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- Oct 3, 2015
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2003-2005 Rogerio is one of the best LHWs of alltime. He doesnt get his due these days b/c ppl usually remember the older guy, the guy who didnt look the same following the layoff/ war with Shogun.
He beat Guy Mezger who was known for giving the top guys (Wand, Arona, even dropped Liddell etc) tough fights in striking. Nog was able to pull out the win with his grappling, but the striking was fairly even.
He controlled almost the whole Overeem 1st fight, usually guys even elites like Chuck and Shogun struggle mightily with Reem early then they takeover. Nog was never in trouble, and Reem got saved by the bell in the 2nd with Nog mounted on him raining brutal GNP. He also defended against Reems clinch game as well as anyone ive ever seen.
Lil Nog was one of the handful of guys including Wand, Mirko and Igor that beat Saku in his prime. Saku showed a good account of himself but most of the fight he got completely outboxed and destroyed in the striking, he had moments scrambling but ive never seen Saku dominated that badly from pillar to post in his prime outside Wand and even then it wasnt the onslaught that Rogerio dished out.
The Sakuraba and Overeem 1 fights wouldve been stopped in multiple positions by alot of refs.
No one in history has dominated a prime Dan Henderson and finished him like Rogerio. He completely ran through him. Against Anderson at least Hendo had some moments and won a round, even tho he got dominated by Shields he nearly KO'd him and 10-8'd him in the 1st. Hendo maybe had 40 seconds of total fight time where he was effective. Rogerio was clipping him with the counter right hook over and over, even wobbled him early, and he was having his way in the clinch specially with his knees. Hendo got desperate for a TD late, and Rogerio reversed him and got to side control with ease. The way he swept Hendo from the bottom to mount get a cross armbar was so fluid. He proceeded to setup an armbar with a kimura grip and effortlessly transitioned to the finish. Whats even more amazing is that Rogerios older and better fighter of a brother struggled far more with Hendo in both fights. Hendo was one of the best escape artists in MMA from submissions back then, he was thwarting off Rodrigos attempts left and right, but when Rogerio got a good position on him he was finished. Honestly Lil Nog from 2003-2005 was every bit as good as peak Rodrigo IMO.
Then theres the Shogun fight arguably the GOAT LHW fight. Shogun at the peak of his powers was was one of the p4p GOATs, completely curbstomped guys like Rampage and Arona, and Nog gave him his toughest fight. There are only a handful of LHWs in history at best who could have given 05 Shogun a better fight than Nog did.
Unfortunately after this fight Nog took a long layoff to recover from surgeries and just recover from that war, but he was never really the same guy. His reflexes were worse, he was slower, his chin wasnt Terminator like anymore, his clinch game and wrestling wasnt as good, his defense was prolly the biggest dropoff. Dude barely got hit clean back then, but after the layoff he was getting hit more to randoms like Mike Rimbom and Todd Gouwenberg. He still had technical boxing and BJJ he was known for but physically and the technical aspects of his clinch and wrestling game were gona. It shows how terrifying he was at the time that in maybe the biggest upset ever he had a ridiculous -2500 odds against Sokoudjo.
The fact that after his peak this guy was still able to
- shut out Hashad
- TKO Tito
- TKO Overeem (hematch)
- KO Cane
- KO Janitor
- KO Cummins
as well as have competitive fights with Shogun (hematch), Bader and Phil, some even thinking he beat Shogun the 2nd time as well as Bader, shows how great he was and how underappreciated he is. Should be in everyone's top 10 LHWs of alltime IMO.
He beat Guy Mezger who was known for giving the top guys (Wand, Arona, even dropped Liddell etc) tough fights in striking. Nog was able to pull out the win with his grappling, but the striking was fairly even.
He controlled almost the whole Overeem 1st fight, usually guys even elites like Chuck and Shogun struggle mightily with Reem early then they takeover. Nog was never in trouble, and Reem got saved by the bell in the 2nd with Nog mounted on him raining brutal GNP. He also defended against Reems clinch game as well as anyone ive ever seen.
Lil Nog was one of the handful of guys including Wand, Mirko and Igor that beat Saku in his prime. Saku showed a good account of himself but most of the fight he got completely outboxed and destroyed in the striking, he had moments scrambling but ive never seen Saku dominated that badly from pillar to post in his prime outside Wand and even then it wasnt the onslaught that Rogerio dished out.
The Sakuraba and Overeem 1 fights wouldve been stopped in multiple positions by alot of refs.
No one in history has dominated a prime Dan Henderson and finished him like Rogerio. He completely ran through him. Against Anderson at least Hendo had some moments and won a round, even tho he got dominated by Shields he nearly KO'd him and 10-8'd him in the 1st. Hendo maybe had 40 seconds of total fight time where he was effective. Rogerio was clipping him with the counter right hook over and over, even wobbled him early, and he was having his way in the clinch specially with his knees. Hendo got desperate for a TD late, and Rogerio reversed him and got to side control with ease. The way he swept Hendo from the bottom to mount get a cross armbar was so fluid. He proceeded to setup an armbar with a kimura grip and effortlessly transitioned to the finish. Whats even more amazing is that Rogerios older and better fighter of a brother struggled far more with Hendo in both fights. Hendo was one of the best escape artists in MMA from submissions back then, he was thwarting off Rodrigos attempts left and right, but when Rogerio got a good position on him he was finished. Honestly Lil Nog from 2003-2005 was every bit as good as peak Rodrigo IMO.
Then theres the Shogun fight arguably the GOAT LHW fight. Shogun at the peak of his powers was was one of the p4p GOATs, completely curbstomped guys like Rampage and Arona, and Nog gave him his toughest fight. There are only a handful of LHWs in history at best who could have given 05 Shogun a better fight than Nog did.
Unfortunately after this fight Nog took a long layoff to recover from surgeries and just recover from that war, but he was never really the same guy. His reflexes were worse, he was slower, his chin wasnt Terminator like anymore, his clinch game and wrestling wasnt as good, his defense was prolly the biggest dropoff. Dude barely got hit clean back then, but after the layoff he was getting hit more to randoms like Mike Rimbom and Todd Gouwenberg. He still had technical boxing and BJJ he was known for but physically and the technical aspects of his clinch and wrestling game were gona. It shows how terrifying he was at the time that in maybe the biggest upset ever he had a ridiculous -2500 odds against Sokoudjo.
The fact that after his peak this guy was still able to
- shut out Hashad
- TKO Tito
- TKO Overeem (hematch)
- KO Cane
- KO Janitor
- KO Cummins
as well as have competitive fights with Shogun (hematch), Bader and Phil, some even thinking he beat Shogun the 2nd time as well as Bader, shows how great he was and how underappreciated he is. Should be in everyone's top 10 LHWs of alltime IMO.
