MMA: Past Fight Discussion

[wandshogun09]

I know it's been a long time but I thought I may aswell finish what I started with Wanderlei Silva's career. Watching TUF Brazil has got me in the mood to watch some more of the Axe Murderer.I'll pick up where I left off...So after suffering his first loss at 205 in over 4 years, Wanderlei was signed to defend his title against the man who beat him, Ricardo Arona. Arona's win over Wand in their first fight was a non title match as part of the Grand Prix tournament. The win earned him his shot at the champ on Pride's biggest annual card, the event known as 'Shockwave' which had become a New Year's Eve tradition in Japan by this time.As with their first fight, there was no shortage of pre-fight trash talk between the two.Wand"Of course, as a man, I have a lot of respect for Arona. But as a fighter I hate him and I will show this in the ring. Of course I will beat him and the belt will remain with Chute Boxe!"Arona"In the first fight it was personal. Because we have a long history. A lot of talk, a lot of problems. He talk too much"Wanderlei Silva vs Ricardo Arona 231.12.05 - Pride: 'Shockwave 2005' - Pride Middleweight TitleWand's rocking some hair for this fight which looks weird to me.Picks up right where their first fight left off as Wand comes right in over aggressive and is taken down in the opening seconds. This time though, Wand is more successful at scrambling back to his feet. He gets the better of the majority of the opening 10 minutes although not a lot of damage is done either way really.A pattern emerges of Wand shaking off the takedown attempts and Arona lying on his back as Wand kicks his legs. Even taunting him sometimes and the usually polite Japanese crowd cheers him on. Maybe Arona was still in their bad books for putting a monumental beating on their beloved Sakuraba earlier that year?Whatever the case, the crowd was clearly rooting for Silva to retain his title. As the fight wears on, Arona finds more success and parts of the fight resemble the first fight with his shutting Wand down and smothering him on the ground. Arona controlled round 2 pretty comfortably. The 3rd and final round was razor close. You can pretty much split in in two halves, Arona getting the better of the first half and Silva the second half. He ends the fight strong, defending some takedowns and landing some punches and kicks from top positions.It's enough to take a split decision from the judges and Wanderlei Silva retains the Pride Middleweight Title. Really close fight, and better than the first one I'd say. Sorry, I can't find a working link for this fight.Despite the rivalry and them being tied at 1-1, the chances of a rubber match between the two are pretty much dead for a few reasons. Arona seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Every now and then he talks about wanting to meet with Dana White about a UFC move but nothing ever comes of it. Besides that, Wanderlei and Arona are actually on pretty good terms these days. Wanderlei even offered Arona an invitation to come and train with his team when he opened his Wand Fight Team gym in 2009.All is forgiven.Shockwave 2005 is also memorable for a well known MMA backstage story. The Charles 'Krazy Horse' Bennett/Chute Boxe backstage fight.Bit of backstory for those who aren't familiar with it. 'Krazy Horse' had fought early on the Shockwave card and beat Ken Kaneko, a Japanese actor who had done some training at Chute Boxe. After the fight 'Krazy Horse' into a row with Chute Boxe members backstage and it escalated into a fight with Cristiano Marcelo, who was one of Chute Boxe's coaches and the man who awarded Wanderlei his BJJ black belt. Marcelo's also currently on TUF 15.Luckily for us there's video of this backstage fight. It didn't end well for Mr Bennett.

Strangely enough, Bennett claims that once he woke up from his sleep, he got up and knocked out Wanderlei Silva right there in the locker room 'Krazy Horse'This man is clearly mental.After the second Arona fight, Wanderlei took some time off to heal up some nagging injuries. He still kept himself busy though. In January 2006 he was ringside to watch his teammate Shogun take on heavyweight legend Mark Coleman at Pride 31. After about 30 seconds of action the fight was stopped when Shogun arm was broken as a result of a dodgy landing after a Coleman takedown. Coleman went fucking mental and tried to continue his attack after the stoppage, even throwing the ref to the mat.From there chaos ensued...Members from Chute Boxe and Coleman's Team Hammer House raided the ring within seconds and Coleman even stood on Wanderlei's head while all this was going on as you can see above. Not good, but wildly entertaining.This also led to some backstage hilarity;Post Riot Coleman interview backstage spazzing out

and a slightly calmer Coleman tries to apologize to Chute Boxe backstage

I love the second video. From Wanderlei's Portugese threats, to Coleman's apology, Rampage and Baroni's cameos and Shogun holding his arm clearly wishing they'd all shut the fuck up.Once all the outside the ring excitment died down, Wand was ready to fight again. In 2006 Pride set up an Openweight Grand Prix tournament. Wanderlei wasn't originally entered in the tournament but when Fedor Emelianenko pulled out with a hand injury, Pride called on 'The Axe Murderer' to fill the void. His first opponent would be Heavyweight Japanese crowd favourite Kazuyuki Fujita. Fujita was a tough fighter, known for his rock head and granite chin. His main strength was wrestling but he was also very heavy handed.Most memorable example of his power was when he made Fedor dance back in 2003Few pre-fight quotesWand"I have been very eager to fight Fujita for a long time. I believe he is a very tough fighter and if he accepts to fight in my style I think it will be a great fight for the fans. Although I'm lighter than him I know I can knock him out"Fujita seemed a bit nervous before the fight"I am very surprised to hear that Silva wants to fight with me because for a while I've just wanted to WATCH him fight...not actually fight him.Silva is indeed very aggressive and has strong and fast punches. I can't think of any way to beat him, so I can only rely on my body strength and my THICK SKULL"Wanderlei Silva vs Kazuyuki Fujita01.07.06 - Pride: 'Critical Countdown Absolute' - Openweight Grand Prix Tournament Quarter FinalsDespite Fujita's nerves he looks well fired up in the pre-fight staredown.They get off to a wild start and Wand hurts him with punches, drops him and cracks him with some hard knees to the head. Fujita's "thick skull" came in handy there cos he recovered pretty quick. Fujita scores a takedown and Wand comes close on an armbar attempt and then the action stalls a bit. After a short lack of action the ref stands them up with about 5 minutes left of round 1. They both seem a bit hesitant on the feet until it's announced there's 3 minutes left of the round. Then they both start swinging for the fences again. Wand gets the better of it, decks Fujita and then unleashes a load of soccer kicks and punches forcing the TKO.Really fun fight. Wanderlei advances to the Semi Finals in September.Silva vs Fujitahttp://www.freevlog.hu/video/10778.htmlNext up would be a rematch with Mirko Cro Cop. Cro Cop was a much improved fighter from their first meeting in 2002. Back then he was a kickboxer making the transition to MMA, now he was a fully fledged MMA fighter. He'd been training grappling with Fabricio Werdum and had fought wars with the 2 best heavyweights in Pride, Fedor and Nogueira. He'd also developed maybe the most effective sprawl in MMA.Despite Cro Cop being the heavyweight, Wanderlei actually came in 4lbs heavier than Mirko for this fight. Wanderlei Silva vs Mirko Cro Cop 210.09.06 - Pride: 'Final Conflict Absolute' - Openweight Grand Prix Tournament Semi FinalsWand tried to attack right away but Cro Cop looked sharp making him miss and countering with punches and body kicks. As the fight goes on Cro Cop was really outstriking Wand and losing the standup Wand tried to take Mirko down, but unlike their first fight that didn't work either due to Cro Cop's improved defensive grappling.Cro Cop decked him with a punch standing and battered him on the ground. Wand's face was a mess, his eye was swollen shut and his nose was pissing blood. Then Cro Cop follows up a hard body kick with a brutal head kick that puts Wand out cold about 5 minutes into round 1.Cro Cop was on fire that night. Wand never got a look in and didn't know what hit him. Barely landed a shot and Cro Cop seemed like he couldn't miss. Scary performance from Mirko.From there Wanderlei returned to his weight class to defend his Middleweight title. This would be another rematch, this time against Dan Henderson. Since their first fight Hendo had mixed results in Pride, some big wins but a few losses too. His big success to this point was winning the 2005 Pride Welterweight Grand Prix. This was one of only two Pride events to be held in the USA. For that reason, all fights would be fought under the Unified rules that the US MMA companies go by. No 10 minute rounds, no soccer kicks or stomps. The Wand/Hendo 2 fight was scheduled for 5x5 minute rounds for the title.Wanderlei Silva vs Dan Henderson 224.03.07 - Pride 33: 'The Second Coming' - Pride Middleweight TitleHendo gets off to a strong start and pretty much never lets up in this one. He does a good job mixing up his punches with takedowns to throw Wand off and keep him guessing. He also gets the better of most of the brawling exchanges which wasn't the case in their first fight.Wand's only real brief positive spell was at the end of round 1 when he caught Hendo with some wild haymakers and Hendo looked a bit wobbly. Hendo goes on to dominate round 2 with his takedowns.By the 3rd Wand looks tired and sluggish. Hendo stuns him with a spinning backfist but Wand holds on against the ropes and recovers. Back in the centre of the ring Hendo cracks Wand with a right hand that seems to freeze him in his tracks for a second then keeps throwing until a big left hook lands on Wanderlei's jaw and puts him to sleep. Hendo wins by KO in the 3rd round and becomes the new Pride Middleweight champion, aswell as being the Pride Welterweight champion and 2005 WWGP winner.End of an era. Not just the end of Wanderlei's 6 year title reign, but this was also the last ever Pride title fight.And to close the Pride chapter of The Axe Murderer's career, a Wand-ism;On Cro Cop saying he had "no ethics"

"I don't want them to like me, because when I'm in the ring, punches fly to the face. It is not a tenderness time. I am not falling in love. And he knows that when the fight starts I kick faces."

[Egg Shen]

ahhh great work again, was waiting for you to post some more stuff.On the subject of Krazy Horse, anyone notice him in the 2nd episode of Primetime this week, he was in the hospital with Rashad Evans when Van Arsdale hurt his arm. Must be part of the Blackzilians now.Absolute maniac, but by all account the rumour of him knocking out Wanderlei is true!The Coleman-Shogun thing was brilliant, i know it's a blackeye for the sport and whatever but that the feud that came out of that was amazing, i know some people like to dismiss MMA's links to wrestling, but that was pure wrestling and i fucking loved it. A guy i used to work with used to quote Coleman's post fight interview all the time, it's funny stuff.

Edited April 20, 2012 by Ebb

[jimufctna24]

Excellent post Wand.The Krazy Horse striy is indeed true, Wanderlai himself all but admitted last year in a interview, he seems to have a sense of humour about it though. Krazy Horse could have been so much more if he had stayed on the rails.Little side story that gets forgotten, they wanted/expected Shogun to beat Coleman so Fedor could have a fresh challenger by themiddle/ end of 2006. That went tits up, I loved the shit afterwards also, I remember Sherdog forums blew up over that. Cant believe that was 6 years ago. Wanderlai seems to have calmed down over the years, he was a right vicious and miserable bastard back in the day.Arona kinda gets forgotten, which is a shame I always used tp here he got robbed against Fedor but have never seen the fight.

[wandshogun09]

Absolute maniac, but by all account the rumour of him knocking out Wanderlei is true!

The Krazy Horse striy is indeed true, Wanderlai himself all but admitted last year in a interview, he seems to have a sense of humour about it though. Krazy Horse could have been so much more if he had stayed on the rails.

Really? It can't be can it? If that's true then Wanderlei went out and fought Arona for 20 minutes after being knocked out the same night. Have you got a link to that Wand interview Jim? That story's even crazier if it's true.Whether it's true or not I love Krazy Horse. Never a dull moment outside the ring and an exciting fighter to watch in it. I saw him on Primetime too, hopefully he'll get his shit together with the Blackzilians and get his career back on track. I'd love to see him have one stint in the UFC before it's all said and done. Edited April 21, 2012 by wandshogun09

[jimufctna24]

Absolute maniac, but by all account the rumour of him knocking out Wanderlei is true!

The Krazy Horse striy is indeed true, Wanderlai himself all but admitted last year in a interview, he seems to have a sense of humour about it though. Krazy Horse could have been so much more if he had stayed on the rails.

Really? It can't be can it? If that's true then Wanderlei went out and fought Arona for 20 minutes after being knocked out the same night. Have you got a link to that Wand interview Jim? That story's even crazier if it's true.Whether it's true or not I love Krazy Horse. Never a dull moment outside the ring and an exciting fighter to watch in it. I saw him on Primetime too, hopefully he'll get his shit together with the Blackzilians and get his career back on track. I'd love to see him have one stint in the UFC before it's all said and done.

Anything for you handsome about 5mins in, the whole interview is worth a watch if you have time.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVq1V7ZLmI0...feature=related

[Egg Shen]

probably too late for Krazy Horse, he's lost 7 of his last 8 fights and i can't see the UFC picking up a guy like that. I'd love to see him get a shot at the Bellator featherweight tournament though. There was a time last year (or the year before) where he came out and said he was a changed man, started calling himself 'Kid Khaos' and apparently was on the straight and narrow, not heard much since though. Back in the day he claimed to even train to fight, he said his only training was playing basketball, and i believe him. He's just a super naturally gifted athlete who likes to fight, it worked for him in many situations (KO'ing KJ Noons!) but it also cost him a lot of fights, still as already said though he's exciting to watch.

Edited April 21, 2012 by Ebb

[wandshogun09]

Anything for you handsome about 5mins in, the whole interview is worth a watch if you have time.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVq1V7ZLmI0...feature=related

Oh you charmer.Man, by that it seems it was true. That's nuts. I can't even picture that scene, Marcello triangle chokes Krazy Horse to sleep, Krazy Horse wakes up...KO's Wand.....and then Wand fights Arona later on. Only in Pride would something like that even seem believable.Cheers for the link. I'd only ever seen clips of that interview before. Just watched the whole thing, great stuff. Especially interesting cos he's talking about a lot of stuff I've watched recently in going over his career so it's all still pretty fresh.

probably too late for Krazy Horse, he's lost 7 of his last 8 fights and i can't see the UFC picking up a guy like that. I'd love to see him get a shot at the Bellator featherweight tournament though. There was a time last year (or the year before) where he came out and said he was a changed man, started calling himself 'Kid Khaos' and apparently was on the straight and narrow, not heard much since though.

Oh yeah they defo won't call him up on current form. But I meant that if he can get it together and put some wins together somewhere else, then I could see it. He's got the kind of fighting style and personality the UFC go for, he just doesn't have wins at the minute.I doubt he'd do too well in the UFC when it comes to wins and losses but it would be fun to see him in there a couple of times.

[wandshogun09]

 

So with Pride's Yakuza links effectively putting them out of business and the UFC snapping up most of their talent, the UFC had become the biggest MMA company by quite a distance. It was only a matter of time before Wanderlei Silva returned to the Octagon.

 

People had been clamouring for a fight between Wanderlei and Chuck Liddell for years. It had been close to happening a few times. If Liddell had beaten Rampage in the 2003 Pride GP, Liddell vs Silva would have been the finals of that tournament.

 

After that, at UFC 61 in 2006 it was actually announced by Dana White that it was scheduled for UFC 65 in November 2006. They even brought Wanderlei out to the Octagon for a face off with Chuck.

 

 

Again, the fight didn't happen. It was said that, like with Wand's face off with Randy Couture at UFC 49, it was a ploy by Pride top brass to advertise Pride in the US.

 

Wand's appearance at UFC 61 is most memorable for his slip of the tongue in calling out Chuck;

 

"I want to fuck....fight Chuck"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKChtS2aDRY

 

 

The talk between Silva and Liddell went on for a while with both calling out the other in interviews. It was a rivalry based more on competition than any real bad blood. The Chuck/Tito and Wand/Rampage feuds were personal but this was about who was considered the best 205lber of that era.

 

By 2007, with Pride out of the way the fight finally seemed realistic. And in August 2007 that dream fight came a step closer when the UFC released a video of Wanderlei Silva signing a UFC contract.

 

Wand signs

 

Dana looks pleased.

 

It was expected that the Chuck/Wanderlei fight would take place at UFC 76 in September but Wanderlei was in the middle of moving from Brazil to the US and wouldn't have enough time to train properly for the fight. Liddell was instead matched with Keith Jardine in September and was expected to walk through him and face Wand in December.

 

It didn't work out as planned...

 

 

Jardine didn't come to lose, and although the fight was competitive, Jardine took a decision win after battering Chuck's legs and body with kicks for 15 minutes.

 

Wanderlei was in the front row to watch the fight and seeing Jardine awarded the decision, he was also apparently seeing his potential fight with Liddell go up in smoke. He wasn't happy.

 

 

After the loss it was thought the Chuck/Wanderlei dream fight was dead for the time being and even Dana White didn't seem clear on what was next. It seemed like the fight was destined not to happen.

 

Then in late October 2007, the UFC just went ahead and made the fight anyway. They announced the fight would take place at UFC 79 that December in Las Vegas. It didn't matter that they were both coming off back to back losses, it was the fight the fans wanted to see and I guess the UFC thought if they didn't make the fight now while they could then it might never happen.

 

 

Finally!

 

Now the fight was official, the hype could begin. And perhaps no-one is better at getting you pumped for a fight than Joe Rogan.

 

Rogan on Liddell vs Silva

 

"Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva is not just a mixed martial arts fight, like an exciting fight, but it's like...it's history. These are easily the two most exciting Light Heavyweight fighters in history. Both these guys have highlight reel knockouts. Wanderlei Silva has finished Quinton Jackson twice, he's knocked out so many people over in Pride. And then Chuck Liddell of course, the brutal knockouts of 'Babalu' and Tito and Vernon White and everybody else.

 

I mean, we were begging for this fight for so long but the logistics...it couldn't be worked out. Both these guys, you can see in their physiques, they've trained incredibly hard for this. You can see in their eyes, they are focused. They understand the significance of this bout. And you know...this is one for history. This is a legacy fight."

 

Wand

 

"In Brazil I have a big home, I have a new car. I have a very good situation. But after my last fight I think I need to change my training. I need to change my style. I need to have new coaches. One day I have the big home and the next I have only two bags.

 

The walk to the Octagon it's possible to have nothing in your mind. You need to focus on your opponent. I'm prepared to fight Chuck's style but it is a very dangerous style because he has long arms and a strong punch. I know that Chuck is very popular here but I think after the first round they will see who is Wanderlei Silva."

 

Chuck

 

"He's a good striker, he's got heavy hands and he's aggressive. There was never any real bad blood, it was always about being the best in the world. As far as bad blood goes, I mean, I have got some animosity towards his fans. They've been giving me shit for years but other than that I don't really care."

 

Here's a great little UFC hype video for the fight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiKLA7oO2DM

 

The weigh in for the fight was one of the most intense you'll ever see with Wand nearly coming to blows with both Liddell and his trainer John Hackleman

 

Wand/Chuck weigh in

 

 

Wanderlei Silva vs Chuck Liddell

29.12.07 - UFC 79: 'Nemesis'

First couple of minutes are quiet, with both of them not wanting to rush in. About 2 minutes in it really picks up. Chuck lands a right and Wand backs off appearing hurt. But when Chuck comes after him, Wand fires off punches at him and it's clear he was playing possum as Gorilla Monsoon would say. It pissed Chuck off though and he opened up with punches big time.

 

They kind of reversed their usual roles with Chuck as the aggressor and Wand becoming the counter puncher. They both land some hard shots but Chuck pulled ahead and won the round.

 

Wand becomes more aggressive in Round 2 and it's clear he's more comfortable in that style. Starts to throw more combos and beats Chuck to the punch a lot. The commentating on this fight is incredibly biased in favour of Chuck. About midway through the round is a good example of this

 

 

as Wand knocks Chuck on his arse with a punch Rogan says "Good right hand by Chuck before he went down though". Fuck sake. And Rogan and Goldberg ignore the knockdown completely and start talking about their favourite subject back then..."Look at the look in Chuck's eyes Joe".

 

Towards the end of round 2 they go to war again against the fence and Wand comes off worse. Chuck cuts him with a couple of elbows. Right at the end of the round Chuck cracks him hard with a punch and rocks Wand. They both swing for the fences, both land some bombs and Chuck scores a takedown as the round ends.

 

Absolute insanity in that round. Still one of the best rounds in UFC history for me.

 

Round 3 Chuck gets another takedown but let Wand back up. They both land some good shots early. Then Chuck rocks Wand again with a spinning backfist, Wand backs onto the fence and eats another flurry of punches. Wand shows a lot of heart swinging back with his back to the cage.

 

Chuck looked knackered after that exchange. He punched himself out big time and kept looking at the clock and taking deep breaths. Wand was too hurt to take advantage though. Chuck gets a takedown in the last 30 seonds of the fight to seal the decision.

 

Judges scored it for Chuck Liddell 29-28, 30-27, 30-27.

 

 

Fucking tremendous fight. Still gives me goosebumps watching it now. I wish it was a 5 rounder.

 

Chuck quote from post fight

 

"I never thought it would make it through all three rounds. Between the two of us we both hit real hard. I had him hurt quite a few times and I'd hit him three or four more times and he'd still be fighting. He's a tough guy."

 

Here's some cool backstage footage with Wand backstage with Anderson Silva and Dana White after the fight

 

 

After the Liddell fight, Wanderlei was matched with the last man to beat Liddell, Keith Jardine. The fight was scheduled for UFC 84 in May 2008.

 

Despite Jardine's reputation for inconsistancy these days, a lot of people though Jardine was the favourite heading into this fight. Besides beating Chuck he also held a first round TKO win over Forrest Griffin who had went on to win the UFC Light Heavyweight title by the time of this fight.

 

There was very little trash talk before the fight. Jardine wanted a win over another legend and Wanderlei, coming off the first 3 fight losing streak of his career, badly needed a win to keep his career alive.

 

"I need to win. Every time I want to give the great show. I like to shake the emotions. This sport, you need to win. For me, personally, win or lose, it no matter. I like the emotion this sport has. But this time I need to fight for win. I really need this."

 

"I'm training very well to fight in Octagon. I like to fight in Octagon. Now I am training full time in Octagon. I have the technique with the fence for to help me in the fight".

 

 

Wanderlei Silva vs Keith Jardine

24.05.08 - UFC 84: 'Ill Will'

The fight started and after a couple of exchanges, Jardine appeared to want to use some similar tactics to his fight with Liddell. Wand had obviously studied tape of this and was ready to counter. He let loose with a series of rights and lefts that badly hurt Jardine and dropped him to his back.

 

Wand pounced and never let up the attack. Grabbing Jardine around the throat, the 'rape choke' as Joe Rogan called it, and battered the 'Dean of Mean' into oblivion.

 

 

Winner by knockout, Wanderlei Silva in just 36 seconds.

 

 

Wandism on his fighting mentality

 

"Either I knock out to him, he knock out to me, or it's war"

Edited April 23, 2012 by wandshogun09

[jimufctna24]

I thought Jardine was going to beat Wanderlai at the time. I was shocked when Wanderlai came out and did that. I felt Jardine would be too akward and win on points.

 

The Liddel fight is a amazing in the fact that after years of build it lived up to the hype. I always felt Liddel would win with the way there styles matched up. This was Liddel last great performance, he was on fire that night. I always thought the knockdown from Wand was a slip but looks like I was wrong.

 

In hindsight I wish Liddel would have retired then and there.

[wandshogun09]

I thought Jardine would win aswell. Them Bravo ad breaks were a cunt to my nerves that night. If I remember right they showed the entrances, then made us sit through 5 minutes of ads before the fight started. That was a long 5 minutes.

 

Agreed on the Liddell/Wand fight. It was worth the wait and all the false starts. Thank fuck we got to see the fight in the end. The knockdown didn't seem to really hurt Chuck but it was a legit knockdown imo. As you can see on the gif, a left and right from Wand landed and caught Chuck off guard.

 

In hindsight Chuck should have retired then yeah. But as you say he was on fire that night and I guess to him it was proof he was still the man. I truly believe Rashad's punch destroyed Chuck's chin for good. He was never the same after that fight. He could still go offensively right to the end, he was giving Franklin a bit of a pasting even in his final fight, but he just couldn't take a shot anymore.

 

Sadly, I've got a feeling we're gonna be looking back in a couple of years and saying "In hindsight, Wanderlei should have retired after the Cung Le fight". But I really hope I'm wrong.

[jimufctna24]

The only thing I would want Wandy to do now, is rematch Vitor and fight in Brazil one last time. He is doing both is June, I think he should hang it up after that fight, or take another easier fight if he/when he loses to say farewell on a win.

 

Yeah, Liddel never stopped trying espicially in the Shogun and Franklin fights you could see the heart was willing but the flesh was weaker.

 

EDIT: As convienent as it was being on Bravo with the availability of the channel, the adverts used to piss me off as well.

Edited April 23, 2012 by jimufctna24

[Egg Shen]

i don't see Wandy hanging em up anytime soon

[wandshogun09]

Neither do I sadly. He's said a few times that he'd like to fight until his 40s. He's 35 now.

 

He can still clearly give us fun fights but I hope he changes his mind about fighting into his 40s. He's not like Randy where his style was relatively low risk. He's been in wars right from the start of his career. The fact that his career has been as long as it has with that style is incredible. I remember watching early Gatti fights and the commentators were always saying that guys like that have to make their money quick because they don't have long careers. Wand's been going 15 years now and despite not being what he was in Pride, he can still hang with guys like Bisping, Franklin and Le. He's a rare breed.

 

He's had a hell of a career. Watching that Voice vs Wanderlei interview, Wand said at one point that he wants to write a book on his career one day. I hope he does. I'm hoping he waits until he retires first though. Would be a great read I reckon. Especially if it's written in his style of English. "I punch, kick, punch, kick and he don't get up. I knock out to him. Thanks my guys".

 

I'd buy it.

Edited April 24, 2012 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

watched both the UFC documentaris, Ultimate Royce Gracie and Ultimate Matt Hughes documentaries yesterday. They are both really good, and a must see if you're a fan and especially if you're newer to the sport. Basically a brief early life section then a guide through their respective UFC careers (although the Hughes one skips over a few things), really good stuff, lots of talking heads (some surprised, wasn't expecting to see Frank Trigg in the Hughes one). I probably preffered the Hughes one, as some of his earlier stuff is a little less familiar to me and Royce's early career but i recommend both.

 

The DVD's both feature a ton of fights of each too, very good value...i hope the UFC make more of these, there's several fighters worthy of the treatment.

 

One of the things about watching MMA is that you kind of associate fighters with their recent form, i've done this with Matt Hughes. We haven't seen a classic Hughes performance in years, but watching the old footage just reminds me of how much of a beast Hughes was back in the day. I sometimes think that older fighters probably couldn't compete in the sport if they'd come into the sport now in their primes, but with Hughes i think if he'd come into the UFC now at 25 he'd be a force to be reckoned with, he's raw as hell but his physical strength is insane.

 

 

It's strange cause Hughes was the main man when i got into the sport, the first headliner i saw was Hughes/Trigg I, but there's no doubt that ive kinda lost a little love for him over the years, i think it's more down to me thinking that he's a bit of a dick than his diminishing performances but looking back it's clear that Hughes was as good and is every bit worthy of all the praise he gets.

[jimufctna24]

Hughes was the man I loved to hate. I always wanted GSP, BJ, Royce and even Frank Trigg to clean his clock.

 

I could always respect how good and as said above strong a fighter he was, but I always found him smug and unlikable. Once GSP beat him in late 2007, his prime and his glory days were over, he was firmly a side-show legend after that.

 

2002-2006 however he was on everyones p4p list and truly had a Hall Of Fame resume despite his later losses, he lost only twice in his prime, in late 2006 to GSP and in 2004 to BJ, BJ and GSP were more talented but the victories he got over them should not be disputed. He showed heart in the 2nd BJ fight coming back from a early pounding, and his cardio held up better, the one advantage he always had over BJ

 

With GSP it was different, GSP is/was better than him at everything but Hughes caught him when he was still green in 2004, give another year and GSP would have smashed him, but on that night Hughes used his experiance to armbar the more talented and atheletic fighter.

 

He also beat, Sakuri, Trigg, Newton, Sherk and Riggs all whilst they were in their primes. For the standard of the time that is exceptional. The advent of TUF 2 also gave him his last year of his prime in the spotlight of millions, as he was one of the main fighters of the dark days he deserved to reep the fruits of the UFC boom period, even though he was the villian of the show.

 

I think his best moment was when he beat Gracie, it drew massively for the time (a then record 600k buys) and he destroyed a legend of the sport and proved his generation had surpassed the last generation. Somthing his mentor and close friend Pat Millitech had been chasing for years with the Gracies, he honoured his mentor that night, and the Liddel, Couture and Franklin who were all staples of that era. The sport was proven to have truly evolved that night for all to see and Hughes was the one in the spotlight. Despite Gracie losing in Pride, there was still a large amount of fans who believed the Gracie hype, listen to some of the celebrities before the fight, one of the Wayans brothers does not have a clue.

 

I have at the moment numner 2 of all time at Welterweight behind GSP, I think he would beat 50-60 percent of todays WW fighters when he was in his prime, his striking was never great despite his submissions coming along over the years. His time may have past, but love him or hate him he is very important to MMA history.

Edited May 3, 2012 by jimufctna24