Just watched Wanderlei-Cro Cop 1... does Wanderlei suffer 'the Pacquiao effect'?

Cro Cop was a very inexperienced MMA fighter when he first fought Wand.

As you can see by the rematch.

When Wand fought Hendo, Hendo had only fought one striker in Yvel and Wand was badly hurt in that fight.

I know Wand was'nt at his best in the rematch but he still go KTFO.

I think a prime Hendo and Cro Cop both KO a prime Wand.

 

Wanderlei's first fight agianst Mirko Cro Cop was no doubt a nice performence. Wanderlei is a good grappler, a BJJ Blackbelt although im not sure if he was going into the 1st Mirko fight. So it was a good strategy to put Mirko on his back as much as possible and play to his strengths. Mirko was very inexperienced but at the same time in the year following that fight he defeated Igor, Fujita, Herring and Sakuraba. Ive never thought of Wanderlei as very clever or skilled although hes not exactly stupid and unskilled. Wanderlei is/was a great fighter but I think hes a tad bit overatted. A large part of his resume of dominance from 2000 through 2006 was agianst cans and smaller opponets. Sakuraba 3x, Oyama, Otsuka, Tamura, Iwasaki, Kanehara, Kondo and Minowa.

 

I wanted to say that he's overated too but I was afraid of getting a verbal beating from all his fans here. :good

 

Well we can take an verbal beating together. But all I always know im right.

 

I can sort of see the argument: Wanderlei is often depicted as being nothing but aggression, but he has shown the ability to play to his strengths. A lot of the time playing up his advantages is to just fight in the way that we associate with him, as with Pac, but there are a few fights where he mixed it up somewhat.

One very similar to CroCop I was Hunt, where he did much the same thing and, I think, should have got the decision. In the second Arona fight he basically just wouldn't let Arona get up off his back, kicking his legs just enough to avoid the standup. He was able to bait Sakuraba into standing more than he should have. He did take down "dirty" Bob Schrieber and submit him knowing that even though he could probably have won standing, he was at a huge advantage on the ground.

 

I don't think baiting Sak into things is hard, just say it's honourable and the dude will do it.

I don't think Wandys record compares favourably to GSPs, really.

 

crocop was only 4 fights into his mma career when that fight took place and the size advantage you mention really is not all that!!especially when you consider the fact that this is MMA not boxing (size means ****)!!! there is about 2 inches difference in height and crocop outweighed silva (back then) by not much more than a stone! now when you consider some of the miss matches in boxing i.e hopkins v delayoya its not all that!!it was a top performance on both parts when you take into consideration the whole context of the fight and circumstances...

the fact that crocop went onto destroy silva and barnett in one night to win one of the toughest pride GP's ever speaks volumes as to just how good he was when he peaked,pity he was unable to sustain it!!

 

I agree. I tried explaining this to people on Sherdog but there is just to much blind Wandy nut huggery there.

Wand is a legend and does have legit skill, but the second Mirko fight showed what would happen if Mirko has some decent MMA experience under his belt.

 

- hardly a missmatch in size now is it?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im7uo-c_Ih0[/ame]



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re6eF2SzzYM[/ame]


-come on that fight was a missmatch delahoya was never anything above a WW,thats another thread!

fast forward to 2.17

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYbkmY7vUyk[/ame]



-glad we agree on that.

 

Well man I dont think Mirko's experience in the rematch is what caused that vicious beating and knockout. In the 1st fight Wanderlei took advantage of Cro Cop's then weak wrestling skills and took him down several times. In this fight he tried to slug it out with a guy who he would never be able to strike with Cro Cop's straight left would always beat the wild shots Wanderlei likes to throw. However on the flipside maybe Wanderlei didnt wanna shoot much because he knew that Cro Cop developed a great sprawl. Now I agree an experienced Cro Cop always beats Wanderleil but I dont his added experience is the main reason he won. Gotta give massive credit to Cro Cop for this beating Wanderlei was still red hot going in and he hasnt looked right since.

 

wanderlei is overrated IMO. he gets so much love because of his style and his "axe muderer" persona.

 

Wandy is very good but I think you are going over board on this one.

 

Avoid Sherdog.