At the end of every Werdum fight, if hes the winner, Bruce should scream "WEEEEEEEERRRRRDDDDDDOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!!......." *then dramatically point at the loser* ".........AND YOOOOOOOOOOUUUUURRREEEEE DOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMEEEDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Crocop didn't have that long of a layoff between Pride and the UFC. I remember watching Wand get his head taken off. I remember Crocop showing up to the UFC and even posting how cruel and brutal a matchup it would be for Eddie Sanchez. It was.. He demolished and pacified with that leg, everyone feared it. Something happened to Crocop, he had lost before and dealt with it. Remember the comments after the Gonzaga fight? Everyone was concerned about his knee, as he folded over on his leg.. We never saw Crocop use his left leg with authority again. Hard for me to believe it's purely mental, which I initially thought. But really he never used his left leg the same after that fight. Crocops leg, before it was injured still is the most brutal, single weapon to grace MMA due to having the amazing advantage of being a lefty, and really knowing how to throw a liver kick as well as blink of an eye speed, which he lost.
For the record, I think Werdum as a competitive BJJ guy won't avoid the ground. He's too good and to proud and confident in his ground game. Anybody can be beaten anywhere.. But Werdum is better than Mir everywhere.
Gonzaga must have completely ruined him with one single headkick then. :smoke CroCop was doing great when he arrived in the UFC - he was on a tear. I just watched the Sanchez fight and he looked terrific - aggressive, powerful, confident. He followed Sanchez around instead of cutting off the cage, but aside from that he looked tremendous. Then Gonzage laid him out and after that he was never the same again. He didn't have the same aggression or confidence. He didn't fight the same way. He didn't have his opponents backpedalling and flinching - HE was backpedalling and flinching. He didn't use the cage well and didn't back himself. If he got physically shot, it happened in the span of 1 second when Gonzaga kicked him. :bart Aside from that, he is full of quotes saying he lost motivation, lost confidence, didn't like the cage, didn't enjoy fighting in the States as much as Japan, etc etc etc. Did he lose a step? Sure. Could he physically have given a much better account of himself than he did? He was capable of that. :good :hat
Or maybe the equivalent of a prime Holyfield draped over the ropes drooling all over himself courtesy of a crackhead Bert Cooper hook. Or a young Ali needing his corner to bail him out after getting dropped HARD by 180 pound Henry Cooper. If either Cooper was wearing tiny MMA gloves when they landed those punches, Ali and Holyfield were both out of there. And to say that he's totally shot and physically unable to compete from the time he entered the UFC is equally dishonest. He underperformed badly and took some terrible punishment in there. But it was not 100% physical like you claim. If Cro Cop was relaxed and confident and motivated and comfortable with the cage then he was still able to mix it up. But he wasn't. When he got back to the ring, an environment he felt comfortable in, his performances and results suddenly vastly improved and he was no longer getting knocked out by lower-quality fighters. In fact he was winning tournaments. :bart :hat
From the start, I don't claim to know much at all about kickboxing. :good But I read articles about the tournament from people who do. Nobody rated Cro Cop a chance to do much of anything, because apparently he was shot. I watched the tournament final and yeah, first fight the other guy should have got the decision. But Cro Cop hung in there and didn't get laid out. Next two fights he clearly won, visibly gaining in confidence and effectiveness round by round. He even brought out the head kick. If he was shot - like Ali against Holmes, like Tyson against Williams, like RJJ at the end, like scurla and co scream he was - then he would not have been competitive, let alone won the tournament. He would have been knocked out. :good I know that historically the K1GP has traditionally been the biggest and most prestigious in the sport. I know that this last one was subpar. Beyond that, I will not make strong statements because I don't follow the sport closely enough. :good :hat
Anyway.... Werdum can beat Mir anywhere, agreed. So why would he even give Mir the chance to fight according to his only real world-class strength? If I was Werdum's coach I would tell him to just keep it standing and hand out a beatdown like he did to Roy. :good :hat
Franklin suffers from the medical condition low T. So yeah he has been washed up for the last few years. In his prime Mir woulda beat Werdum
