aleksander,murilo and antonio rogerio,how good are they?are any of them as good as their brothers?and are any famous because of them?
Well Ninja actually made himself a name before Shogun did but most newer fans think of Ninja as the other brother. None of the 3 are as successful as their more famous brothers though. Ninjas had some success though he briefly held the Elite XC Middleweight Championship and I felt he was kinda screwed vs both Rampage and Henderson. Rogerios is top 10 though and has been for years hes beat alot of top guys like Henderson,Overeem and Sakuraba. Aleksander is another tough guy and has spent time in the top 10 although he loses everytime he steps up IMO.
Aleks is quite different, the most different from their brother of the three. He doesn't always train with his brother, only when preparing for a fight I believe. He also is stylistically different, he is much more stand up oriented, much longer, and in all honesty probably less hard working; no to say he doesn't work very hard, but his overall outlook on life is different. As he matures as a person, has a family, I think we will see continued improvement. He has all the same tools as his brother more or less, maybe even more physical gifts, but that extra tiny bit Fedor has, Aleks just can't go to the same place to change the fight through sheer mind numbing brilliance; not a knock on him, really the only other people I have seen with it are GSP, Big Nog, Anderson Silva, and Couture in his prime. A guy like BJ might have it in him, but he either wins the whole fight from start to finish, which is as good or better, but he hasn't really ever been put in a position where something is needed that only a few people posses and actually used it to turn the fight his way. So overall I think Aleks is quite possibly the equal of Fedor on any average moment, but the career defining ones, he is simply human where Fedor is beyond. Again, I don't want this to be a negative on Aleks, because maybe he just hasn't found the right formula to put his game over the top yet; the tools are there, maybe even more so, people dont realize how good his grappling is, although his guard isn't at quite the level of Fedor, but his striking and frankly just his extra size can even that out at his theoritical best. Little Nog, which is actually a bit misleading as they are identical twins has never reached the heights that his brother has; primarily because of that extra element I talks about earlier; in Big Nog's case it can be boiled down to the biggest heart MMA has ever seen, no question. Lil nog's boxing is crisper, his ground game is for all intents and purposes about the same, although Big Nogs guard is better, but that again comes down to that unbelievable heart. The genes are literally identical, but the end product is not; he, like Aleks, is simply overshadowed because of the fact that they are within what is considered possible for a human being, while Fedor and big Nog are outside that realm and into the elite of the elite. I see nog and Aleks as somewhat similar in that they stack up fairly well toolset wise. Ninja, however seems to lack a lot of the raw talent, but has actually shown more heart at times. Had he spent his career at 185, or at least never went to HW maybe his tools would have looked as good as Shoguns, who is clearly the larger man. Ninja is basically a poster child for career mismanagement; the man is a 185 lber who made a living at 205, and even HW when chute boxe so badly wanted a heavyweight. He has taken so much punishment both from fights and fighting his body that his career as a title threat is sadly finished. In his prime, he was a legit top 10 205lber; could have been a legit champion at 185.
In a nutshell. Aleks is good, like many other fighters but that tiny bit is the difference time and time again.
Ninja was always game, and some of his losses were awesome scraps like against HW Kharitonov and Henderson. If I remember right Lil Nog almost beat Shogun when Shogun was considered unstoppable at Critical Countdown '05, after Nog already subbed Hendo in the first round. I would love to see Aleks fight Lesnar. If Lesnar stood with him it would be lights out for Lesnar, no doubt.
