SQUEEZIE -
Brabo Ben - They're fighters,abd he was the top light heavyweight of his era bar shogun and wand,of course he would say this.
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<span class="User-322514" id="userPost49182061">what about the guy who beat his ass twice in his prime.chuck was the number 4-6 best lhw in the world in his prime.</span><br />
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Not really a fair assesment, if anything there was a pretty even footing and stylistic triangle.
Tito could beat Wandy due to offensive wrestling
Wandy could beat Rampage due to Muay Thai clinches and knees
Rampage could beat Chuck due to counter punching and power
And Chuck could beat Tito due to defensive wrestling and a fucked up chin
Not to mention the switch from a ring to cage and rulesets always muddles shit. I think Chuck was incredibly unique and amazing for his specific era. It was an era when wrestlers were absolutely shit wrecking in the UFC (much less so in Pride because of the 4 cornered ring conducive to striking, and the ropes, and the downed knees / soccer kicks / stomps), and he was the ultimate anti-wrestler. All the GnP in the world couldn't stop Chuck and he'd just stand up and ignore shots when taken down -- if that could even happen since his wrestling was amazing enough that would rarely occurin the first place
I mean fuck, Chuck beat Pele, but he acknowledged Pele's superior striking and mixed in his wrestling. I wish he would've tried that shit with Rampage, especially when he was still slampage. For all of Chuck's skill set, he barely utilized it outside of a few early and late fights (when he realized he couldn't rely on his chin), because he never needed to.
It's the same reason fucking AS threw such stupid leg kicks at Weidman RIGHT AFTER GETTING FUCKING TOOLED. He just couldn't respect his striking because he's never had to. Longo put it well, he said he couldn't believe what he was seeing and if this was his kickboxing days, anyone dumb enough to throw full power and telgraphed leg kicks with no hands set up would 100% expect to have his legs destroyed (certainly not broken, but ruined enough to fuck up the fight and, to be fair, Longo did break one or two opponents' legs using the same tech back in his heyday).
Same deal with the hands down and taunting approach, it's not textbook and AS didn't always fight that way, but when fighting a former champion means fighting someone with Forrest Griffin's buttfuck retarded striking (I love Forrest and he's one of my favorite fighters, but wtf was that 1-2-1-2/left-right-left-right zombie walking alternating bullshit lol) he's got no reason to fight smart. I mean AS' introduction fight was Leben lol I love Leben, but his striking is so Godawful. Franklin was probably the last time we saw AS fight semi-intelligently and like literally the last time we even saw his plum clinch.
I think you have to take Chuck for what he is and compare him to who he fought at the time and who his skill set was designed to fight and defeat at the time. He was and always will be, to me, the prototype Sprawl and Brawler and anti-wrestler (Obviously he wasn't the first and their were even guys in shooto like Yoshiki Takahashi, but Lidell exemplified it to me)
... Anyways that's enough nut riding for me for one day