When Joe Riggs-Matt Hughes fight was announced...

Rigg's career hype is like a feeback loop / super vicious cycle from hell. I can't think of anybody that has had as many streaks that have generated hype, interest, and underdog success hopes only for it all to fall apart.

There was the first incarnation when it was like "This guy used to be a HW, he's going to crush these guys."

Followed by "He looks good in Strikeforce, he's always been mega talented, his UFC losses were flukes"

Followed by "He crushed it on Fight Master, he's got another UFC run in him."

Followed by his latest streak and bare knuckle success.

I don't remember anybody thinking he was going to come out and smash Hughes, but there have been multiple times throughout there years where Riggs has had what I would say is an understandable amount of hype. This is largely due to the fact that he was kind of a monster when he started his career and finished all of his 20 something wins (this is before Hughes.)
 
cheesus said:
Guessing you're being sarcastic
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Im serious

"one of the better skilled journeyman type fighters in the sport. I'd say he's top 10 in that catagory"

Its extremely vague, man.
Better skilled journeyman type....I mean, who would be along with Riggs in the top10 of such a weird category?

I guess you could include plenty of lighter guys who are skilled af but didnt make it to tittle contention.
 
pankrat said:
Im serious

"one of the better skilled journeyman type fighters in the sport. I'd say he's top 10 in that catagory"

Its extremely vague, man.
Better skilled journeyman type....I mean, who would be along with Riggs in the top10 of such a weird category?

I guess you could include plenty of lighter guys who are skilled af but didnt make it to tittle contention.
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Jeremy Horn, Chris Lytle, Brian Eberson, Dennis Hallman, Trevor Prangley, Jason MacDonald just to name a few.
 
cheesus said:
Jeremy Horn, Chris Lytle, Brian Eberson, Dennis Hallman, Trevor Prangley, Jason MacDonald just to name a few.
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Thats my point. You can name plenty of them and is highly subjective who would deserve to be in a top10 of such category.

Actually its pretty debatable that Horn was a "journeyman" for example, even disrespectful. He was a legit contender for a while or at the very least an elite gatekeeper for a very long time. He used to outclasss and finish what I consider journeymen.
 
Fioretti said:
Riggs robbed Hughes of a title defense - #1 bullshit!
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What it's bullshit is considering Riggs a legit tittle contender imo. At least for a promotion that pretends to be #1 in the weightclass. Plenty of guys of that size more credited than him
 
I was a huge Karo fan and was excited to see how his Judo would hold up against Matt’s wrestling.

Everyone I knew expected Riggs to get fucked up. I think Riggs had also been training at Miletich prior to the fight too.
 
pankrat said:
What it's bullshit is considering Riggs a legit tittle contender imo. At least for a promotion that pretends to be #1 in the weightclass. Plenty of guys of that size more credited than him
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Yeah, he didn't really earn it by beating Lytle, but he was the WEC MW champ at the time.
 
I remember that card. Quarry got ktfo hard. He never should have been in the title fight, but that was back in the era when lots of fights were lopsided (including title fights) because the talent pool was more shallow. I didn't expect Riggs to win, and I don't think many people did, but I can't remember the forum's reactions too much. I don't think he could have beat Matt unless he caught him with a lucky punch, which is a low percentage chance, imo.
 
Travis Alexander said:
I was training with Karo at the time so I was pretty disappointed that he didn’t get his shot I was a huge Hughes fan but I genuinely believe Karo had the ability to shock the world. He landed takedowns on everyone in our gym even footsweeping a prime Randy Couture and maintaining top control and took his back. Guy was a fucking wizard when it came to raw grappling ability and judo prowess. Sad that personal issues (opiates and Xanax) took control of his life around that time. He never truly reached the heights he could have otherwise.
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That's a sensational story, easily more thread worthy than 99% of topics you seen on Sherdog in 2021. I love hearing these gym tales and inside stories. Would have been glorious to see Karo and Randy go at it and Karo executing his flawless judo throws and transitions.

Thanks for sharing bro.
 
Ogata said:
I hold this event close to my heart because UFC 56 was the first even that made me want to follow this sport and yet I have few questions for you guys. So the fight was suppose to be Matt Hughes vs Karo Parisyan and Karo hurt his hamstring and pulled out.

So then Joe took the fight and there was some controversy with the weight issue, it seemed that he made weight but officials fucked up and by the time they fixed the scale, Riggs rehydrated and so because of the mistake, Dana didn't give him shit for not making weight.

Now here are my questions:

When it was announced Riggs was fighting Hughes, what was the general reaction on this forum?

Did you guys think Riggs had a chance or was a dangerous opponent to Hughes?

What did you think of Riggs vs Hughes fight?

Had Riggs trained fully for the fight, could he have beaten Hughes?
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Matt still felt like the man.

just seemed so strong and unbeatable to me tbh. Joe seemed like he wouldn’t have enough
 
Travis Alexander said:
I was training with Karo at the time so I was pretty disappointed that he didn’t get his shot I was a huge Hughes fan but I genuinely believe Karo had the ability to shock the world. He landed takedowns on everyone in our gym even footsweeping a prime Randy Couture and maintaining top control and took his back. Guy was a fucking wizard when it came to raw grappling ability and judo prowess. Sad that personal issues (opiates and Xanax) took control of his life around that time. He never truly reached the heights he could have otherwise.
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<{Joewithit}>
Would've loved to seen him train in his prime. Huge Karo fan!!!!
 
IIRC, riggs was known as an underachiever from beginning to end of career. supposedly a beast in the gym, but could never put it all together at fight time.
 
Riggs got pushed way too quick, and eventually never lived up to the potential. He had so many chances, but when Diego knocked him out, it was done for good.

He always had that possible chance to land the left hand, but I would never bet on it.
 
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