Still can't believe Forrest was the Champ

Vampire life said:
Lol all these years later, I still can't believe he held Gold. Great dude, fun fighter, but yet..
Was the division that weak at the time or did he leg kick his way to a title? I dont know. I haven't watched that fight with Rampage In a long time.
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Lemme guess, you think BJ Penn was never good either.
 
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forest was underrated. everyone overlooked him. he outgrappled and subb'd shogun. He masterfully chopped rampage's legs to shreds. At the time both shogun and rampage were still in their primes too. He took out Pride's best. Forrest the king.
 
gonads20 said:
People under estimated him. He was a big LHW but he looked and acted goofy. Also, he's the reason why I dont bet on MMA anymore. I was so positive Rampage was going to beat him that I put money on the fight.
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Same, I lost $300 betting on Rampage.
 
textwarrior said:
Forrest interview lol, on the one hand you don't like the honesty cause you can see it as weak but on the other hand you respect the honesty if its just his way of honoring good fighters you respect his intent. But, its a mix of the good and bad. I do think Forrest is one of the coolest dudes in MMA with a good natured free kind of spirit. Allot of MMA fighters get too serious so they end up not liking their job. There is so much more, fans don't consider what fighters go though which the mental aspect is one of them. Too many fans over look that side we don't see or talk as much about. Forrest deals with problems by joking about it....its clear as night and day for me when looking at his history. People can learn from that, in their personal life too.. Most problems can be cured by joking about it instead of getting mad. Its the best type of comeback too...you can make fun of the situation instead of attacking the person. When your laughing no one can control you emotionally....That comedian who just passed away, Norm McDonald is a perfect example of seeing the humor in everything in life...that guy seem common but he was actually very highly intelligent....I remember when he did the "Who wants to be a Millionaire." ...He was very sharp at answering the questions......his process of elimination intelligently logical.....he would guess that right answers but was not sure.....I think he won it all or stopped because he wanted to donate the money. However, that was when I knew how intelligent he really was cause I never seen anyone else that good on the show. Maybe joking increases IQ or makes you look like you do.
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I think it’s the best way to handle that situation. Instead of trying to scientifically breakdown the most embarrassing moment of your life you just laugh about it. “I tried to punch him and he literally moved his head out of the way and looked at me like I was stupid for doing it.” <Lmaoo><Lmaoo><Lmaoo>. That’s really the best way to say it. Same thing with basically saying the hell I ain’t fighting Jon Jones
 
Fioretti said:
Shogun was #1 LHW and #2 p4p

Rampage was #1 LHW and #2 p4p

How should he have NOT held gold?
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Opportunist. Shogun gassed after a minute. Can't remember, maybe Shogun just got off surgery and didn't do much cardio. Forest legitimately beat Rampage though. I would've given a second fight to rampage. Rampage underestimated Forrest and he had coach problems at the time.

Also, check out the second fight with Shogun and see the difference.
 
Both overrated and underrated. I bet money on Griffin against Rampage - I thought that he’d prove that he was the superior fighter, but after the fight I relocalised Rampage had a bad performance and if they ever were to rematch, my money would be on Ranpage.

Shogun may have been considered #1 when he fought Griffin, but he was back then a bit like BJ - sometimes he came in waaay out of shape which was the case in the first Griffin fight. He gassed badly, looked like shot and got submitted. In the rematch, Shogun showed everyone that he was the better fighter.

Griffin was a rather good LHW back then and surely would be relevant in today’s piss poor LHW division. He’s not close to being a top 10 LHW overall, but he peaked at a time right after Pride started taking over and had got a bit lucky to face Rampage on an off-night.
 
Rebelfett said:
When men were men, Mr President
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He didn’t start an argument on twitter with him, didn’t say Shogun’s wife was in his DMs, didn’t try to hold up the UFC for more money to fight him. He just said I need to fight this badass everyone keeps talking about cause I got to know who gets the bone!
 
ImLovinIt said:
Opportunist. Shogun gassed after a minute. Can't remember, maybe Shogun just got off surgery and didn't do much cardio. Forest legitimately beat Rampage though. I would've given a second fight to rampage. Rampage underestimated Forrest and he had coach problems at the time.

Also, check out the second fight with Shogun and see the difference.
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He was meant to be cannon fodder for Shogun's UFC debut. Shogun was the #1 ranked LHW and the #2 ranked p4p fighter in the world. Shogun was coming off a little layoff, but KO'd Overeem just 7 months prior. The only fight Shogun had lost in the last four years (at the time) was the freak injury to Coleman after his epic GP win. Babalu was the only legitimate loss he had in his career at that point, and it was in his 5th pro fight. 16-2, ranked #1 LHW, and #2 p4p. You can call that "opportunist" to dismiss it if you like, but that doesn't make it any less significant or real. Forrest definitely made the most out of his opportunity, and went and did it again in his title shot vs Rampage. Who coincidentally was also the #1 LHW and #2 p4p fighter in the world when Forrest beat him. Forrest earned his shit, man. He got on the p4p list himself after beating Rampage.

Shogun had surgery after the first Forrest fight, not before. His lack of cardio in that fight wasn't due to "not doing much cardio" or "just getting off surgery". He gassed. MMA is an endurance sport. You say he "legitimately beat Rampage", implying that he didn't legitimately beat Shogun? He finished Shogun. That's as legit as it gets. People actually disagreed with the decision in the Rampage fight. Weird that you would make that determination between the two fights, as the Rampage victory was 100% more questionable than the first Shogun fight.

Forrest had a few injuries going into the second Shogun fight, and was out for 6 months after. He had a lot of nagging injuries, and I'm pretty sure his wife went into labor right before the fight. Not that I'm making excuses, I'm just stating so to show you that it goes both ways.
 
ThunderStruck said:
Never realized that Rampage was ranked this high p4p. Beating an over the hill chuck is gold.
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... Chuck was the reigning champion with 4 defenses and Rampage immediately unified all the LHW titles by defeating the PRIDE LHW champion Hendo before fighting Forrest. On top of that LHW was seen as the premier division in MMA by a wide margin.

Of course he was high on the P4P list.
 
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He was a lot better than people remember, and he was basically in a coma when he entered the cage against Anderson
 
The-AxeMurderer said:
I think everyone underestimated Forrest.

He beat Shogun and Rampage back to back, when Shogun was the best LHW.

He had great kicks, great cardio, underrated TDD.

He just found ways to win when the odds were stacked against him.
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That Shogun went into the fight with a bum knee. The rematch is a lot more accurate to how it would look more often than not if they fought 100 times.

But yes, people underestimated him, I don't think he was like, SUPER elite or anything, but he was a really tough fighter, with good cardio, and maybe not exceptional at one thing, but good at everything. He was sort of like Bisping tbh. Capable of winning vs anyone on any given night if he has his best night and they don't have theirs.
 
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