I don't know much about MMA, so correct me if i'm wrong. I think he won the UFC championship and quite a few fights, but this was all in the 90's (?), when the sport was pretty much unknown outside of Japan? So, how deep was the talent pool back then? Could he be called one of the MMA greats or was he simply good in a very weak, primitive time of the sport?
people are predisposed to overrate him because he's an amiable and hilarious guy. still an ATG, nonetheless. one of the pioneers of MMA and prototypes of modern MMA fighters.
Even if it was a weak, primitive time in the sport, he's still an ATG, he just isn't comparable to most of today's fighters.
the most consistently overrated fighter in mma due to his much loved personality. He was very good for his time and had all the skills but in terms of achievement hes not the legend hes made out to be. i love seeing him fight though
i rate him alongside smith,gracie and couture. his fights with the shamrocks and that fight with a young randleman are classics. he was a very gifted athlete and a technically superb fighter, 'overrated' wtf! that is just silly! he is a legend.
double wins over smith and frank shamrock!! albeit under pancrase rules...couture barely beat smith (very close fight)! watch the liver kick in the randleman fight he delivers after taking immense punishment,wins over mezger and funaki too!
He was one of the best, but always short of being the #1 fighter in the world. He would rate below Ken Shamrock for example.
Bas is the man! It looked like Shamrock had given him a knee injury in this fight, but he gets up and starts doing these crazy kicks (4:20 of the video) [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2IkeMZPSOE[/ame]
