It was real although Leko was in no condition to fight. He has a very bad hernia.
ttt for the UG experts
no kidding
I am usually not one to call work but anybody who fails to admit to themselves that
1) Ogawa is an absolutely spectacular candidate to do a work
and
2) Ogawa outstriking Leko is very very suspicious
Is not being that realistic.
I don't trust Pride one bit. They have done works and they will do works in the future. It is a product of the people and the culture.
Agreed. Initially, it was reported that Leko had injured his back rolling at Golden Glory. Hernia sucks. Gotta be painful to even lift your leg, nevermind kick with authority.
Now Cro Cop has got no good excuse. Word is he took Randelman very lightly. Like to the point of barely training for the fight. Got what he deserved there. Early KO yes, but even in that you could see Cro Cop was not prepared well. And Kevin was as sharpe as a tack for that fight.
Meltzer just said on MMAWekkly he thinks it's a work but has no proof.
LOL at no one posting on this thread.
The OG martial artists think it was a work, thay can't be wrong, can they?
I just think if it was going to be a work, it'd have been far more exciting than that.
Randleman outstriking CroCop is also unusual, doesn't mean it was a work. It just means that shit happens.
I don't think it was a work. I think it was a terrible matchup for Leko. If he was injured that makes it even more lopsided.
LOL at no one posting on this thread.Aren't you the impatient one? The post is only two hours old. Give it time.It looked fishy to me, both the knockdown and the conspicuous lack of any replays. I'm not saying that it was a work, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were.I just think if it was going to be a work, it'd have been far more exciting than that.Maybe Leko is just a bad worker. Maybe he knew with the injury that he couldn't put up an effective defense and took a dive. Maybe he just got caught by a big guy who hits hard.Hard to say with certainty.
"Randleman outstriking CroCop is also unusual, doesn't mean it was a work. It just means that shit happens."
But there are a couple MAJOR differences between the two fights. For one, the punch Randleman landed on Crocop was unquestionably a huge KO punch. Did you HEAR how loud the impact was? The punch Leko got hit with didn't look like it would knock even me down. As I said in a previous post, hard punches can look deceiving, especially around the temple. So I'm not ruling out the possibility that the knockdown was legit, but I think that's a longshot at best. It sure looked fishy.
But even more importantly, Randleman and Crocop have no history of works. Ogawa most certainly DOES have a history of works. It's like the boy who cried wolf...once you do a work, you had better expect that people will be speculating each and every time whether your win was legit. And that's the price you pay for doing a work. I don't think we OWE Ogawa anything, I have no reason to trust that the fight was legit. But I do have reason to suspect that it was a work, because he's done it in the past.
It's sad really, because once a guy does a work, he takes the validity out of all of his legit wins because people wonder whether it was a work again.
Randleman/Sak was not work, just two guys being overly cautious.
Leko said in his pre-fight interview that his back was not causing him any problems whatsoever.
People on this forum need to realize that just because a Japanese guy is in a match and the match does not go the way you want it to it does not mean it is a work.
There are many worked and semi-worked matches but most are real.
i disagree that Randleman is a known worker
People on this forum need to realize that just because a Japanese guy is in a match and the match does not go the way you want it to it does not mean it is a work.It's not about being Japanese! Leko is not Japanese. There are plenty of Japanese fighters who have never been accused of works.
Randleman is not very sharp in the submission game.
Did you not see pictures of Kev's arm after that fight? He tore his bicep and was more or less just riding the clock...if that were a work why not have Saku just complete the triangle had had baited for 70% of the fight?
...and Randleman will not win the GP.
I have no idea if it was a work or not....BUT...let's not forget that this was Leko's first MMA match.
Granted he is a good kickboxer and all, but nearly weekly on here you have posts on here about people talking about being nervous walking into their first amateur mma match. This guy was walking into the ring in front of thousands of people, on TV etc. Why would anyone expect that he would definitely perform well.
It is entirely possible that concerns about an injury and a great deal of concern about getting taken down caused him to take his eye off the ball and got clipped with a punch he didn't see and wasn;t expecting (he was so pre-occupied with the take down that he wasn't protecting his head.)
Anyway, maybe it was a work, maybe not but as Pride keeps bringing in great strikers don;t be terribly surprised if some of them get hurt while standing....not because their opponents are better strikers, but because they have so many new things to think about in the match.