It’s possible that the PRIDE fighters are overrated, but it’s hard to justify this notion when you consider that they are all world-class athletes who have been fighting their entire lives. Cro Cop doesn’t just knock out Wanderlei Silva, switch to UFC, and then simply forget how to fight. Similarly, Nogueira shouldn’t go from hanging with Fedor Emelianenko to barely beating journeyman Heath Herring. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. And while Shogun looked absolutely brilliant at times against Griffin (with his rolls, submission attempts and strikes), he looked downright tentative at others. Where is the man who went so hard at Rampage Jackson that he looked like he wanted to knock the current champs’ head clear off his body? The skills are there which leads me to believe that there must be another factor.
Could it be that UFC fighters have improved? I think this reasoning seems more likely. UFC fighters are long past the days of specializing in just one mixed martial arts discipline, and are constantly improving and expanding their repertoires. UFC fighters have therefore become downright lethal weapons in the Octagon.
Good Thread...I personally think that it is a ring v.s. the cage kind of thing. This may sound like I'm reaching out into left field, but if you take any animal out of the enviroment it has spent years in and is comfortable with, it is going to react very differently if it is suddenly thrust into a new one...
One can only guess, but if things had been reversed and Pride bought the UFC, I think that we would have seen a "feeling out" period for all the fighters that went there to make a transition. After years of being used to only fighting in a ring in Pride, I think the move to the UFC has to be so different to those fighters...in many ways that we wouldn't even think of as a fan watching it...
Oh, and being a Heath Herring nuthugger, I have to say that it shouldn't have been a shock to anyone if they had seen their first two matches. Styles make fights and for some reason I can't understand, Herring has always made Big Nog work hard for a win...
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