How dominate would a prime Aleksandr Karelin be in any time period of UFC/Pride?

[Boss HM-2]

How the fuck did you get that from what I said? Learn to read buddy.

The point is that Karelin would be fine, he could pop for everything and the UFC would just let him fight anyways and so would the commissions.

 

[shrdgr]

Lmao why is everyone here comparing Karelin to the D level brawlers of the UFC? He was a real A-level athlete.

 

[MrKontakos]

There's no money in MMA now, and there was even less in his heyday. If he was somehow motivated to get into MMA in the early/mid 90s he would have been genuinely unbeatable. Only a desperation triangle or a lucky punch would have caught him, but I don't even trust the idea of him not simply slamming his way out of any attempted submissions. He was a class above the athlete that was fighting back then.

 

[TheMaster]

His fight with Maeda was a work. It was a worked strong style match which was what Maeda was known for. Karelin was paid a lot of money to do it. Karelin never had a real MMA fight. It's to bad that it wasn't a shoot. Maeda would've been a great first opponent for someone like Karelin. A winnable fight against someone with a name.

It would've been extremely risky for him still.
The RINGS rules were safer for him since no closed fist punches or elbows but still there was a chance he could get KO'd with a palm strike or subbed.
He had very rudimentary submission skills and Maeda had done legit MMA and also was trained in catch from his pro wrestling days.
A loss would've been very possible, and considering be was the reigning Olympic champ at the time it would have damaged his reputation big time.
A strong style work was the only thing he would have attempted.