Guy Mezger and the "Evolution" theory

Anyone who watches fights from 20 years ago and then fights from this past weekend will see the differences. TS can win Olympic gold in mental gymnastics but it still won't change the fact that the sport has evolved and it's really not a debate.
 
Dr. Rose said:
Isn't Sherdog amazing? People praise Pride all the time, yet the mma "level was way lower back then."
Click to expand...
MMA can be both more entertaining and at a lower level. There's no discrepancy. PRIDE had different rules and a completely different model of production.

Stop being an idiot.
 
There is definitely evolution in terms of training and fighting. Populations evolve. Not individuals. Individuals vary withinin a population. Guy is well rounded for his time because he is a lifelong martial artist.
 
TerrorTimmy said:
Anyone who watches fights from 20 years ago and then fights from this past weekend will see the differences. TS can win Olympic gold in mental gymnastics but it still won't change the fact that the sport has evolved and it's really not a debate.
Click to expand...

You mean Derrick Lewis vs Tuivasa? Or the rest of the HW division being weaker than the HW divisions of the previous 2 generations?

Or 50 year old Glover becoming Champion by taking the belt from 39 year old journeyman Jan? Or MW journeyman Anthony Smith hovering around the top 5?

Or the MW division being weaker today in talent and depth than the MW division from 2010-2014?
 
Last edited:
Jewish Lightning said:
You mean Derrick Lewis vs Tuivasa? Or the rest of the HW division being weaker than the HW divisions of the previous 2 generations?

Or 50 year old Glover becoming Champion by taking the belt from 39 year old journeyman Jan? Or MW journeyman Anthony Smith hovering around the top 5?

Or the MW division being weaker today in talent and depth than the MW division from 2010-2014?
Click to expand...
Okay. Since you insist on being an idiot.

The HW champ in 2002 was Ricco Rodriguez. Pulver was LW champ until he left, then they didn't have a LW champ.

Please. Tell me how Pulver would do vs Oliveira. Tell me how Ricco Rodriguez would do vs Ngannou.

Tell me you think any UFC champ 20 years ago would beat any ranked fighter today.
 
I think the sport has evolved in the sense that guys know you cannot just have one skill and be at the top. But I’ve never believed in the idea that a new breed of fighter exists today. There were guys back then who understood being a mixed martial artist, and we are not at the golden age of mma anymore. Some of the top guys today would be eaten for breakfast by yesterday’s killers. Especially at light heavy and heavyweight.
 
TerrorTimmy said:
Okay. Since you insist on being an idiot.

The HW champ in 2002 was Ricco Rodriguez. Pulver was LW champ until he left, then they didn't have a LW champ.

Please. Tell me how Pulver would do vs Oliveira. Tell me how Ricco Rodriguez would do vs Ngannou.

Tell me you think any UFC champ 20 years ago would beat any ranked fighter today.
Click to expand...

Yea good point summing it up to Ricco and leaving out the likes of Nog, Fedor, Mirko, Sergei, Barnett, Mir, AA, Randy and Rizzo etc. And for the the record Ricco would have easily beaten top 3 UFC HWs like Leiws and Tuivasa with his 2002 skillset.

Or let's compare Jon Jones of 2011 to 50 year old Glover and 39 year old journeyman Jan champions of today.

Or the MWs of 2010-2014 being much better than the MW top 10 of today??

Smh.
 
Last edited:
Guy mezger was honestly a great white hype job. The Brazilian fighters were more well rounded and a truer evolution but ignored while the shamrocks and mezgers were hyped.

Marcos, pele etc were more well rounded in mma. Even Europeans like Igor had well rounded skills and they beat top wrestlers but he wasn’t American enough to get hyped while mark Kerr was.
 
Jewish Lightning said:
Mezger had 46 fights and is fine today. Id love to see which fighters from today will make it to that many fights with their training/sparring/diet/recovery systems.
Click to expand...
My grandpa smoked until he died at 96, never got cancer. Doesn’t mean smoking is a good health choice. Just means he was an exception.
 
Watch any "great" fight from 10 or 15 years ago and you'll be amazed by how sloppy it is. Yes, fighters back in the day knew about both wrestling and striking, and used both. But there is absolutely evolution, and any non-HW prospect today would beat almost every top fighter in their division from a decade ago.
 
BrockLesnarsTurtleBack said:
Yup, nothing has changed from the days when Randy Couture trained boxing and wrestling separately, there was no such thing as MMA classes and figured out himself in the cage on the fight night how to combine it. Eeeeeverything is the same.
Click to expand...
Randy trained some arts separate and so do lots of fighters today. What makes you think Randy didn't also mix it up with MMA training? Chael Sonnen recently released old Team Quest training from about 2001 or 2002 where we see Randy and Dan in MMA gloves doing ground work. Just because there weren't classes for general public hobbyists everywhere doesn't mean the top teams around them world weren't training MMA. TQ, Brazilian Top Team, Chute Boxe, Russian Top Team, Lions Den, etc were all mixing it up in the 90's and 2000's.

Plus, Randy is an odd example. He was already a world class wrestler (and was still competing at a high level in wrestling in the 90's) so of course he would focus a lot of training on boxing and other arts to make himself more well rounded.

Nothing wrong with training arts separately. GSP was famous for this. He would train with Canadian Olympic wrestlers, Renzo black belts, and other specialists. They all do this but they also all train MMA as well.
 
Typrune Goatley said:
Randy trained some arts separate and so do lots of fighters today. What makes you think Randy didn't also mix it up with MMA training? Chael Sonnen recently released old Team Quest training from about 2001 or 2002 where we see Randy and Dan in MMA gloves doing ground work. Just because there weren't classes for general public hobbyists everywhere doesn't mean the top teams around them world weren't training MMA. TQ, Brazilian Top Team, Chute Boxe, Russian Top Team, Lions Den, etc were all mixing it up in the 90's and 2000's.
Click to expand...
Chael Sonnen spoke about the training they did back then when he was comparing MMA then to MMA now.

 
BrockLesnarsTurtleBack said:
Chael Sonnen spoke about the training they did back then when he was comparing MMA then to MMA now.

Click to expand...

Just watched the whole video. Should have turned it off when Chael tries to say Lebron is better than Jordan. LMAO

Chael has shown us video footage of old Team Quest training. They were training with MMA gloves and Randy had training partners that today's fighters would die for, Olympic wrestlers like Hendo and Lindland. That's just Team Quest anyway. That's one team and probably the least well rounded team that was still successful. They were all such dominant wrestlers. BTT, RTT, Chute Boxe all had much more well rounded training and more training partners. Those teams were stacked with talent.
 
Gamer2k4 said:
Watch any "great" fight from 10 or 15 years ago and you'll be amazed by how sloppy it is. Yes, fighters back in the day knew about both wrestling and striking, and used both. But there is absolutely evolution, and any non-HW prospect today would beat almost every top fighter in their division from a decade ago.
Click to expand...
We still have sloppy fights today. We also have a lot of boring stare fests where nothing happens like Ngannou/Lewis, Adesanya/Romero.

The heavyweight and 205 fights today don't look any better than they did in the past.

Glover is 42 years old right now and has finally won the UFC belt. He is much slower than he was 10 years ago. As much as I love Glover, he would not have won the belt at any other time period. Glover himself even says Prime Chuck was better than all the current 205'ers. Glover even said Prime Chuck was better than Jones.
 
TerrorTimmy said:
MMA can be both more entertaining and at a lower level. There's no discrepancy. PRIDE had different rules and a completely different model of production.

Stop being an idiot.
Click to expand...
Quote me out of context and call me an idiot. Pride (and Fedor) fans do not think it is at a lower level, that is the point. Either 2002-2006 Fedor can fight in the UFC or he cannot. Either Mezger from 1998-2002 could compete in the UFC today or not. That is the question asked, and what I responded too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,265,728
Messages
57,356,099
Members
175,671
Latest member
Alan Aguirre Ferraz

Share this page

Back
Top