Why was Cro Cop such a disappointment in the UFC?

Cro cop was never much of a counter puncher, which is why he spend most of his ufc fights circling on the outside doing nothing. He also wasnt the physical freak he was in pride so he couldnt pressure guys that were naturally bigger than him, plus its a lot different to pressure someone in a cage.

Honestly his prime run is really overrated, i mean sure it was probably one of the best runs of the company but back then the highlights of his resume were very limited grapplers like Coleman, Herrig, Fujita or small guys like Igor and Wand also Barnett but Barnett is pretty unathletic the most telling of this was that he actually got outgrappled by Crocop, it sounds a bit ridiculous but these guys didnt have the more complex games of Gonzaga, Kongo, Mir who could threaten on the feet and on the ground and were also huge and athletic.

Also Crocop was always frontrunner i never saw him come back in a fight he was losing until his 40s
 
Obviously he had trouble adapting to a cage and the new rule set but the idea that CC was coming off his prime is a false premise. He had lost to Hunt prior to the OWGP and was spoon fed a tournament victory by fighting a bunch of lighter weight fighters and Barnett who not only did CC beat him twice before but he just came off a war with Big Nog that went to decision.

CC was probably declining after the Fedor fight. Also, I feel like the quality of game planning in MMA just increased exponentially by the time he came to MMA.

I remember when people gave Fedor credit for circling away from CCs left when that’s day one shit in Boxing and speaks to the quality of fighters those days at least in the HW division.
 
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revoltub said:
The ring vs cage excuse is so tired and dumb.

You don't lose all of your skill just because you went from a ring to a cage.
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Cro Cop went from Boxing -> Kickboxing -> -> MMA (PRIDE)

Which was all in a ring so he spent his whole life training for one specific area to fight in and maneuvered it accordingly. You can’t corner someone in a cage and you can’t get really pinned against the ropes in a ring.

Now granted that wasn’t the only factor but it actually is a big factor. Plus when people refer to the cage in CC’s career, they’re probably also referring to the rule set which is very different.
 
i think it was that pride allowed all roids
some guys cane to ufc where they pee tested, they stopped roiding
ufc vets knew ways to roid and pass the tests
they still do, but the passing is much harder under usada
 
Cro Cop's style was better suited for a Ring. The same goes for Wand and Shogun. They could cut off the angles better with their aggressive kickboxing style.
 
Black Helicopters said:
Cro Cop went from Boxing -> Kickboxing -> -> MMA (PRIDE)

Which was all in a ring so he spent his whole life training for one specific area to fight in and maneuvered it accordingly. You can’t corner someone in a cage and you can’t get really pinned against the ropes in a ring.

Now granted that wasn’t the only factor but it actually is a big factor. Plus when people refer to the cage in CC’s career, they’re probably also referring to the rule set which is very different.
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I just feel like it discredits the fighters who beat him.
 
Bamboozled said:
Is that why Nog became champ? Is that why Shogun became Champ? Is that why Anderson became champ? Is that why Rampage became champ? Is that why Werdum became champ?
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I've been watching NHB/MMA since around 94-95 before Pride and I'm not trying to take anything away from the above fighters but if you put things into perspective...

Nog never won 3 fights in a row in the UFC and went 5-7. His title shot had a lot to do with his name and his accomplishments in Pride. He was also an Interim Champion.

Shogun is 9-9 in the UFC and just got off his first 3 fight win streak since from lower ranked fighters. He had a good year and a half run in Pride, but like Cro Cop didn't adjust as well to the cage.

Rampage was a Bad Ass, but struggled after he won the belt.

Wedum didn't tie his striking in to his BJJ until later on in his career. 2nd run UFC Werdum > Pride and Strikeforce Werdum.

Is it really fair to call Anderson a Pride fighter? I mean he spent the biggest chunk of his career and his Prime in the UFC. In that case you could call Prime Wand a UFC fighter.
 
Steve-French said:
I've been watching NHB/MMA since around 94-95 before Pride and I'm not trying to take anything away from the above fighters but if you put things into perspective...

Nog never won 3 fights in a row in the UFC and went 5-7. His title shot had a lot to do with his name and his accomplishments in Pride. He was also an Interim Champion.

Shogun is 9-9 in the UFC and just got off his first 3 fight win streak since from lower ranked fighters. He had a good year and a half run in Pride, but like Cro Cop didn't adjust as well to the cage.

Rampage was a Bad Ass, but struggled after he won the belt.

Wedum didn't tie his striking in to his BJJ until later on in his career. 2nd run UFC Werdum > Pride and Strikeforce Werdum.

Is it really fair to call Anderson a Pride fighter? I mean he spent the biggest chunk of his career and his Prime in the UFC. In that case you could call Prime Wand a UFC fighter.
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Nog was old as shit and still won the UFC HW Title

Shogun won the title with no knees

Rampage pwned UFC Kingpin chuck lie dell for the 2nd time with ease. Retired that sum bitch cuz he wasnt the same after.
 
to me, it was the same thing that happened to hendricks. once he won what he was forever seeking, a belt, he lost motivation and didn't work as hard as he used to.
 
Rumor has it a lot of the Pride guys were under the mistaken impression that the UFC had top notch drug testing. So they stopped using while the UFC guys kept gaming the system. See in Pride you were encouraged to do it, and it was actually written into the contract that they specifically DON'T test for PEDs. In a weird Japanese twist they DID test for recreational drugs. So take all the roids you want, but don't smoke a joint or do coke.

Also I think Mirko was past is prime when he finally came to the UFC. And I also believe his style is much better suited to the Pride ruleset than the UFC ruleset. The UFC rules favor wrestlers who can hold you down, pin you up against the cage and use elbows. In Pride you couldn't use elbows and if wanted to hit your oppnenent you had to pull back and hit them with your fist, which opened the opportunity for submissions and escapes.
 
1) wear 2) he came for da money 3) gonzaga bootfucked him into next year. Was unfortunately on the recieving end of one of the most suprising strikes in mma history.
 
Steve-French said:
I've been watching NHB/MMA since around 94-95 before Pride and I'm not trying to take anything away from the above fighters but if you put things into perspective...

Nog never won 3 fights in a row in the UFC and went 5-7. His title shot had a lot to do with his name and his accomplishments in Pride. He was also an Interim Champion.

Shogun is 9-9 in the UFC and just got off his first 3 fight win streak since from lower ranked fighters. He had a good year and a half run in Pride, but like Cro Cop didn't adjust as well to the cage.

Rampage was a Bad Ass, but struggled after he won the belt.

Wedum didn't tie his striking in to his BJJ until later on in his career. 2nd run UFC Werdum > Pride and Strikeforce Werdum.

Is it really fair to call Anderson a Pride fighter? I mean he spent the biggest chunk of his career and his Prime in the UFC. In that case you could call Prime Wand a UFC fighter.
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Prime Wand was a UFC fighter till he got his nose changed.
 
Number of factors no doubt, but Cro Cop was obviously caught of guard (and therefore was well underprepared) by the cage.

Asked before the Sanchez fight, he confidently says it will make no difference. After the fight, with his opponent able to just circle away endlessly, Cro Cop was confused and frustrated and says it was a much bigger difference than he was ready for.

I can't think of any of his Pre-UFC fights where an opponent was able to avoid damage like this. He spent the whole fight stalking, moving forward relentlessly, but just wasn't able to turn that into an offence.

No doubt there are multiple factors at play, but the ring/cage dynamic was obviously a major contributor.
 
To those thinking CC lost because of UFC's strict testing, I have a bridge to sell you.

<CanYouSeeMeNow><CanYouSeeMeNow><CanYouSeeMeNow>
<JonesLaugh><JonesLaugh><JonesLaugh>
<{silvanormal}><{silvanormal}><{silvanormal}>
 
blacknblue104 said:
lmfao exactly...it's like people forget that Rampage beat a prime version of Chuck, then beat him again when he was champion. Not to mention Anderson destroying the UFC MW division, Nog beating Sylvia and Couture, Fedor beating Arlovski, and Werdum beating Gonzaga/ Vera.

Nog, Rampage, Shogun, Werdum all won UFC World Titles, not to mention guys like Henderson, Melendez and Overeem who have challenged for titles.
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And then they'll counter your argument with "Pride fighters are all roided" and "UFC fighters are squeaky clean".
 
I don’t know why drug testing is brought up so often, 07-08 drug testing was a joke.
 
A square ring really favored his style as opposed to a round cage. He was able to cut guys off and trap them in a ring, and wrestling is less effective in a ring because you can't hold people against the cage. PRIDE rules which allowed kicks and knees to the head of grounded opponents also worked in his favor because he could punish wrestlers after failed takedown attempts
 
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