Controversial decisions thread

They both landed right hands in that sequence. Jackson's clearly wasn't a whiff it caught Griffin in the back/side of the head and made him stumble backwards. The followup left was the one that missed. Funny as you were trying to credit Griffin for all of his missed strikes.

 

The thing with the pride guys was when some of them came to the UFC they were already over the hill or dealing with injuries. With the wars and pride much more violent ruleset guys like Crocop and Nog left the best of themselves in that ring. Still even these past primers were still able to carve out niches for themselves on the UFC roster and in the case of Nog even win a version of a title. The guys who came in their prime like Shogun, Jackson and Henderson were able to be champions/long time top contenders.

 

When I watched it live I scored it clear to Griffin, but now I only edge it slightly to him. If someone believed Jackson took that round I wouldn't argue vehemently against it.

 

Nog winning a the title past prime was a great achievement for me, in fact going into the Mir fight he was arguably the number 1 HW in the world.

Cro Cop and Rua were expected to dominate though. Rua ended up proving his greatness and if it wasn't for Jones could have been a long standing champion. Cro Cop never did anything in UFC though.

Rampage definitely proved himself. Beyond doubt, but they hated him for ruining Liddell.

Henderson went on to rack up some great wins but always fell short at the highest level.

 

I thought the stumble in that instance was from the affect of the punch, not Griffin trying to exit out of the exchange or from a sudden lose in balance.

Page landed an uppercut in that exchange at the end of the 3rd but yeah most of his punches didn't connect. Griffin showed some good defensive awareness there.

 

Fan expectations don't account for circumstances. Rua had early injury struggles which really hampered his earlier performances but he sorted it out later before getting injured again. Crocop's body was in pieces by the time he got the UFC.

 

It doesn't change it though does it.

Going into UFC Rua was ranked the number 1 LHW based on his Pride success.

Cro Cop was fresh off the 2006 GP and barring Fedor was seen as the best HW out there.

 

Crocop already had 3 knee operations before signing with the UFC and he had to get a 4th after he landed awkwardly from the Gonzaga KO. These injuries clearly had a fundamental affect on his abilities. His diminished performances in the UFC had mostly to do with injuries and not the common narrative that the strength in competition in Pride was less than in the UFC.

 

As I said, we know the case with hindsight, the point remains because of Cro Cop and Rua losing their debut UFC fight you can see where the argument came from.

The most successful signings were probably Rampage and Nog, the rest struggled initially.

I personally feel the rosters were quite even. Pride had better HW and LHW, UFC has better MW, WW and LW. FW and BW were clearly best in WEC.