stop with the broken down Every fighter has lingering injuries
Ken was KOed with 1 tiny punch by Kimbo just stop he was barely hit the Berry fight was worse
ALSO thats whay they were in long clinch then 60 seconds fight was over ( Kimbo fight )
Not quite on the level of Ken.
It got to the point where he could barely shoot for takedowns.
All that pro wrestling.
Again the Berry fight you can literally see the punches land.
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one thing i look for in works is face punches thrown by the loser.ken throws none in the Berry fight and next to none in the Kimbo fight.Punches do land in a work but Ken was not hit flush enough to get KOed like that.Even the announcer made a joke about it.
Iāve seen thousands of fightsā¦as Iām sure you have.
Plenty of guys get dropped from glancing blows.
Itās actually somewhat common.
And Ken taking a dive be Franklin doesnāt make a lot of sense.
Ken was a HUGE draw for the UFC.
The Tito fight set a PPV record ā and if Ken had made a run there was more money in it for both him and The UFC.
Makes zero sense.
Making someone rewatch that fight is diabolical and cruel lol
He lost to Royce bcs he fought in pancreas 3 days before then went to Colorado which is a mile high
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Ken was at end of career ā¦Rich had a lot of time leftā¦all 3 fights I mentioned I stand by my opinion is work Iām off to gym
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Or the shoes! Or the gi!
We all have opinions on this, weāll never know.
I think this scrawny Brazilian somehow got on his back, when grappling was Kenās domain. He freaked the fuck out and panic tapped. I think he was shocked he didnāt just heel hook that kid and wanted out
Agree he was trying to go for the ankle and Royce was ready for it, Iām glad Royce won especially after hearing stories about Ken refusing to tap in training and cranking subs on people
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The match that interests me more that night is Funaki being in there with Royce and not Ken
Funaki was probably better than Ken then and getting Ken over to help Pancrase. Heās tough as hell and much better standing than Ken was then.
I like Funaki. He was a stud.
Butā¦
Funaki didnāt put Ken over.
Ken put Funaki over.
All of Kenās Pancrase ālossesā were works.
Kenās only Pancrase win that was worked was the exhibition vs Hume. And there were multiple giveaways in that one.
Ken legit beat Funaki.
Note that Ken doesnāt have any Pancrase ālossesā until after he lost to Royce.
Not a coincidence.
Alsoā¦Bas Rutten had better standup than Ken too. Didnāt matter.
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Thatās not why he lost to Royce.
It was a matter of gameplan and GJJ just having the superior technique of the time.
He didnāt expect Royce to get top position when he dropped back for a leg, but Royce used his gi to ride with him.
Ken might have tapped a little early, but he has said he couldnāt budge the arm.
The way to beat Royce in UFC 1 would have been to try and keep it standing and bust him up there.
Ken was under the impression nobody had anything for him on the ground.
If it wasnāt for the Gracieās, he would have been right.
Thatās certainly possible. I just have a hard time seeing him going from getting completely smoked and embarrassed by Funaki the first time they trained to subbing him in a fight in less than 3 years.
Itās hard to tell what was worked in Pancrase because they werenāt really works, more like putting guys over.
Yeah but what Iām saying is he had better standup, roughly equal grappling, and a much cooler heqd and better mindset. I think Funaki beats Royce that night.
His claim is that he hit a big throw on Karelin that should have been awarded five points, but that they only gave him one. He also claimed that Karelin was 6ā7.
I havenāt seen this interview in years.
I only brought Pittman up because he was a world class greco guy the same size as Karelin and was in that bracket with Rickson. I donāt think he beat Karelin
When he was in shape, he was about 60 pounds lighter than Karelin.