saku at openweight. He didn't return to LHW till he fought Nakamura and lost a UD.
The most of his success came at HW because he wasn't only stronger(ragdolled a 290 pound Ron Waterman), but also faster than everyone. He became the UFC HW champ and defended the belt unlike many HW champs(I believe that he defended it twice but that's another story).

Randleman's biggest problem was his lack of fight IQ. He'd always blow his wad by sprint after guys and trying to ragdoll them or he'd be way too aggressive and get subbed.

 

[glennrod]

well he has fought across a couple of weight classes...

 

[Magooglie]

He probably should have fought at 170 or 185 but there wasn't that weight class and he bulked to HW.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

He is an athletic beast. By today's standards he'd be fighting at middle or welterweight. Even small hw Fedor looked much larger than him.

Are you crazy? There are very few guys at MW that weight around 220-230 ripped. Chris Weidman is a huge MW and he's only like 218 and there are absolutely no WWs that weigh 220+ while ripped as hell. Randleman was much bigger than you think he was.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

no. he was a special athlete that never had fighter IQ or heart. the only man to knockout crocop IN HIS PRIME. that left hook and gnp was devastating.

I agree with you on that but not the heart part, that was just his poor fight IQ and using up his gas tank. He looked at fighting as if it were a sprint and if he ran out of gas and got in a bad spot he got finished.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

He did wrestle at like 177 in college

I think Rashad did as well but Randleman was clearly much bigger than Rashad is and it's not even confirmed if Rashad could make MW.

 

[mi4ko]

He did wrestle at like 177 in college

Before he got that hammer house magic potion