if u kept giving chuck lidell , light hitting wrestlers who cant hit and cant take him down ( basically give chuck anyone totally devoted to the ground and hates standup )
if u kept giving hughes jiujitsu guys with bad takedown ability who arent great at standup ( basically keep hughes away from anyone who can stick him on his back and make him fight from there )
IF U WERE STILL GIVING TITO ORTIZ , smaller , weaker guys who he could manhandle and takedown easily ....
if u give silva a legitimate standup ( k1 level )fighter .... who could care less about hitting the ground .... the title would change hands quickly
it seems title runs are based on MATCHUPS ..... as long as a title holder keeps having the matchups he needs .... he will look invincible
yves edwards was once the dominate 155lber in the world .... until mark hominic said he couldnt care less about being on the ground and took it to yves standing up
no
How do you think Fedor has so many wins?
So who are the wrestlers at 185, that you feel have earned title shots, that Anderson hasn't been matched up with?
Not really true.
Hughes beat frank trigg twice who had a great wrestling pedigree, also sean sherk.
Chuck beat Vandelei, Babalu, Alistar, and Vernon White.
i never said these guys didnt fight theyre nemisis type of opponent , every once and awhile .... they did fight favorable matchups more often than not
for chucks UFC run .... he fought very few people who didnt want to take him down .... when he did start facing people who could hit and wanted some standup time .... it was over for chuck
i think chuck wouldve still had the title if they kept giving him the matchup he needed
I'm so sick of these threads mentioning Chuck and his favorable matchups.
When Chuck was at his peak, who did he not fight that he should have? Who was at 205 that Chuck didn't fight? He was trying so hard to fight everyone, he was trying to get the Wanderlei fight when he was still in Pride.
Chuck started losing when his skills started to diminish, and he refused to change his gameplans. End of story.
GaymidaGaydan -
Chuck beat Vandelei, Babalu, Alistar, and Vernon White.
Vitor as well.
This would be true, but for the fact that GSP has completely cleaned out his division, as Matt Hughed did in his time, as Anderson has done in his.
eqard 1 - i never said these guys didnt fight theyre nemisis type of opponent , every once and awhile .... they did fight favorable matchups more often than notThere was that dutch kickboxer guy named Alistair that just wanted to stand and bang; it wasn't over for Chuck then was it?
for chucks UFC run .... he fought very few people who didnt want to take him down .... when he did start facing people who could hit and wanted some standup time .... it was over for chuck
i think chuck wouldve still had the title if they kept giving him the matchup he needed
MNFAN - I'm so sick of these threads mentioning Chuck and his favorable matchups.
When Chuck was at his peak, who did he not fight that he should have? Who was at 205 that Chuck didn't fight? He was trying so hard to fight everyone, he was trying to get the Wanderlei fight when he was still in Pride.
Chuck started losing when his skills started to diminish, and he refused to change his gameplans. End of story.
This is true
I will say that a prime chuck was the best LHW of all time. He could beat great strikers: Belfort, Wanderlai, Mezger, Overeem or great wrestlers: Tito, Babalu, Randleman, Couture. or great scrappy guys that are hard to train for: Horn, Bustamante, White... Chuck deserves all the accolades he gets, and is the best LHW of all time.
Hughes has the most incredible record. So many high level victories that it hurts my head to try to remember them all. Sure he's past his prime but even an almost-over-the-hill Hughes can still beat most of the UFC welterweight roster.
Both men are top 10 all-time, most likely top 5....
chuck and hughes were the best .... i didnt say they werent .
i also didnt say that all theyre matchups were hand picked
i also didnt say that they didnt fight opponents who werent the best style matchup for them
i do say chucks title run wouldve been much longer had he faced more non hard hitting jiujitsu opponents that couldnt get him down
i do say that hughes title run wouldve been longer IF he was fighting non hard hitting jijuitsu opponents that couldnt take him down
i do say silva's title run will be over when they put him in there with a very technical , hard banger who doesnt want to take silva down .
tito ortiz and yves edwards are former champions who stopped getting the matchups they needed to continue title runs
so for hughes .... im betting heavily that his next opponent will be a light hitting opponent ... who cannot take him down . want to bet ???
remember guys .... matchups and who wins is big money
the UFC is like kentucky downs ... except they own all the horses and the trainers ... they know all the matchups because they give us all the matchups .... they know who is hurt , who has trained hardest and by whom, whose struggling with weight
theyre like the guy who owns the super bowl venue + both teams at the super bowl
not complaining .... im just saying
and just why did we see tito vs shamrock 3 times ??
good matchup for tito + payed well at the box office
with pride the champs got a steady diet of undersized japanese filler opponents to pad theyre records