Media This happened 17 years ago...what when through your mind after witnessing it?

[Jeffy37]

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Dang we all old. I remember this visiting a friend in Arizona. Now I'm like 40.

 

[mkt]

Tony lasted 23.5 of the 25 minutes versus Gaethje. Chuck was unconscious against Rampage in less than 2. And Tony fought well thereafter, making fights competitive and winning plenty of rounds against elite competitors. Chuck got dropped in literally every single fight thereafter, lost every fight save for one, and was knocked unconscious in every loss save for one. Tony went from being top 2 or 3 to being top 10-15. Chuck went from being able to compete to being unable to compete. If all you mean is both had their time in the sun, fair enough, but beyond that, Chuck and Tony aren't really comparable.

I'd day the main difference is that Tony had a much better chin. And part of that is due to fighting in a much lighter weight class. You rarely see LWs, even way past their prime ones like late-stage Tony and BJ Penn, getting KO'd in the 1st round fight after fight.

Beyond having a strong chin and being very durable, Tony's decline has been similar to Chuck's. AFAIK he's only won 1 round since losing to Gaethje--the Chandler fight where he promptly got KO'd in Round 2.

 

[TheCryingElite]

While people on here like to pretend at how stacked cards used to be, the UFC 71 card was objectively laughable in how shallow it was.

72 was somehow worse.

They only remember the really good fights through the prism of nostalgia. Some probably think a lot of those fights occurred in the same card lol.

 

[HavokHarmon]

Look at UFCs 31-39, those are unfairly amazing events full of champs, legends, and HOFers without a single bad fight in the bunch, because they happened so infrequently that every event felt like a best of. How I miss those days...

That’s a good set overall but the 33 main event was a bad one in the bunch, it was one of the worst PPV main events up to that point when Tito and Vlad decided to put on a hugging contest.

 

[Bullitt68]

I'd day the main difference is that Tony had a much better chin. And part of that is due to fighting in a much lighter weight class. You rarely see LWs, even way past their prime ones like late-stage Tony and BJ Penn, getting KO'd in the 1st round fight after fight.

Beyond having a strong chin and being very durable, Tony's decline has been similar to Chuck's. AFAIK he's only won 1 round since losing to Gaethje--the Chandler fight where he promptly got KO'd in Round 2.

For the Chuck comparison, that KO against Chandler was like Chuck getting KO'd by Rashad: Those were monster shots that would've put anybody down (though Chuck in his earlier years would've eaten that Rashad shot and kept fighting). Tony doesn't have anything like Chuck's going comatose from a flailing lead hook from Shogun or because Franklin breathed on him too hard. As for Tony's skid, he was up against Nate Diaz prior to the submission. The Sherdog PBP had him nearly pitching a shutout, with one person giving Nate the first and another giving Nate the second, while all three gave Tony the third.

That’s a good set overall but the 33 main event was a bad one in the bunch, it was one of the worst PPV main events up to that point when Tito and Vlad decided to put on a hugging contest.

UFC 33 was a fluke. The main event was set to be Tito/Vitor, which would've been amazing, but Vitor got hurt and Vladdy was a late replacement. Unfortunate, but even with the decisions on the card, the fights were still great save for conservative showings from the two champs in the co-main and main. And if that's your weakest event in 10, that's a hell of a streak

 

[jeff7b9]

Well, I'd seen the whooping Rampage had put on Chuck in PRIDE,

Same.

I was a Chuck fan. I was rooting for him and hoping he might do better in a rematch. Chuck had looked pretty sharp through his title run and run leading up to it.

But Rampage had put a pretty one sided ass whopping on him in PrideFC and I think Chuck was getting up there in age by this fight.

On the other hand I was becoming a PrideFC fan (odd because it was winding down if not already dead) and I was really excited about the Pride guys coming to the UFC and so this fight felt like a changing of the guard moment.

 

[Ibm]

God man how time flew, how the fuck is that 17 years ago??

 

[sonhow]

To people who think this was yesterday.

Does it feel like Chuck was just on top? Does it feel like you clearly remember Chuck on prime? Do you often mix Chuck in with todays title picture? Do you know how many fights there have been after this fight? Do you remember Chucks failed comebacks, his retirement and then him coming back to get knocked out by Tito?

Put all these questions in perspective so it might get easier to cope with passing of time and realize that this fight indeed did happen a very fucking long time ago.

 

[Luthien]

I was like 6 at the time

 

[dc007]

I wasn’t too shocked but I thought Chuck had improved since the first fight enough to make it more competitive but it was even worse

 

[Prologue]

Me and my brother at the pub:
"Some guy named Rampage about to get his ass kicked."
Five minutes later:



Bloody TUF noobs we were.

 

[Bullitt68]

To people who think this was yesterday.

Does it feel like Chuck was just on top? Does it feel like you clearly remember Chuck on prime? Do you often mix Chuck in with todays title picture? Do you know how many fights there have been after this fight? Do you remember Chucks failed comebacks, his retirement and then him coming back to get knocked out by Tito?

Put all these questions in perspective so it might get easier to cope with passing of time and realize that this fight indeed did happen a very fucking long time ago.

In all honesty, yes, it feels like just yesterday. It's all perspective. Being in high school feels like a million years ago, but I was an MMA fan in high school and watching those fights and following those fighters doesn't seem so far gone. It feels like if I pulled up Sherdog and saw people talking about Chuck and Randy and Tito and Wand and Fedor and Cro Cop and Hughes and Gomi, it'd be just right. Then I remember that these guys are retired relics and there are kids younger than me who I've never heard of who make up the current roster.

Getting old's a bitch and time is a wacky motherfucker.

I was like 6 at the time

In college classes that I teach, I no longer even have to ask if any students were born before 9/11 because at this point I know that none of them were. I teach things that I lived through and that were part of the culture that I grew up in to kids who only know it as memes and Wiki pages. It's a trip!

 

[kingofthecans]

Well at least he didn't fall through the ropes.

 

[HCS]

But Sherdog was a blowjob machine for Chutebox back then. Discussions about Rampage were flooded with "Wanderlei washed up Rampage" "Rampage will never be the same" type comments. There was no serious discussion or expectations of Rampage.

I swear I remember some discourse back then (around the time he was losing to Wand and Shogun) that Rampage had found God and sucked now. Like he became religious and wasn't a good fighter anymore.

 

[doggo]

At the time though a lot of popular feeling was Rampage was not the same after his loses to Wand and Shogun, he'd looked quite passive in the run after that with many feeling Lindland actually beat him.

I strongly guess Dana felt the same, he thought it was a chance to get Chuck his win back, indeed I think all Chucks loses in that run were in matches he was favourite in beforehand which I think Dana booked him to win, Rashad was on a rather unimpressive run almost losing to Bisping, Shogun looked less than great vs Coleman.

Rampage was fine in that run, its where he picked up his best boxing skills and aaaalmost landed a super uppercat on Matt, too bad he missed and it was a lack luster fight.

 

[Elvis.]

After the fight in Pride I felt Rampage had his number and would win , when Chuck broke eye contact during the stare down I thought that was a really bad sign

 

[Bagatur]

I remember the odds were heavily in Chuck's favor. Guess people werent aware what Rampage did to Chuck in Pride. That was the only fight I ever considered betting on.

 

[Natural Order]

I had called Page via left hook KO. Ended up being the right!

 

[BigOlJeet]

Most Conor era fanboys weren’t even born 17 years ago TS.

 

[WokeWarrior]

lets just say I know people were not happy......