How would current heavyweights do in pride?

[moreorless87]

I look at the pride cans as the guys who didn’t really fight for a living. Wrestlers and mini-celebrities and local jobbers. Not guys like overeem who was 21-6 and had recently finished vitor and igor.

By that standard of course the only guy Fedor fought(and not in Pride) who could potential be considered a can would be Nagata, even then he did actually have a decent am wrestling background.

As I said though his post wasnt refferencing an honest judgement of "can", it was reffereing to the UFC brand fanboy judgement were everyone but Fedor, Nog, Barnett, Crocop, Werdum, Sergei, Aleks and Hunt was a can.

 

[kflo]

By that standard of course the only guy Fedor fought(and not in Pride) who could potential be considered a can would be Nagata, even then he did actually have a decent am wrestling background.

As I said though his post wasnt refferencing an honest judgement of "can", it was reffereing to the UFC brand fanboy judgement were everyone but Fedor, Nog, Barnett, Crocop, Werdum, Sergei, Aleks and Hunt was a can.

There were more cans on his resume than just nagata (lol at arm wrestling....)

 

[moreorless87]

There were more cans on his resume than just nagata (lol at arm wrestling....)

Amature wrestling, he was an international level Greco wrestler pre pro wrestling and as outclassed as he is by Fedor I think you can see that, he can stand up to the clinch.

Who would you call a can that Fedor beat in Pride? by your own defination I don't think anyone fits, even Zulu had a proper undefeated pro record. He is by far the worst opponent he faced in Pride though, besides that even someone like Ogawa I think is deliberately understated to suit peoples agendas, undefeated silver medalist judoka who's shown power in his hands knocking down Big Daddy.

Honestly I think Ogawa represents the kind of level of people like Sakai in the UFC today, the difference being that HW has fallen so far that these HW's are now top 10 or even top 5 fighters. Looking at the elite fighters of the mid 00's I think the only HW's today at that level are Stipe and Ngannou. Besides that its a division of declined old names who are still good enough to beat the new talent.

 

[kflo]

Amature wrestling, he was an international level Greco wrestler pre pro wrestling and as outclassed as he is by Fedor I think you can see that, he can stand up to the clinch.

Who would you call a can that Fedor beat in Pride? by your own defination I don't think anyone fits, even Zulu had a proper undefeated pro record. He is by far the worst opponent he faced in Pride though, besides that even someone like Ogawa I think is deliberately understated to suit peoples agendas, undefeated silver medalist judoka who's shown power in his hands knocking down Big Daddy.

Honestly I think Ogawa represents the kind of level of people like Sakai in the UFC today, the difference being that HW has fallen so far that these HW's are now top 10 or even top 5 fighters. Looking at the elite fighters of the mid 00's I think the only HW's today at that level are Stipe and Ngannou. Besides that its a division of declined old names who are still good enough to beat the new talent.

ogawa had 6 wins. 3 were against debuting fighters, one opponent was 1-1 and one was 2-3. of the 3 debuting fighters, none ever won an mma fight. of those 5 guys, only 1 ever won another mma fight (giant silva won once after fighting ogawa, beating winless akebono). the only "fighter" he beat was goodridge. don't try and prop up 36 year old ogawa too much. don't compare him with guys who actually prove it in the cage / ring against other real fighters.

and c'mon on zulu having a proper undefeated pro record. of his 5 wins, he beat 1 guy who ever beat anyone with a recorded win on tapology, and that guy was 1-3 coming into his fight with zulu.

and thinking blades, dc, lewis, overeem, rosenstruik wouldn't be competitive with the top hw's in the mid 2000's is silly.

 

[moreorless87]

ogawa had 6 wins. 3 were against debuting fighters, one opponent was 1-1 and one was 2-3. of the 3 debuting fighters, none ever won an mma fight. of those 5 guys, only 1 ever won another mma fight (giant silva won once after fighting ogawa, beating winless akebono). the only "fighter" he beat was goodridge. don't try and prop up 36 year old ogawa too much. don't compare him with guys who actually prove it in the cage / ring against other real fighters.

and c'mon on zulu having a proper undefeated pro record. of his 5 wins, he beat 1 guy who ever beat anyone with a recorded win on tapology, and that guy was 1-3 coming into his fight with zulu.

and thinking blades, dc, lewis, overeem, rosenstruik wouldn't be competitive with the top hw's in the mid 2000's is silly.

I'm going by your own measurement of what a "can" is not saying I think Zulu was a good win. Again by your own defintion this would be the only fight that would be even close to a "can" for Fedor in Pride. In reality though you only went with this definition to try and shift the goalposts and claim that upsets werent a danger.

If a UFC HW today beat debuting world class kickboxers and a wrestling silver medalist you think the fights would be hyped? you know they would be, look at Rountree beating Saki in his second fight in the UFC. His career focused heavily on pro wrestling meant we didnt get to see much of him but looking at what we did see I think he showed more than alot of HW's who get hype today.

"Competitive" covers alot of ground of course, those other names would all be credable HW's but relative to Fedor, Crocop, Nog, Barnett, Sergei, Werdum, Aleks, Hunt, etc I think they would have struggled to maintain a high ranking around the tail end of the Pride era. As much as I like Overeem the reality is IMHO he's remained relevant because he's faced overhyped modern HW's like Sakai, Harris and Pavlovich who really arent very good. Those are the kinds of fighters would IMHO would have ended up on a Crocop/Sergei/Aleks highlight reel back in that era.

 

[Demented]

Stipe could hang but Cro Cop , Barnette , or Fedor would probably beat him.

Fedor vs prime Velasquez wouldve been epic too.