Ricksons opponents in Choke

[no fat chicks]

watched the choke documentary the other day, pretty cool stuff. One thing urked me a bit and that was the quality of the opponents he faced in the tournament.

 

[Furious George]

Well they were fairly standard fair for 1995. His best opponent that night was clearly Yuki Nakai who is criminally underrated as a pioneer and MA practioner. The other two WERE pretty inexperienced but not inept/untrained.

 

[BKB92]

Yeah and wasn't Nakai halfblinded by Gordeau at that stage?

Pretty hilarious that with all the emphasis on BJJ being for smaller people Rickson never fought anyone bigger than him that was even a remote threat outside of possibly Zulu.

 

[IndyCovaHart]

Masakatsu funaki was no slouch.

 

[phoenixikki]

They were okay, they weren't the best of the best, but considering the mma scene of the time appropriate

 

[HerpDerp]

Well they were fairly standard fair for 1995. His best opponent that night was clearly Yuki Nakai who is criminally underrated as a pioneer and MA practioner. The other two WERE pretty inexperienced but not inept/untrained.

I've read that Gordeau blinded Yuki Nakai's eye with an eye gouge, yet Nakai still won. And Nakai kept the incident hidden for a long time "to protect the reputation of Martial Arts" according to Wikipedia.

What a fucking guy. Beast.

 

[Arm Barbarian]

Yeah and wasn't Nakai halfblinded by Gordeau at that stage?

Pretty hilarious that with all the emphasis on BJJ being for smaller people Rickson never fought anyone bigger than him that was even a remote threat outside of possibly Zulu.

Actually, I remember him fighting a pretty huge kick-boxer dude in one of the Pride shows-the guy was like 6'5" and had a pretty huge weight advantage. He even clipped Rickson from the outside before he got taken down and annihilated.

 

[ebartlett84]

 

[chunglii]

What did you expect? That was the level of MMA back then, with only a handful of guys like Rickson who tore through everybody.