Who beats Cormier at HW after the strikeforce era?

[Stagliano]

I could see JDS beating him.

I think that Cormier would have ragdolled him.

 

[moreorless87]

I think that Cormier would have ragdolled him.

Would probably have depended on whether Cormier could get in on him or not I'd say, at range I think he's a better technical boxer than Cain with a better chin but he was never as agile.

I think Reem and Werdum could potentially be tough fights for Cormier in that era, both with effective knees and would DC be willing to take Werdum down? both of them potentially vunerable to his boxing as well of course.

I do wonder whether DC having a limited run at HW maybe protected him from being exposed by knees/kicks to the body/legs, he REALLY did not look comfortable taking them for an declining Mir and obviously lost to Jones mostly due to them.

 

[markg171]

What an awful take. DC ko'd one of the best HW in the history of the UFC in Stipe and had another two close fights with him while pushing to his 40's...

Imagine what he would have done earlier

Even Jones had to recognize HW was his natural weight class and he didn't dare challenge him there. HW young DC was a bad man and I only see Cain challenging him there


Barnett had beaten kharitonov and Rogers before that. He was still a top HW contender

Anywho, here's what Cormier actually looked like in his final HW fights during the period TS actually mentioned seeing as you clearly never saw them:

Moving down when he did is the best thing that ever happened to him. He was an uncoordinated mess at this point and is extremely lucky guys like Mir and Nelson were too bewildered by it than punishing him. Fighting the way he was against the then top HWs would've gotten him a loss long before Jones gave him one instead.

 

[Blazeblack]

Open Weight Gran Prix Cro Cop.

Good luck getting a takedown, and good luck striking with him.

If DC eats one of these from Mirko, no follow up strikes are necessary.

Fuck me, being a Cro Cop fan has been in credibly frustrating. He was one of the absolute best fighters in the world in both kickboxing and then MMA for over a decade. But was one of the most inconsistent elite fighters I've ever seen in any combat sport.

At his best, he could have beaten any top fighter one night then lose to a gate keeper in the same year.

 

[Koro_11]

Fuck me, being a Cro Cop fan has been in credibly frustrating. He was one of the absolute best fighters in the world in both kickboxing and then MMA for over a decade. But was one of the most inconsistent elite fighters I've ever seen in any combat sport.

At his best, he could have beaten any top fighter one night then lose to a gate keeper in the same year.

Yeah, it's probably a Croatian thing... even our football (soccer) team is similar, we'll beat the giants like Brazil, Germany, England, etc... but we can just as easily lose to someone like Wales, Iceland, Ecuador. Something about playing to the level of your competition, I seriously believe he looked at guys like Randleman or Gonzaga as inferior and dropped his focus a bit.

That said, when he was on he was an absolute killer. That night when he crushed Wanderlei and Barnett in the same night, he was dialed in and at his best, didn't even celebrate the Wanderlei knockout because he knew the job wasn't done. I would bet on that version of Mirko over any fighter at any weight class, including DC and Fedor.

 

[moreorless87]

Yeah, it's probably a Croatian thing... even our football (soccer) team is similar, we'll beat the giants like Brazil, Germany, England, etc... but we can just as easily lose to someone like Wales, Iceland, Ecuador. Something about playing to the level of your competition, I seriously believe he looked at guys like Randleman or Gonzaga as inferior and dropped his focus a bit.

That said, when he was on he was an absolute killer. That night when he crushed Wanderlei and Barnett in the same night, he was dialed in and at his best, didn't even celebrate the Wanderlei knockout because he knew the job wasn't done. I would bet on that version of Mirko over any fighter at any weight class, including DC and Fedor.

I think the biggie is he has quite a narrow game which was high risk, his style was basically to stalk opponents down, stand right in front of them and look to time potentially fight ending shots only. Typically fighters will tend to try and damage their opponents striking game either by threatening a takedown or picking away at them with jabs and lowkicks which don't have fight ending power but can disrupt their standup. Mirko though would depend almost totally on his reactions/movement for his defence which I think did mean he was somewhat prone to upsets.

His second fight with Wand especially is arguably the greatest example of that style in MMA history for me.