Prime Wand v Prime Shogun, who takes it and how ? I guess the question is when were they prime, Wand definitely PRIDE era but Shogun when he won the GP or when he found Machida ? Would WAND have been too much for Shogun or would have Shogun taken him down and tapped / G&P him ?
Shogun would win superior in all aspects of the game , to big , to strong Wand was more MW in Pride , Shogun was more LHW , Silva lost to Arona in the samifinals same GP Shogun won by beating Arona in the final.
During 2006-2009 it was pretty widely accepted Shogun was the better fighter and the fact that he trained with Wand and was sort of his prodigy was the only reason he was held back from the Pride middleweight belt. They had pretty comparable styles revolving around high intensity Muay Thai and defensive Jiu-Jitsu, tho I think Shogun had the better chin, harder punches and was better at head movement, wand tended to berserk forward with his head up where as Rua tended to bob and leap forward with a hook and finish his combos with leg/body kicks. If you look at common opponents. Wand beat Rampage twice and lost once, both wins were competitive before his brutal finishes at an average time of about 8-9 minutes, Rua Annihilated Rampage in 4 minutes : Wand had 2 close decisions with Arona, losing one and winning a split one, Rua annihilated Arona in about 3 minutes, : Wand was knocked out by Henderson in there fight, Rua lost to Hendo twice in 2 intense wars : Both beat Nakamura convincingly, tho Wand finished him : Both beat the shit out of Kenahra Looking at there record I'm amazed Wanderlei never fought Overeem, and I'm surprised Shogun never fought Belfort or Franklin
No he didnt, they had a fight in the gym and Wand won by a decision. He did knock Shogun down with a punch, but it wasnt a KO.
We're talking about a mma fight here under mma rules. A fight like that doesnt prove much considering the circumstances it was fought under
We hear a lot of things, Like Lee Muray knocking out Tito Ortiz in a street fight, Rashad holding Jones down in Practice until he started crying, Wand getting knocked out by Crazyhorse backstage, Bisping knocking out heavyweights in the Gym ext. Even Anderson Silva saying Steven Seagull being able to kick his ass. I'm not from Missouri but consider myself a "show me" type person.
we were almost treated to this match up for the GP final, if Wand had beat Arona it would have been Shogun vs Wand for the final, I believe both at the time were fully prepared and accepting of the fact that they may have to fight fan of both, would like to say Wand at the time of the GP...but then Wand went out to Arona and Shogun walked right thru Arona....too tough to call...I think it would have come down to whom wanted it more that night and the night of the GP that was Shogun
That's no question at all. PRIDE Shogun = PRIME Shogun. In the UFC he's never hit the same stride, struck down by injuries and constantly vacillating between good and bad performances. When he fought Lyoto he was on a 2-1 streak, having been finished by Forrest and then barely getting past semi-retired 44yo Mark Coleman in a performance that could only be described as crushingly disappointing for fans of the Shogun of Pride. The Chuck KO was legit and he did well against Lyoto, but it was obvious Lyoto was just a tailor-made match-up for him. No, Shogun Rua was in vastly superior form, and health, during his Pride days.
In my opinion peak vs peak, Shogun takes it. Although peak Shogun probably wins against any LHW fighter not named Jon Jones.
