Gary Goodridge did ok in Pride Fc

TheBulge said:
How did he come up with this slick move, just on the fly? The guy was an arm wrestler.
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He was also Canada's incumbent super heavyweight amateur boxing champion, FYI.

Gary wanted to compete in the UFC, but figured he needed some kind of martial arts background beyond his amateur boxing accolades before he signed up. He attended a local Kuk Sool Won* (Mc)dojo and quickly discovered that they already had their own golden boy student that they were preparing to represent the art in the UFC. They gave Gary the chance to fight him in a sort of "title eliminator" exhibition/smoker match. Gary absolutely boxed the guy's ears off and the school had no hard feelings about it -- offering Goodridge a free dobok (gi) and honorary 4th degree black belt in Kuk Sool Won in exchange for him repping the style in the UFC... despite having less than a month of formal training in the art.

Fast-forward to UFC 8. Apparently Gary and his cornermen had seen Paul Herrera practicing fireman's carries extensively "backstage" prior to their bout. Goodridge had drilled the crucifix a lot and it was one of his few grappling tools at the time. That -- plus his massive size advantage and natural athleticism -- allowed him to stuff Paul's takedown that he already knew was coming and the rest is history as one of the most brutal KOs in the history of the sport.


*Think watered-down Korean karate/Japanese Jujutsu.
 
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mkt said:
Again, this is blatant presentism. There's almost no way Goodridge could've learned modern-day grappling in the mid-90s in the middle of Canada. Put Lewis in Goodridge's shoes and he'd only be a big, strong brawler in 1996 as well. Goodridge was a formidable opponent for almost anyone in the mid 90s. The best fighters beat him, but no one walked out and KO'd or submitted him in 20 seconds (which did happen to some guys back then). Frye's first fight was a pretty quick win, but after that everyone else basically had to outwrestle him to exhaustion.
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You are right on that, of course. Goodridge was a formidable opponent in the mid-90s. Not for nothing he was one of the main attractions in Pride since the very beggining despite not being Japanese nor a crossover star from another sport.

It's a very different point than the one our fellow @moreorless87 is pushing, where he denies any more awareness in Lewis regarding clinch and ground positions than what Gary ever displayed.
 
mkt said:
Again, this is blatant presentism. There's almost no way Goodridge could've learned modern-day grappling in the mid-90s in the middle of Canada. Put Lewis in Goodridge's shoes and he'd only be a big, strong brawler in 1996 as well. Goodridge was a formidable opponent for almost anyone in the mid 90s. The best fighters beat him, but no one walked out and KO'd or submitted him in 20 seconds (which did happen to some guys back then). Frye's first fight was a pretty quick win, but after that everyone else basically had to outwrestle him to exhaustion.
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Again though I do think Goodridge was different to someone like Tank in that when he did have the opportunity to advance his game he did so, the Goodridge of the early 00's was I think significantly better grappling wise(and indeed kickboxing wise) than the fighter we saw in the mid 90's.
 
moreorless87 said:
Again though I do think Goodridge was different to someone like Tank in that when he did have the opportunity to advance his game he did so, the Goodridge of the early 00's was I think significantly better grappling wise(and indeed kickboxing wise) than the fighter we saw in the mid 90's.
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Yes, but that was a case of "I finally learned the skills but now I'm pushing 40 and my body isn't what it used to be." As for Tank, he had a good background for early NHB (juco All-American wrestler + some boxing and a lot of street fighting). He never took his training seriously enough, but he also took a 4-5 year layoff to do pro wrestling (as did Ken Shamrock and Frye) and missed the change to evolve with the sport. This was the period where Goodridge learned more skills.
 
mkt said:
Yes, but that was a case of "I finally learned the skills but now I'm pushing 40 and my body isn't what it used to be." As for Tank, he had a good background for early NHB (juco All-American wrestler + some boxing and a lot of street fighting). He never took his training seriously enough, but he also took a 4-5 year layoff to do pro wrestling (as did Ken Shamrock and Frye) and missed the change to evolve with the sport. This was the period where Goodridge learned more skills.
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Goodridge was what 34 in 2000? not THAT deep into a career either but I'd agree a lot of those earlier guys were probably held back somewhat by their pro wrestling years, I think perhaps even moreso in terms of physical wear in Ken and Frye's cases were they only really had a short period coming back to MMA before serious decline set in were as with Goodridge I think that was more around 2006 or so.
 
mkt said:
You realize that comparing modern records to early UFC days is completely meaningless, right? Back then, youu were thrown in a tournament where you might fight the best current fighter in the 1st round. Now, you may have 10-15 wins in a small org then another 5-7 prelim fights in UFC/Belltar before you even face Top 10 competition. His first 5 losses were to
  • Don Frye twice (whom he later beat..Frye was a 2-time UFC tournament winner and one of the best fighters alive at the time--boxing, judo and D1 wrestling experience which was very rare in 1995)
  • Mark Shultz (Gold medalist Olympian and maybe the best pure wrestler to ever compete in MMA)
  • Mark Coleman (two-time UFC tournament winner and first ever UFC HW champ)
  • Mario Neto in a fight where he tapped out due to deyhdration/exhaustion in Brazil. Immediately afterwards he won a 3-fight tournament in Brazil then beat Oleg Taktarov)
No one ever claimed Goodridge was GOAT level, but practically no modern fighters go against that level of competiton (which was elite for mid-1990s standards) in their first 8 fights. Lesnar and BJ Penn are probably the only ones who came even close since the year 2000.
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I swear we need to whole side forum for the actual intelligent posters so we can discuss the past. Without all these Conor noobs talking about shit they have zero experience with.

His strength of schedule was insane.
Since when is there shame for losing to Fedor and LeBanner?

I've actually talked to Gary a couple.times on social media (granted that was probably close.to a decade ago.) It's so sad to see how his health has turned out.

-----

And for the record. The ONLY argument to say your Tai Tuivasas are "better" (and I love Tai) is modern training methods and ease of information.

I have ZERO doubt if Gary got dropped into modern times with how readily available training is, he'd very easily be top 5 in HW today. I mean, shit, in my opinion Gary is more of an A Level athlete than Greg fucking Hardy.

P.S. thank you everyone showing Big Daddy appreciation. He has earned it.
 
My friends and I were hyped to all hell when it was announced that Goodridge was to fight Tank Abbott way back at UFC19.

Unfortunately, Tank had to pull out due to illness and we got Goodridge vs Andre Roberts instead.
 
Nathan LaMontagne said:
I swear we need to whole side forum for the actual intelligent posters so we can discuss the past. Without all these Conor noobs talking about shit they have zero experience with.

His strength of schedule was insane.
Since when is there shame for losing to Fedor and LeBanner?

I've actually talked to Gary a couple.times on social media (granted that was probably close.to a decade ago.) It's so sad to see how his health has turned out.

-----

And for the record. The ONLY argument to say your Tai Tuivasas are "better" (and I love Tai) is modern training methods and ease of information.

I have ZERO doubt if Gary got dropped into modern times with how readily available training is, he'd very easily be top 5 in HW today. I mean, shit, in my opinion Gary is more of an A Level athlete than Greg fucking Hardy.

P.S. thank you everyone showing Big Daddy appreciation. He has earned it.
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Excellent post
 
Nathan LaMontagne said:
I swear we need to whole side forum for the actual intelligent posters so we can discuss the past. Without all these Conor noobs talking about shit they have zero experience with.

His strength of schedule was insane.
Since when is there shame for losing to Fedor and LeBanner?

I've actually talked to Gary a couple.times on social media (granted that was probably close.to a decade ago.) It's so sad to see how his health has turned out.

-----

And for the record. The ONLY argument to say your Tai Tuivasas are "better" (and I love Tai) is modern training methods and ease of information.

I have ZERO doubt if Gary got dropped into modern times with how readily available training is, he'd very easily be top 5 in HW today. I mean, shit, in my opinion Gary is more of an A Level athlete than Greg fucking Hardy.

P.S. thank you everyone showing Big Daddy appreciation. He has earned it.
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Yep, if you look at the fighters in Ultimate Ultimate '96, most of them were better athletes with more potential (assuming they had modern training) than most of the current HW division. Admittedly, a couple of these guys like Frye might be LWH or MW if they fought now.
  • Kimo (D1 football player and would've been D1 wrestler without ACL injuries)
  • Goodridge
  • Ken Shamrock (similar to Kimo, probably would've competed in D1 wrestling or football if not for injuries)
  • Frye (D1 wrestler, pro boxing experience, judo)
  • Tank (All-American juco wrestler who was very strong and moved fast for a big man. Watch his 1995 fights, not his 2005 and later fights)
  • Brian Johnston (underrated physical specimen with Golden Gloves & judo experience...killer strength of schedule in his short career)
  • Nelmark and Worsham were decent athletes/fighters for their era who looked more fit than 90% of current HWs
 
I miss Gary, where does he live today? Is his accent canadian?
 
GOATtalks said:
Telling of what? Hunt beat both Lewis and Goodridge.

I had only 2 takeaways from that:

-Hunt really improved his stamina from Goodridge fight to Lewis
- Goodridge would’ve done much worse in MMA against Hunt than he did in kickboxing. Shelling up wouldn’t work without big gloves and Hunt would’ve been free to knee him in the face when Gary was constantly dipping down
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Damn you're getting destroyed on this thread
 
I watched an interview over the phone with Gary years ago and he said his long term memory is still in tact, then he paused for maybe 5 seconds and said but "unfortunately I wont remember talking to you later on tonight." I've also seen he is back working in the Arm Wrestling tournaments and saw him joking around with Devon Larratt and John Brzenk.
 
Nathan LaMontagne said:
I swear we need to whole side forum for the actual intelligent posters so we can discuss the past. Without all these Conor noobs talking about shit they have zero experience with.

His strength of schedule was insane.
Since when is there shame for losing to Fedor and LeBanner?

I've actually talked to Gary a couple.times on social media (granted that was probably close.to a decade ago.) It's so sad to see how his health has turned out.

-----

And for the record. The ONLY argument to say your Tai Tuivasas are "better" (and I love Tai) is modern training methods and ease of information.

I have ZERO doubt if Gary got dropped into modern times with how readily available training is, he'd very easily be top 5 in HW today. I mean, shit, in my opinion Gary is more of an A Level athlete than Greg fucking Hardy.

P.S. thank you everyone showing Big Daddy appreciation. He has earned it.
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how do we create this side forum? i can't stand reddit, got banned from there, and i'm going back here but everyone is a noob and doesn't appreciate the past.
 
Killer Kadoogan said:
how do we create this side forum? i can't stand reddit, got banned from there, and i'm going back here but everyone is a noob and doesn't appreciate the past.
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I don't know but it's be awesome.

I feel like we need a test to get in so we don't get flooded with McGregor would've beat Sergei Kharitonov posts.
 
dude prime sergei kharitonov???? the one that was trim and got the win over big nog????? couldve been one of the greatest, B. I agree brother, i wish i could talk MMA with people who had PERSPECTIVE who understands the nuances of each generation. fuck reddit. that is all. and PRIDE NEVER DIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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