How good was Guy Mezger?

[thewilks]

IMO one of the more underrated guys from that era and the victim of a lot of bad luck.

Was beating Sakuraba and should have won a decision but Pride tried to pull some shenanigans and he was forced out by Shamrock.

Was doing good against Wand but Silva purposely rocked him with a headbutt and got the KO.

Had very close, controversial losses against two top 5 LHWs of the time in Lil Nog and Arona. I personally thought he won both fights.

I really believe that 2001-2002 Metzger was peak Metzger, so in a sense he retired at his peak.

My thoughts exactly. He was an underrated monster. Almost took it to Chuck too.

 

[NicholasJBasile]

One of the first complete fighters with a legit kickboxing pedigree and solid ground work, who I like to dub "The Great Almost"....In some bizarro, alternate universe where Guy Mezger was on the other side of some controversial split decisions, and some violent exchanges that got the better of him in our dimension, Guy Mezger might have a LHW GOAT record with wins over Wand, Chuck, Arona, and Sakuraba. Some of his accomplishments...

-King of Pancrase Openweight Champ
-UFC 13 Tournament Winner
-Notable wins include Tito Ortiz, Masakatsu Funaki, Yuki Kondo, Semmy Schilt.
-Controversial Losses Sakuraba (Bullshit), Wand Silva (illegal headbutt), Lil Nog (controversial SD), Ricardo Arona (controversial SD).


Thoughts?

I tend to believe he is one of the more underrated fighters that the sport has ever seen. He had an incredibly difficult style to beat at the time. I actually feel that he was one of Tito Ortiz's most impressive wins and was perhaps overshadowed by the aftermath of their fight. He seemingly didn't have the best of luck, but he had some bright moments.

 

[Dorkman]

Mezger was top to bottom very good. One of the first dynamic fighters who could compete anywhere.

 

[olimpicus]

i remember him as a really good fighter

 

[Royce's Gi]

Great fighter and victim of sad circumstances.

 

[frontkick1]

a LHW GOAT record with wins over Wand

I remember him being ko'd stiff by wanderlei

 

[mkt]

One of the first complete fighters with a legit kickboxing pedigree and solid ground work, who I like to dub "The Great Almost"....In some bizarro, alternate universe where Guy Mezger was on the other side of some controversial split decisions, and some violent exchanges that got the better of him in our dimension, Guy Mezger might have a LHW GOAT record with wins over Wand, Chuck, Arona, and Sakuraba. Some of his accomplishments...

-King of Pancrase Openweight Champ
-UFC 13 Tournament Winner
-Notable wins include Tito Ortiz, Masakatsu Funaki, Yuki Kondo, Semmy Schilt.
-Controversial Losses Sakuraba (Bullshit), Wand Silva (illegal headbutt), Lil Nog (controversial SD), Ricardo Arona (controversial SD).


Thoughts?

You pretty much covered it. He seems like a really good guy (no pun intended), too. I remember a story about him getting stabbed while defending someone else IIRC.

 

[mkt]

I let it slide since Guy broke his hand in the fight before and continued on in the tournament. But yeah Tito was beating that ass. Guy was probably also realistically a 185er, like Frank.

Yep, Tito was the first size bully after weight classes started. (I can't really call anyone a size bully when everything was open weight like the early UFCs).

 

[mkt]

Mezger/Saku truly was one of the biggest bullshit things I have ever witnessed in MMA. Pride should be ashamed for it.

Pride had some of the best fixes money can buy! Wait, did I say that right?

 

[2004 account]

Guy was good, if he would've fought those years strictly in the ufc his career would've probaably been better.

 

[mkt]

It reminds me a recent thread on Erik Paulson, another guy who was very well-rounded in the earliest years of NHB/MMA who could've gone down as an elite fighter under different circumstances. He also lost some close fights, and got really screwed over by the Gracies. They wouldn't let him fight in the earliest UFCs since he started training with them in 1986 (and had some Shooto/catch background as well as several striking arts). Later Renzo forced him to fight in a "striker's" division of an odd tournament. Eric won the first round but lost to a much bigger kickboxer whom he wasn't allowed to submit in the next fight. That kickboxer fought Renzo in the tournament final under "anything goes" rules and Renzo submitted him.

 

[Kumason]

Didn't he have a few heart attacks this last 10 or 15 years? I remember I first saw him at UFC 4 and he was listed as a kickboxer vs a wrestler and I thought he was going to get beat up because wrestling was my life at the time and just thought wrestling was so much stronger, but Mezger totally outwrestled the wrestler. I was impressed. I watched his career as it happened, at least the fights I could get footage of.

 

[Kumason]

Eric won the first round but lost to a much bigger kickboxer whom he wasn't allowed to submit in the next fight.

IBF Cruiserweight boxing champ and kickboxing champ referee James Warren.

 

[Brampton_Boy]

One of the first complete fighters with a legit kickboxing pedigree and solid ground work, who I like to dub "The Great Almost"....In some bizarro, alternate universe where Guy Mezger was on the other side of some controversial split decisions, and some violent exchanges that got the better of him in our dimension, Guy Mezger might have a LHW GOAT record with wins over Wand, Chuck, Arona, and Sakuraba. Some of his accomplishments...

-King of Pancrase Openweight Champ
-UFC 13 Tournament Winner
-Notable wins include Tito Ortiz, Masakatsu Funaki, Yuki Kondo, Semmy Schilt.
-Controversial Losses Sakuraba (Bullshit), Wand Silva (illegal headbutt), Lil Nog (controversial SD), Ricardo Arona (controversial SD).


Thoughts?

A criminally underrated fighter that had some bad breaks with respect to split decisions. He is bizarro Dan Henderson (losing close fights that went to the judges, where as Hendo was often given the nod in close fights). As OP pointed out, if some of the breaks went Guy's way, he would be considered in the same league as Chuck, Tito, Wand etc.

What really sucks though is Guy having to pull out of his third fight with Tito (for the LHW title). Cote stepped in as a late replacement, and Guy was never invited back to the UFC. I think he stood a very good chance of beating Ortiz at the time, but I suppose we will never know.

A true pioneer of the sport, and one of the only bright spots to come out of the Lion's Den.

 

[mkt]

Didn't he have a few heart attacks this last 10 or 15 years? I remember I first saw him at UFC 4 and he was listed as a kickboxer vs a wrestler and I thought he was going to get beat up because wrestling was my life at the time and just thought wrestling was so much stronger, but Mezger totally outwrestled the wrestler. I was impressed. I watched his career as it happened, at least the fights I could get footage of.

Was that the fight where two long-haired guys fought...maybe in UFC 4? I remember we joked about it back in the day....it looked like the lead singers of a couple of 80s hair metal bands battling it out.

 

[mkt]

A criminally underrated fighter that had some bad breaks with respect to split decisions. He is bizarro Dan Henderson (losing close fights that went to the judges, where as Hendo was often given the nod in close fights). As OP pointed out, if some of the breaks went Guy's way, he would be considered in the same league as Chuck, Tito, Wand etc.

What really sucks though is Guy having to pull out of his third fight with Tito (for the LHW title). Cote stepped in as a late replacement, and Guy was never invited back to the UFC. I think he stood a very good chance of beating Ortiz at the time, but I suppose we will never know.

A true pioneer of the sport, and one of the only bright spots to come out of the Lion's Den.

Hendo and later Bendo....the SD kings. Masvidal was more like Guy, usually coming up short on SDs. I think that's why he became a lot more aggressive and started finishing more fights.

 

[cookdaddy]

Good fighter but easily the most unlucky MMA fighter in history. Bullshit decisions, illegal headbutt vs Wand that was missed, the Sakuraba fiasco, then missing out on a big money trilogy fight with Tito due to health concerns which made him retire.

 

[mkt]

It's also impressive that Guy was a small LHW (like someone else said, he'd most surely be a MW now) and fought young, up-and-coming version of Arona and Little Nog to close/controversial SDs. Arona's only loss up to that point was a controversial decision to Fedor. Mezger was well into his 30s by then and had over 40 fights and surely a lot of wear-n-tear on his body. In addition to his fights, the Lion's Den was notoriously hard for conditioning and sparring.

 

[D0GMeAT]

Would have been great if he ended up with a gym other than the Lion's Den.

 

[moreorless87]

Honestly I think he deserved to lose all the decisions he did in Pride, was far too defensive.