Your take away from Tito vs Machida was that Tito “almost had him”? I don’t want to disparage Tito but his striking level wouldn’t get him out of the prelims today
Yes but Tito couldn’t take him down in rule set without striking. That doesn’t bode well for an MMA fight
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A mistake these noobs lol make is they give the current fighters the benefit of the modern training, nutrition, access to gyms, ability to study footage, modern PED science lol, etc… and everything that comes with what it means to be a current athlete… yet they expect the old fighters to just walk in there the same exact version that was the one that came in the unknown world of their era which was completely different territory… and still often I think the old Vet can hang and even win… BUT if you give that old vet the access and modern training and everything that the new fighter had the benefit of, then there is little doubt in my mind that a 28 year old Fedor or a 28 year old GSP would still win in today’s Divisions. And in this case a Tito Ortiz would do well too.
End one paragraph rant lol
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Fight goes 10 seconds longer and Machida loses. When you’re in that position at the end of the fight, even if you “won” you were just as close to losing. Machida was much closer to being finished than Tito was. He was saved by rules and a bell. You cannot extrapolate much from that, other than if they were fighting to the death somewhere, Machida would no longer be with us.
You’re using Ricardo Arona to say Tito sucks? Did you start watching with Brock or are you more of a McGreggor guy?
Also, Tito was overrated but that’s the issue here, more so with the lack of talent today.
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MMA is progressing so fast
This is accurate
The UFC has a historically weak LHW division with very little wrestling. I think he’d do well in the UFC but not so well against the top Bellator guys.
Actually, it’s because we can’t pretend to know what yesterday’s fighters MIGHT have learned and instead choose to go with the reality of their skill sets and athletic ability vs today’s athletes.
GSP would have been fine. Tito was a decent wrestler, god awful striker with underrated submissions. No amount of current technology would fix Tito’s striking.
Today’s athletes are much better about using the cage to get up. Titos game of taking people down and throwing elbows from full guard wouldn’t be effective today. Tito was one of my favorites and I’ve been lucky enough to wrestle with him. I don’t think Tito is competitive today
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We just a Glover in his 40s run through the division and become champion with only his wrestling. I can see a prime Tito doing that.
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I was training and fighting before you saw TUF, lil buddy. I don’t hate Tito but I don’t blindly say my favorite fighters were unstoppable in any era because I’m not a 14 year old kid
Arona was a nightmare match up in MMA for Tito.
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Glover is a much better striker than Tito was and is incredibly durable.
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I’m not pretending to know what they might have learned because you are right that is an X Factor but if you pretend that it is not significant that new fighters get access to this stuff and get to train and study every opponents losses and weaknesses before they even step in there, and get access to modern nutrition, gyms, science, PEDs lol etc… when the old fighters did not have those privileges then that would be ignorant.
I do understand your point about saying we do not know exactly what it would look like but to pretend like it wouldn’t have an affect is also not realistic.
BUT even with that given and that unknown I still said in my post that the outliers like a young Fedor or GSP would do just fine against some of these current fighters in Divisions like the pathetic 2023 UFC HW Division or stylistically like GSP vs Leon because they were just that damn great.
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I don’t think Fedor beats DC or Jones but he would still be able to compete to some degree because his style isn’t something you can really train for. Not many sparring partners can replicate Fedor.
GSP is the second best athlete in MMA history behind Jones so I think he would have been able to hang in any era.
I just don’t see Tito being able to be competitive today with his style or skill set. He obviously worked hard but I don’t think he would be able to ground and pound today’s fighters who are much bigger. Tito used to be considered a huge 205. Look at those guys today.
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Seeing this fight it looks like Jiri’s best days are gone
And lol they both would beat Gane 
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Glover is chinnier than Tito was and not as good at wrestling
I HATE Tito, that’s what makes this worse. Current MMA has stagnated massively at the heavier weight classes for years and years now. It’s actually regressed when you look at who the recent champs are. That cannot be disputed.
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Arona was a nightmare for almost everybody back then
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I think Tito would hang TODAY, not when it was Jones, Gus, DC, Rumble etc running wild. That’s the point. MMA isn’t this constant upward trend and especially at the heavier weight classes
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Do you believe the game has progressed more in the last ten/fifteen years? Or more from early 90s to mid 2000s?
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