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

[KAZSoliloquy]

First fight was a fluke due to Crocop underestimating him

lmfao holy cope

 

[Natural Order]

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

You have to be some kind of new to think that both guys were in their prime when they fought in 2007.

Mirko was 50+ fights deep between kickboxing and MMA, Gonzaga was in his 9th fight ever. Gonzaga most certainly was in his prime, but claiming Mirko was is just laughable.

 

[Sms_productions713]

Aspinall is literally just a very athletic Neil Grove

 

[MDoza]

Aspinall might be the dumbest guy on the roster, which says a lot consider Merab jumps head first into a wall of ice

 

[Doctor Grudge]

in lower weight classes but LHW and HW defitinely not.

There is way more money today in both those weight classes than during Crocops time.

 

[Discjockeyshtud]

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.

Crocop has more wins than Aspinall has MMA fights and ended his career on a 10 fight win streak, this doesn't include his K1 career

Crocop also fought 8 times in one year.

People conflate becoming a second rate youtube influencer with being an MMA great, Aspinall hasn't done anything remotely close to what Mirko did in his career yet

 

[Squintz]

Cro Cop was a left handed southpaw with a powerful left kick.

Yes. A southpaw is left handed.

Yes. For a southpaw their left leg would be the one with more power.

 

[Pierce 34]

CroCop competed during 2000s K1. The highest level of kickboxing.

Something we might never see again or come close.

 

[Jeandoozz]

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

sure, and maybe ronda rousey will be prime minister of greenland, who knows, everything can happen, let's act like probabilities mean nothing

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

You have to be some kind of new to think that both guys were in their prime when they fought in 2007.

if cro cop and gonzaga weren't at their very peaks in 2007, i'd love to know when their peaks were. cro cop was coming off the GP in pride. gonzaga was undefeated in the UFC. if not then, then when?

did cro cop magically fall off a cliff between september of '06 and april of '07? i'd love to know.

as a guess, i'd assume, conveniently, his prime existed perfectly between losses.

 

[Lee Danger]

Tom Aspinall is a Heath Herring level fighter.

you beat me to it.
who's the highest ranked fighter Tom has beaten, Pavlovic?
Do people here think that Pavlovic could have been a top 3 fighter in the Nog-CroCop-Fedor's era?

Prime Barnett'd be champ today btw.

 

[Lee Danger]

if cro cop and gonzaga weren't at their very peaks in 2007, i'd love to know when their peaks were. cro cop was coming off the GP in pride. gonzaga was undefeated in the UFC. if not then, then when?

are you really so dumb?
CroCop already had a full career in kickboxing before starting mma, no fighters today have the amount of fights Mirko had before his first mma fight (not even Jones who's considered old and out of prime has the same mileage now that Mirko had before his mma career).
From the OWGP to his UFC debut he also broke his foot, plus other injuries and surgeries.

 

[Koya]

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.

Most likely because of a litany of injuries. That's also why Aldo became a boxer and stopped kicking and why many other fighters changed their style as they age. Injuries are a nightmare

 

[Trabaho]

He means the cans and fillers which were 35% of Prides roster. He didn´t mean to say Crocop wasn´t modern level.

 

[Natural Order]

if cro cop and gonzaga weren't at their very peaks in 2007, i'd love to know when their peaks were. cro cop was coming off the GP in pride. gonzaga was undefeated in the UFC. if not then, then when?

did cro cop magically fall off a cliff between september of '06 and april of '07? i'd love to know.

as a guess, i'd assume, conveniently, his prime existed perfectly between losses.

02/03, but you werent watching then

What part of 50 fights deep are you having trouble with bud?

 

[Doctor Grudge]

you beat me to it.
who's the highest ranked fighter Tom has beaten, Pavlovic?
Do people here think that Pavlovic could have been a top 3 fighter in the Nog-CroCop-Fedor's era?

Prime Barnett'd be champ today btw.

Sounds pretty unlikely to me. I dont really see how Barnett beats Jones, Ngannou, Nemkov. Probably wouldn't beat Tom Aspinall either. I guess he could be a champion, but undisputed #1 HW in the world? The whole "they were better 35830 years ago" thing is just as silly, if not more so than guys who say older fighters suck.

Aspinall has beaten good fighters. He's beaten solid guys within 1 round, he'd be a problem for any fighter in the 2000s.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

are you really so dumb?
CroCop already had a full career in kickboxing before starting mma, no fighters today have the amount of fights Mirko had before his first mma fight (not even Jones who's considered old and out of prime has the same mileage now that Mirko had before his mma career).
From the OWGP to his UFC debut he also broke his foot, plus other injuries and surgeries.

No fighter has ever had 17 combat sports fights before their first MMA fight? I'm pretty sure that is not true. Even if you take into account unrecorded KB fights, that isn't anything unique to Crocop.

Alex Peireira alone had double the amount of kickboxing fights before he joined the UFC than Crocop did when he started his MMA career. There are fighters that have had full kickboxing, sanda, sambo, amateur MMA, and wrestling careers that are just as taxing on the body.

Crocop's MMA career took a lot more out of his body than his kickboxing one, if I had to guess. He was insanely active in MMA.

 

[Lee Danger]

No fighter has ever had 17 combat sports fights before their first MMA fight? I'm pretty sure that is not true. Even if you take into account unrecorded KB fights, that isn't anything unique to Crocop.

Alex Peireira alone had double the amount of kickboxing fights before he joined the UFC than Crocop did when he started his MMA career. There are fighters that have had full kickboxing, sanda, sambo, amateur MMA, and wrestling careers that are just as taxing on the body.

Crocop's MMA career took a lot more out of his body than his kickboxing one, if I had to guess. He was insanely active in MMA.

CroCop career in kb and boxing is way more than 17 fights and you are specifically selecting one of the few fighters that shares similarities with him.
It's Alex and Izzy and... stop, this is not even statistically relevant.

 

[mkess101]

sure, and maybe ronda rousey will be prime minister of greenland, who knows, everything can happen, let's act like probabilities mean nothing

What formula did you concoct that showed you a guy who's likely to become HW champ and is knocking everyone out in the first round has a "high probability" of being forgotten by everyone in 25 years?

You come back with a sarcastic reply to that guy with zero self awareness of how inane your own statement was. Just because there are a lot of stupid takes here doesn't mean you automatically have to add one to the pile.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

CroCop career in kb and boxing is way more than 17 fights and you are specifically selecting one of the few fighters that shares similarities with him.
It's Alex and Izzy and... stop, this is not even statistically relevant.

I picked Poatan because he is an obvious one, but of course I wouldn't "have to". It sounds like you're including amateur sports in which case Islam, Shamil, MVP, Wonder Boy, Doumbe, Giga, and Artem etc all had careers fighting before going into MMA. A lot of the central asian guys had extensive sanda, kickboxing, and sambo careers.

Also, I dont really get why guys who have long wrestling careers do not count. Wrestling is more damaging on the joints and neck than kickboxing is.


Crocop had a lot of wear and tear, but you're trying to make it seem there aren't guys with extensive fight backgrounds before going into MMA isn't true, and is just an odd thing to say. Donald Cerrone had more fights than Crocop did (both before MMA and total) and no one is romanticizing him.