Media Tom Aspinall says he was watching cro cop and implies his level of skill and that time period doesn't compare to modern mma, timestamp is 17:59

[Takes Two To Tango]

Prime Cro Cop would easily be a top 5 fighter today even a top 3 imo.

He had amazing TDD and his striking is immaculate. Great cardio. We're talking about his prime.

 

[joy2day]

Only because he holds the belt.

“I would like to fight Jon Jones for [the undisputed title]. That would be pretty cool,” Aspinal reiterates. “But if it doesn’t happen, I’m not bothered. Like I say, Jon Jones isn’t my focus. My focus is the undisputed heavyweight title. Anything else, to me, is pretty irrelevant at this point.”

That's entirely beside the point I was making.

 

[mkess101]

i hope one day we do get a time machine or some sort of super real simulation so we can see how lame these new guys actually are. for tom aspinall to say anything, is just a complete lack of understanding of the previous eras. 2006 OWGP Cro Cop destroys every fighter on planet earth. tom aspinall's knee completely snapped at random movement. he also needs a major humbling. ngannou vs aspinall would have been good. seriously sucks there is no one else at HW who can even string together 1 or 2 wins that look impressive. UFC needs to just hire all glory HW fighters at this point, and give them the poatan benefits. ya know, the kind where you avoid wrestlers you're whole MMA career, until the one moment you have to fight a guy that knows a takedown, and you absolutely falter and demolish your own aura.

You just used a non contact knee injury as some sort of evidence of a fighter's ability.

Just when I thought people here couldn't come up with anything more stupid, you go and prove me wrong.

Amazing.

 

[mkess101]

Prime Cro Cop would easily be a top 5 fighter today even a top 3 imo.

He had amazing TDD and his striking is immaculate. Great cardio. We're talking about his prime.

Cage and ring are completely different. TDD in one vs the other are 2 entirely different skills. Prime Cro Cop had brilliant ring TDD, but no major orgs fight in a ring right now.

 

[markg171]

Him and Jon are very skilled but they are outliers in the current HW scene. Even Ngannou, as good as he is, is not really super technical.

Saying that the modern HW era is somehow "evolved" compared to what it was 20 years ago either technically or athletically is ridiculous honestly. And I dont even shit on the current scene as hard as most do.

It's a give and take. Pride fans will mock someone like Lewis as a regression, but there certainly weren't dudes his size throwing spinning heel kicks and flying knees like he and others do.

Which incidentally also would've given them the best chance of upsetting any of those Pride fighters.

 

[Söze Aldo]

Prime Cro Cop would easily be a top 5 fighter today even a top 3 imo.

He had amazing TDD and his striking is immaculate. Great cardio. We're talking about his prime.

At what weight class? He was a small HW 20 years ago and would be on the lower end even for a LHW.

I think he'd do quite well at LHW but not against a Tom Aspinall at HW.

 

[seandamon211]

Cro Cop was a left handed southpaw with a powerful left kick. If he competed in modern era with the skill set he had in his prime he would most likely lose.

But I say but, if Cro Cop had fought in our modern era as a young man, he would had improved and adapted his skillset, and would do well in our era.

Old school fighters were tough, modern era males are a bit softer, if you gave old school fighters the knowledge and ressources of today, they would certainly outshine the modern fighers. If not the moden fighters would outshine them.

Cro cop bade one of the most underrated sprawls in the game. He would have been fine in his prime.

 

[arcadeperfect]

Aspinall did say it was a UFC fight, and Crocop became increasingly basic as his career went on for some reason. If you watch his old K-1 fights he's a more dynamic striker.

Difference between prime and washed up. No one is having a K1 and PRIDE career and then an insane winning streak right after.

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

he's right, mostly. cro cop was incredibly limited. the only problem with his statement is that HW is one of the worst divisions in mma at the moment.

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

Cro cop bade one of the most underrated sprawls in the game. He would have been fine in his prime.

he got taken down by gabriel gonzaga easily, in his prime.

 

[613]

Mma evolves and gets better.... Except HW! HW is fucking ass

 

[AndrewGolota48]

Difference between prime and washed up. No one is having a K1 and PRIDE career and then an insane winning streak right after.

Definitely, but for Crocop it wasn't that he just physically slowed down with age or he got less durable etc, it seemed like his skill level went down too.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

he got taken down by gabriel gonzaga easily, in his prime.

And yet he destroyed Gonzaga when far far out of his prime, despite Gonzaga being the considerably younger fighter....ironic.

 

[markg171]

And yet he destroyed Gonzaga when far far out of his prime, despite Gonzaga being the considerably younger fighter....ironic.

CC "destroyed" Gonzaga by getting badly beaten, nearly finished, and 20-17'd exactly like the first fight went down until a single strike hurt Gonzaga and turned the fight around for CC to get a TKO seconds later.

CC has badly lost 99% of his 30 minutes fighting Gonzaga. Congrats on avenging the first beatdown and bringing it officially to 1-1 with that come back, but it's insane to pretend like Gonzaga didn't overwhelmingly prove to be the better fighter head to head. It's the stupidest narrative that's routinely spouted on here.

At MINIMUM just take the victory presented that CC found a way to once come from behind and overcome what is obviously a horrific matchup for him.

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

And yet he destroyed Gonzaga when far far out of his prime, despite Gonzaga being the considerably younger fighter....ironic.

and when they were both in their prime, gonzaga literally almost killed him

 

[AndrewGolota48]

he got taken down by gabriel gonzaga easily, in his prime.

And yet he destroyed Gonzaga when far far out of his prime,

CC "destroyed" Gonzaga by getting badly beaten, nearly finished, and 20-17'd exactly like the first fight went down until a single strike hurt Gonzaga and turned the fight around for CC to get a TKO seconds later.

CC has badly lost 99% of his 30 minutes fighting Gonzaga. Congrats on avenging the first beatdown and bringing it officially to 1-1 with that come back, but it's insane to pretend like Gonzaga didn't overwhelmingly prove to be the better fighter head to head. It's the stupidest narrative that's routinely spouted on here.

At MINIMUM just take the victory presented that CC found a way to once come from behind and overcome what is obviously a horrific matchup for him.

First fight was a fluke due to Crocop underestimating him, it's irrefutable given that 40 year old shell of himself Crocop finished still young tail of prime Gonzaga. They don't even belong in the same weight class anyway.

CC "destroyed" Gonzaga by getting badly beaten, nearly finished, and 20-17'd exactly like the first fight went down until a single strike hurt Gonzaga and turned the fight around for CC to get a TKO seconds later.

CC has badly lost 99% of his 30 minutes fighting Gonzaga. Congrats on avenging the first beatdown and bringing it officially to 1-1 with that come back, but it's insane to pretend like Gonzaga didn't overwhelmingly prove to be the better fighter head to head. It's the stupidest narrative that's routinely spouted on here.

At MINIMUM just take the victory presented that CC found a way to once come from behind and overcome what is obviously a horrific matchup for him.

You just proved that the first fight was a fluke. Yeah such a horrific matchup that the insanely past prime version of Crocop finished him ROTFLMAO!!! Wow what a bad matchup that must be haha.

The second fight played out the same way until Crocop took over and finished him. If that fluke surprise kick didn't land in the first fight, the same thing would've happened then as well. Crocop clearly showed he can survive on the ground with Gonzaga and then brutally finish him later in the fight. It stands to reason that Crocop would've continued to survive on the ground in the first fight as well and get the finish later, seeing as he younger at the time than the ridiculously battle worn older version of him still managed to finish Gonzaga.

It makes zero logical sense to think otherwise given the fact that old as shit far more past prime Crocop did that to Gonzaga in the rematch. Unless you think the older more battle worn fighter improved more after the first fight? Lol!!!

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

It can be argued that Cro Cop's didn't enter mma in his prime - as i'm inclined to believe - and did very well despite that.

IMO his prime was spent in K-1

 

[Jeandoozz]

I’m imagine UFC HW champ in 2050 would say “I watch videos of Tom Aspinall the other day and I saw a few holes in his game”. The new replaces the old. It’s just a fact of life.

except that nobody will remember aspinall in 2050

 

[leto1776]

as someone who was around in CroCop's heyday, he had a very difficult time adapting to the cage, as he had built his style around trapping guys in the corner of the ring. Tom's not entirely wrong. What he's not accounting for is that today's HW division s dogshit

Ironically, it is the other way around. Tom wants to fight someone who IS from that old generation over a decade ago and is STILL able to be the LHW champ and second best HW fighter in Tom's era.

That makes it self-evident that he is wrong.

CroCop was washed before Jones hit his stride. They are not from the same generation

 

[leto1776]

except that nobody will remember aspinall in 2050

Who's to say? Maybe nobody watches mma naymore by then. Maybe they do, and Aspinall has become a legend by then. That's 25 years away. a lot can happen