Ninja Beat Hendo and Rampage

And Ninja fought against heavyweight MONSTERS like Sergei Kharitonov
 
Ninja is one of those guys that could have been one of the MW greats but got ruined by injuries/beatings. I think the Sergei fight messed up his career and he would be up there at MW with Franklin if not for that fight.
 
benjamin1cs said:
At the cost of half his brain cells, unfortunately. On the list of "most obviously punchy fighters of all time," I'd put Ninja in the top five. Probably at #3, right behind Gary Goodridge and Guy Mezger, and ahead of Chuck Liddell and someone else.
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Watched an interview with mezger from 2015 he seems pretty sharp after some rehab. Good ridge is number 1 for me
 
benjamin1cs said:
At the cost of most of his own brain, sadly. :(

I'd put Ninja #3 on the list of Most Obviously Punchy MMA Fighters of All Time, right behind Gary Goodridge and Guy Mezger, and ahead of Chuck Liddell.
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I think Diego Sanchez has earned a spot on that list as well.
 
SuperNerd said:
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Ricco won that fight
 
NoBiasJustMMA said:
Ninja is one of those guys that could have been one of the MW greats but got ruined by injuries/beatings. I think the Sergei fight messed up his career and he would be up there at MW with Franklin if not for that fight.
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I think he was ruined by Chute Boxe strategy at that time that they had to have a hw fighter at all costs.

Ninja was just brutalized by Sergej as you said and this fight alone took a high toll on his career. It was simply dumb career managment by chute boxe. The same when they thought to have to fatten up Wanderlei to over 100kg for the Open Weight Grand Prix. He lost all speed and was hopelessly outmatched (compare that to his first Crocop fight). At times chute boxe was to fixated on size and the fighters paid a high prize, in shortening their prime significantly, for this. The CroCop fight imo also took much away from Wanderleis career.

Regarding Ninjas potential I think his downfall was always his sloppy striking. Shogun was much more controlled and refined. Ninja overcomitted to his strikes and as soon as it got heated often changed into brawling haymaker mode. That said he was a complete MMA fighter with a very solid ground game and MT stand up and the will to charge forward relentlessly.
 
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listrahtes said:
I think he was ruined by Chute Boxe strategy at that time that they had to have a hw fighter at all costs.

Ninja was just brutalized by Sergej as you said and this fight alone took a high toll on his career. It was simply dumb career managment by chute boxe. The same when they thought to have to fatten up Wanderlei to over 100kg for the Open Weight Grand Prix. He lost all speed and was hopelessly outmatched (compare that to his first Crocop fight). At times chute boxe was to fixated on size and the fighters paid a high prize, in shortening their prime significantly, for this. The CroCop fight imo also took much away from Wanderleis career.
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Man, i thank god that Shogun didnt took the HW route also... That coleman broken arm was a blessing in disguise.
 
benjamin1cs said:
At the cost of half his brain cells, unfortunately. On the list of "most obviously punchy fighters of all time," I'd put Ninja in the top five. Probably at #3, right behind Gary Goodridge and Guy Mezger, and ahead of Chuck Liddell and someone else.
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benjamin1cs said:
At the cost of most of his own brain, sadly. :(

I'd put Ninja #3 on the list of Most Obviously Punchy MMA Fighters of All Time, right behind Gary Goodridge and Guy Mezger, and ahead of Chuck Liddell.
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we believe you. I think it was the emoticon that sold me.
 
CereserBr said:
Man, i thank god that Shogun didnt took the HW route also... That coleman broken arm was a blessing in disguise.
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Oh god I completely forgot about Shoguns HW trip. Chute Boxe really had a size fetish. I saw that fight live and it was maybe the nastiest injury I ever saw in a fight. You are spot on that this may have been a blessing for shogun in the long run. Don`t think he would have captured the UFC title with more matches at hw in pride.
 
listrahtes said:
Oh god I completely forgot about Shoguns HW trip. Chute Boxe really had a size fetish. I saw that fight live and it was maybe the nastiest injury I ever saw in a fight. You are spot on that this may have been a blessing for shogun in the long run. Don`t think he would have captured the UFC title with more matches at hw in pride.
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Yeah, it was... he was brutalized by the heavyweight Jon Jones though... :( But, a Fedor Shogun match back in the day, who knows... Maybe it would have been a great one. :)
 
@CereserBr
I am glad the fight with fedor never materialized. As clever as chute boxe was back then they would have made the same mistakes with Shogun that they made with Wanderlei in the OWGP instead letting Shogun fight at his best weight.
 
How's Igor feel about this?
 
listrahtes said:
I think he was ruined by Chute Boxe strategy at that time that they had to have a hw fighter at all costs.

Ninja was just brutalized by Sergej as you said and this fight alone took a high toll on his career. It was simply dumb career managment by chute boxe. The same when they thought to have to fatten up Wanderlei to over 100kg for the Open Weight Grand Prix. He lost all speed and was hopelessly outmatched (compare that to his first Crocop fight). At times chute boxe was to fixated on size and the fighters paid a high prize, in shortening their prime significantly, for this. The CroCop fight imo also took much away from Wanderleis career.

Regarding Ninjas potential I think his downfall was always his sloppy striking. Shogun was much more controlled and refined. Ninja overcomitted to his strikes and as soon as it got heated often changed into brawling haymaker mode. That said he was a complete MMA fighter with a very solid ground game and MT stand up and the will to charge forward relentlessly.
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I agree completely on chute box making stupid mistakes in having ninja fight Sergei and it was a mistake for Wanderlei to put on size for the OWGP he gave up his speed advantage he had over Cross Cop. I think the idea was they thought he was going to end up fighting Big Nov or Barnett and they thought the extra size would help but I'm they were wrong.
 
Entering OWGP was his biggest mistake. He could have been great MW.
 
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