Prime Karelin Today?

AnotherTMAguy · August 28, 2020, 2:30am

If Karelin trained with Fedor, how would he do today in the UFC?

Dead_President · August 28, 2020, 2:42am

He’s get popped by USADA

Goodo · August 28, 2020, 4:26am

With his wrestling and off the chart physical abilities if he started MMA as a 25 year old I'd expect him to be top 5 by the time he was 30.

hankhill · August 28, 2020, 4:49am

I mean he was great, not a Randy Savage but he was great.

Bobby_Lupo · August 28, 2020, 8:50am

Can he take a punch? Can he throw one? HW doesn’t have a lot of room for error standing.

oranos · August 28, 2020, 11:49am

World destroyer

Ice_Cold_Igors_Right_Hand · August 28, 2020, 12:02pm

He did have that "fight" against Maeda.

Would be a beast on the ground but idk how well he would have done with striking.

UltimateKeyboardWarrior · August 28, 2020, 1:12pm

He would get popped by USADA before they even tested him.

Region_Rat · August 28, 2020, 5:13pm

Bobby Lupo - Can he take a punch? Can he throw one? HW doesn't have a lot of room for error standing.

Something tells me he can take a punch. He's a old school olympic wrestler from communist era Russia. I'm sure he's been in a few fights.

wiggum · August 28, 2020, 5:19pm

-He’d be the most talented athlete to ever compete in MMA, followed most likely by James Toney, Herschel Walker, Yoel Romero, and Henry Cejudo.

-He would not pass USADA tests, but I think these conversations are never interesting if you stop there.

-We have no idea whether he could punch or take a punch.

OG2006 · August 28, 2020, 6:52pm

This thread used to be good for a hundred posts back when that was a lot for a thread.

PeterIrl · August 28, 2020, 7:01pm

Bobby Lupo - Can he take a punch? Can he throw one? HW doesn't have a lot of room for error standing.

Boxed when he was a kid, so he’d probably be fundamentally sound. Plus he’s Russian, so guessing he could take a punch.

Rakoshi · August 28, 2020, 7:26pm

I saw him in person twice at the Tbilisi tournament in Soviet Georgia ... he was an absolutely terrifying physical specimen. Not sure about his picograms but I think with modern MMA training he could do whatever he wished in the octagon.

Fabes · August 28, 2020, 9:44pm

If you have him a couple years with a good team and good coach, with his work ethic, I imagine his standup would be good enough to clinch ANYONE. But who knows. So many variables in modern day MMA.

Rakoshi · August 28, 2020, 11:07pm

Would have loved to see an MMA match between he and Lesnar. Wrestling though AK by tech.

TzTinkle · August 28, 2020, 11:20pm

We saw what brock did with relatively little training, I think Karelin would be even better

HULC · August 29, 2020, 3:25am

Greco guys seem to do very well in MMA so I would expect a lot of success for him.

FingerorMoon · August 29, 2020, 3:30am

I swear I remember an interview where he talked about not liking striking and not having an interest in mma because of that.

MMAfan1million · August 29, 2020, 4:37am

Think of Karelin as a better DC wit no body fat... Think this is a sound indication of how well he would do (though I'm not sure if he could get down to LHW).

stringtheory · August 29, 2020, 5:24am

Could he take a punch lol? Of course he fucking could. He would have fucking destroyed people in MMA if he committed to learning some BJJ and striking.