S
supark
Guest
...and here is what I think:
A lot of people always asked why Crocop couldn't be as successful in the UFC as he was in Pride. I have my own opinion about this subject now that I watched all of his MMA fights.
- First of all, yes, Age plays an important role. Crocop had a lot of fights (Both Pride and K-1) under his belt before he ever fought in the UFC. I noticed that he had repeatedly eye problems in UFC fights (Swelling or blinking).
- What is also a very important point is competition. In Pride Crocop fought a lot of Japanese fighters who were physically smaller than himself and who were not well rounded fighters. Some of them may have had the same weight as him, but not made all out of muscle. And some were simply way below 200 pounds and looked like blown up middleweights or even welterweights. Then some of those Japanese fighters were not well rounded and came e.g. with a Gi into the ring and all they really were good at is Judo, which won't help you that much against Crocop. No disrespect to those Japanese fighters, they all had a big heart and in Pride those matchups happened all the time in which a fighter has a huge size advantage.
So - if Crocop would have fought guys like Junior dos Santos or Cheick Kongo in Pride, then his record would in my humble opinion look different. And here is my point: in Pride Crocop never fought bigger guys who were well rounded with a few exceptions (Josh Barnett or Aleksander Emelianenko). Prime Crocop in Pride weighed 213 pounds, meaning in the UFC he could have probably fought at Light Heavyweight by cutting 8 pounds.
In the UFC Crocop weighed around 230 pounds and fights guys who are over 240 pounds of pure muscle while he himself basically was 213 pounds of pure muscle in Pride.
In his 2nd run in the UFC, Crocop clearly wasn't the same fighter he was in Pride - the Mir fight clearly shows this. In the first run he was in my opinion still close to his prime (although he had a lot of wars in Pride and K 1), but here is my point again: he fought guys like Cheick Kongo and Gonzaga. Now if you look at the guys he fought in Pride, then 90 % of those guys are 1.)- not as well rounded as Kongo and Gonzaga and 2.) not as big as those 2 guys. And I do know that Gonzaga and Kongo themselves are not the most well rounded fighters, but compared to the Pride competition, they are "very well rounded".
And as for Crocop beating Igor Vovchanchyn: Igor is a legend just like Crocop but then again, he is a pretty small, short and one dimensional striker himself. Meaning if you let Igor fight the same guys Crocop fought in the UFC, in my humble opinion he would lose most of those fights. That doesn't diminish the legacy of guys like Crocop and Igor because they built this sport. I would never say "Joe Louis is a bum because Tyson would beat him". Tyson could only become Tyson because there was a Joe Louis earlier and Joe Louis could only become Joe Louis because there was a Jack Johnson earlier.
A lot of people always asked why Crocop couldn't be as successful in the UFC as he was in Pride. I have my own opinion about this subject now that I watched all of his MMA fights.
- First of all, yes, Age plays an important role. Crocop had a lot of fights (Both Pride and K-1) under his belt before he ever fought in the UFC. I noticed that he had repeatedly eye problems in UFC fights (Swelling or blinking).
- What is also a very important point is competition. In Pride Crocop fought a lot of Japanese fighters who were physically smaller than himself and who were not well rounded fighters. Some of them may have had the same weight as him, but not made all out of muscle. And some were simply way below 200 pounds and looked like blown up middleweights or even welterweights. Then some of those Japanese fighters were not well rounded and came e.g. with a Gi into the ring and all they really were good at is Judo, which won't help you that much against Crocop. No disrespect to those Japanese fighters, they all had a big heart and in Pride those matchups happened all the time in which a fighter has a huge size advantage.
So - if Crocop would have fought guys like Junior dos Santos or Cheick Kongo in Pride, then his record would in my humble opinion look different. And here is my point: in Pride Crocop never fought bigger guys who were well rounded with a few exceptions (Josh Barnett or Aleksander Emelianenko). Prime Crocop in Pride weighed 213 pounds, meaning in the UFC he could have probably fought at Light Heavyweight by cutting 8 pounds.
In the UFC Crocop weighed around 230 pounds and fights guys who are over 240 pounds of pure muscle while he himself basically was 213 pounds of pure muscle in Pride.
In his 2nd run in the UFC, Crocop clearly wasn't the same fighter he was in Pride - the Mir fight clearly shows this. In the first run he was in my opinion still close to his prime (although he had a lot of wars in Pride and K 1), but here is my point again: he fought guys like Cheick Kongo and Gonzaga. Now if you look at the guys he fought in Pride, then 90 % of those guys are 1.)- not as well rounded as Kongo and Gonzaga and 2.) not as big as those 2 guys. And I do know that Gonzaga and Kongo themselves are not the most well rounded fighters, but compared to the Pride competition, they are "very well rounded".
And as for Crocop beating Igor Vovchanchyn: Igor is a legend just like Crocop but then again, he is a pretty small, short and one dimensional striker himself. Meaning if you let Igor fight the same guys Crocop fought in the UFC, in my humble opinion he would lose most of those fights. That doesn't diminish the legacy of guys like Crocop and Igor because they built this sport. I would never say "Joe Louis is a bum because Tyson would beat him". Tyson could only become Tyson because there was a Joe Louis earlier and Joe Louis could only become Joe Louis because there was a Jack Johnson earlier.
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