On his best night, how good was Vovchanchyn?

Igor was actually quite a decent grappler. He had a very good sub defense. From the mount though he any version of Ken would have stood no chance. The worst place he'd want to have Igor in was his guard. Plus Ken was a simple Ankle Lock guy. Under MMA rules Igor would have just torn his head off.

 

Igor would have put Rutten unconscious, no doubt.

 

i loved watching Igor! One of the ATGs hands down. Someone mentioned the Ken vs Igor fight in 2001 not coming off. Knee injury or no knee injury i feel Igor would have destroyed Ken at this time, standing or other as Igor was a pioneer so to speak in defending a take down while still striking. Back in the ancient times of the first UFCs a decade or two existed of essentially STRIKERs and GROUNDERs with the GROUNDERs basically focused on getting PAST the FIRST WAVE of STRIKEs to take it to the GROUND and apply their BJJ, wrestling and POUNDING etc. In these early televised days if the STRIKERs missed their FIRST STRIKEs the COMMITMENT they used to LAUNCH their STRIKEs was HORRID and left them OFF BALANCE and out of POSITION to be easily controlled. Igor with his cross training helped to TURN this situation on its ass as he could strike, defend, go to the matt and pound, defend against submission, apply a submission, ground n pound and then if need be get back up and keep fighting. The beating he gave Mark Kerr was very impressive and the way i recall it SHOCKED the hell out of the MMA world. Mark was the MAN in MMA for a brief time as his speed, power and size was overwelming in the heavyweight class. That said, Mark either wanted the fight standing with SPACE against Igor or he wanted to close space and take Igor down, whereas Igor did not desire to control if the fight was on the ground or standing. WHY? Because when Mark closed space on Igor, Igor began LANDING while still defending at the sametime. This for that ERA of televised MMA fights was simply not the NORM. However, slowly and steadily thereafter this began to become more of the NORM.

Comparing fighters from ONE era to another is always done with a large degree of UNJUSTICE for reasons of EVOLUTION of the FIGHT GAME. In the preceeding years much TRAINING focused GROUNDERs on simply getting past the first wave of STRIKEs in one SUPER FAST high level committed assault. When Igor came onto the GLOBAL scene this was already begining to CHANGE and after him it simply changed FASTER. When Fedor came along and pasted Big Nog it simply changed even faster. Thus the FIGHT GAME is always going to ADAPT for the BETTER as the SUCCESSEs of HINDSIGHT leave the FUTURE DETAILs not just for SUCCESS but for DEFEATING that same SUCCESS. Such as, "if he would of COUNTERED at SUCH AND SUCH a time with SUCH and SUCH a move, he would not have been DESTROYED" ,, thus PAST SUCCESS reveals future PATHs to DEFEAT that same past SUCCESS. If that SUCCESS was never revealed in the FIRST PLACE then the future path to DEFEAT it remains CONCEALED so to speak.

Witch leads me to the JDS vs Igor fight witch a fair member had mentioned above that Igor would have walked threw JDS. I dont agree with this. I am a big fan of Igor's however, i believe JDS would take Igor out maybe not with ease but i would bet on it for sure. That said in FAIRNESS this matchup is UNJUST as a PRIME IGOR and a PRIME JDS fails to take into account the FACT that JDS has had a decade of TRAINING in a SUPERIOUR enlightened effective fighting SCENE aware of what was and wasnt working. Big Nog sure knew this first hand. Igor didnt have the DEGREE of this advantage.

Forgetting about the HUGE ADVANTAGE always going to the YOUNGER fighter that has the LATEST most effective METHODs to use as their TRIANING focus, I see JDS as simply being too FAST and LONG for Igor in todays fight game. As well its not like JDS has a problem being taken down and pounded. Could Igor of SPARKED JDS with one of those HUGE FISTs of his when they came together? SURE without doubt. However, what i feel is more likely would be JDS simply using space on Igor without fear of loosing that space and over time simply damaging Igor with too many strikes to either win by UD or stoppage.

Great thread!