Prime Rumble vs Jiri: Who wins?

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Yeah, King Mo KO'd Jiri. If Jiri had the chin of a young Roy Nelson or Mark Hunt, I might think differently. He has a good chin and a ton of heart, but never faced anyone with Rumble's combination of power, speed and accuracy. Mo hit pretty hard but he was a wild striker himself, not a sniper like prime Rumble.

Fair, but Mo also didn’t snipe him, he wore him out and caught him when his legs were gone. It’s like how Jiri’s sub over Glover shouldn’t be used as evidence of Glover’s vulnerability to submissions due to the circumstances.

 

[Greg House]

You guys say Rumble or Crumble but he only really crumble against DC in his LHW run. He easily dominated everyone else, including Glover. Jiri is awesome but he was losing the fight against 42 year old Glover. I see people comparing him to Gus but look how Gus handled a much younger Glover.

7 years ago was the golden era of that division: Jones, DC, Rumble, Bader, Davis, Gus, Glover, etc... and Rumble was the clear #3. Now they are all retired and the current top guys (Glover, Jan, Corey) are in their 40s now and were outside the top 5 back then.

Rumble round 1 KO

 

[jx820]

That's a pretty rough style match up for Jiri. I think if he can survive the first round or two he could turn the tide with his break neck pace. It's tough to imagine Jiri could absorb the kind of abuse he typically takes if it was rumble doling it out.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Prime Rumble was THE fight to make with Jon Jones...Jiri would had been just another stepping stone, no disrispect but he ran through most of the LHW division only losing to DC, and DC only lost to Jones.

Very disappointing that we never got Jones vs Rumble. When you’ve got a dominant champion, the super dangerous finisher is always the most interesting challenge to see. I think Jones wins but you never know.

Calling Jiri a stepping stone is crazy though. If you want to favor Rumble that’s fine, but Volkan and Reyes are both perfectly respectable title challengers and Jiri blew through them. Then he went to war with a very durable and dangerous champion and gutted it out. Crazy to doubt the guy.

 

[chinarice]

People wildly overrating Rumble and underrating Jiri.

Jiri is the TKO/KO machine, not Rumble. Rumble probably shoots for a TD in the 1st 2 minutes after Jiri hits him with one good shot and gets RNC'ed lol

 

[mkt]

Fair, but Mo also didn’t snipe him, he wore him out and caught him when his legs were gone. It’s like how Jiri’s sub over Glover shouldn’t be used as evidence of Glover’s vulnerability to submissions due to the circumstances.

I agree, but I can also see Rumble teeing off on Jiri early in the fight (if he doesn't land a 1-punch KO). He could put Jiri in a similar situation to the first Mo fight very early in Round 1.

 

[10000yearsold]

What in the fuck? Rumble? Jiri is the light heavyweight champion. Not every turd you shit needs a selfie.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

You guys say Rumble or Crumble but he only really crumble against DC in his LHW run. He easily dominated everyone else, including Glover. Jiri is awesome but he was losing the fight against 42 year old Glover. I see people comparing him to Gus but look how Gus handled a much younger Glover.

7 years ago was the golden era of that division: Jones, DC, Rumble, Bader, Davis, Gus, Glover, etc... and Rumble was the clear #3. Now they are all retired and the current top guys (Glover, Jan, Corey) are in their 40s now and were outside the top 5 back then.

Rumble round 1 KO

I agree with your overall take on the division, but fighters don’t all develop, peak and decline the same way. Also, what made the division seem so good was Jones and Cormier (and Cormier stopped Rumble twice). If you take those two away and Rumble is the champ with some Swedish guy as his biggest rival and then one dimensional wrestlers below them, people would remember that as a weak era for the division. I don’t think we should give Rumble bonus points for fighting at the same time as two GOATs.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Love Jiri but that crazy wild samurai shit aint working on prime Rumble.
He was too fast, too accurate and too powerful at LHW for anyone to win a striking battle against him.

For the first couple minutes, I agree. But rewatch the first Cormier fight and see how Rumble looks in the last minute of the first round. Much, much slower and less dangerous.

If Jiri fought Rumble smart (and the elephant in the room is that he doesn’t fight smart), fighting behind his jab and looking for opportunities to clinch early, knee the body and let his size wear on Rumble, he could potentially give Rumble a really hard time. If he comes out goofy he’s getting clipped and there’s a decent chance he gets stopped.

 

[C0NCH3TO]

50/50. If Rumble doesn’t finish him early, he is fucked.

(DC could get off that office chair, hang that fine wool suit coat and dominate Jiri. Effortlessly.)

 

[Goober stoober]

prime rum took out glover in seconds....
jiri needed the last minute of the fight to beat an older version

i like jiri but rumble was sending ppll to the morgue for a brief moment in time and he took out anyone that wasnt named DC. shit, he almost did that too.

if youre telling me AJ doesnt send his head into the stand, i think you drinkin too much jiri juice.

 

[JonJonesNeedle]

IMO Prime LHW Rumble beats any LHW except Prime Jones and DC.

The man had ridiculous power and speed, and his grappling was enough to stop the likes of Phil Davis (though not enough to survive DC). He also easily beat other great LHWs like Gus and Glover. He was feared by many, as seen in the Bader fight. I think even Glover feared him. DC did not dare stand against him like he did against almost everyone else (include Jones and Stipe).

If he is as good as I think he is, I think Magomed Ankalev could eventually get to a level where he can beat Prime Rumble. But other than him, i can't think of any other newer LHW that could stop Rumble, including Rakic and Jiri

 

[10000yearsold]

prime rum took out glover in seconds....
jiri needed the last minute of the fight to beat an older version

i like jiri but rumble was sending ppll to the morgue for a brief moment in time and he took out anyone that wasnt named DC. shit, he almost did that too.

if youre telling me AJ doesnt send his head into the stand, i think you drinkin too much jiri juice.

There's a reason why fighters like Rumble who only have one thing never become champion like Jiri just did.

He was initially a better rounded mixed martial arts fighter who then fell in love with his power and became a middling head hunter, although he was one of the better ones for it. Kinda like Dan Henderson, but much less ambitious and enduring.

Jiri is a galaxy apart from Rumble. Jiri is very special. Enjoy the moment.

 

[DrunkMonkMeth]

Prime rumble kos him.. current rumble? Who knows

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Opinions?

Discuss.

One thing that I haven’t seen pointed out yet….

This may not be prime Jiri. Is Rumble at his absolute apex favored against current Jiri? Yes, perhaps he is, but Jiri is only 29. Give the kids two years with Trevor Whitman and he could be an order of magnitude better.

 

[Greg House]

I agree with your overall take on the division, but fighters don’t all develop, peak and decline the same way. Also, what made the division seem so good was Jones and Cormier (and Cormier stopped Rumble twice). If you take those two away and Rumble is the champ with some Swedish guy as his biggest rival and then one dimensional wrestlers below them, people would remember that as a weak era for the division. I don’t think we should give Rumble bonus points for fighting at the same time as two GOATs.

But those "one dimensional wrestlers" are still top today even though they are clearly past their primes. Not going to start nit picking their flaws in their game to say they are not good like you are implying, I'm just looking at the facts. Davis and Bader are dominating the Bellator division and would be ranked now in the UFC in similar positions than back then even though it's obvious that they are not as good as they once were. Glover and Jan are 42 and 40 and yet they are top 3 on the division. Back then, they weren't even top 5 and were 35 and 33 years old.

Even if you take DC and Jones, that era was still stronger than todays era. Because the top guys of today were not top 5 then and were in their primes. Now they are all 40 and still top 5. Literally most of the same guys but in their prime. That tells you how weak this era is compared to that one.

If anything, Rumble gets "bonus points" because he knocked out Glover in 13 seconds when he was 36 and Jiri had to come from behind to submit him after 24 minutes when he was 42

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

There's a reason why fighters like Rumble who only have one thing never become champion like Jiri just did.

He was initially a better rounded mixed martial arts fighter who then fell in love with his power and became a middling head hunter, although he was one of the better ones for it. Kinda like Dan Henderson, but much less ambitious and enduring.

Jiri is a galaxy apart from Rumble. Jiri is very special. Enjoy the moment.

Boy, I don’t know about this. Glover was a rightful champion, but this easily could have been a curtain jerker matchup if Jones hadn’t vacated. If you believe Jiri is better that’s fine, but if Rumble’s title shots had been against Glover instead of Cormier he’d have a belt at home too.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

This does seem a bit like Gus/Rumble style wise you could argue although I think Jiri does have more unpredictability and heart than Gus.

Not really seeing the similarity, Gus's striking is very different than Jiri's he also showed better wrestling at his best and didn't get rocked nearly as much.

 

[Goober stoober]

There's a reason why fighters like Rumble who only have one thing never become champion like Jiri just did.

He was initially a better rounded mixed martial arts fighter who then fell in love with his power and became a middling head hunter, although he was one of the better ones for it. Kinda like Dan Henderson, but much less ambitious and enduring.

Jiri is a galaxy apart from Rumble. Jiri is very special. Enjoy the moment.

jiri beat a guy that AJ beat years ago. the LHW div is the weakest its been in years. AJ was supposed to fight JJ but we all know what happened.

jiri almost lost to old man glover but AJ had him out in seconds.

 

[Kingz]

Rumble would squash him. I’d probably pick Rumble today. Prime Rumble would murder him.

the gap between the top 5 of LHW from 5 years ago and now is massive. Jiri wouldn’t even be in the discussion then.