voorhees - Damn I wish we coulda seen Oleg vs. Royce in 93
Rorian had Oleg "tryout" for the UFC by rolling with Pedro Sauer. Oleg never got subbed, but Pedro was stuck on his back pretty much the whole time they sparred. Granted there were no strikes, it wasn't a fight and it was just "rolling". There are two schools of thought that resulted in this: 1. Oleg didn't do very well and Rorian didn't want another pure grappler in the show. Not that he would beat Royce, but he didn't want too many grapplers in the shows at that point. 2. Oleg did well enough (didn't get tapped by Pedro) that Rorian was afraid to have him in the UFC.
Samoa.
I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Rorian probably figured, win or lose, that Oleg would have given Royce a run for his money, and could have possibly worn him out, making it difficult for him in the later fights.
I hve those oleg fights on vhs . The most interesting to me is oleg in pancrase . I read in the book "brawl" Bob Shamrock is quoted as saying oleg went to pancrase and got his ass kicked . It certainly doesnt look like oleg got his ass kicked.
Oleg vs Royce would have been real interesting I dont see how Royce could finish . If sperry couldnt tap oleg Royce sure couldnt. I think oleg would have caught a leg lock but Royce would never tap . Finght would have been a draw
This fights are rare, luckily someone managed to put them on youtube. So, granted they're no longer rare as they're readily available but before youtube I had never seen them.
Does anyone have the Vovchanchyn fight I was referring to above?
Cant get over how bad Oleg looked on his feet. Not just his striking, his timing and ability to measure distance for the takedown. Honestly as bad as I have ever seen.
bryanand - The first video is very cool, but some bizarre stuff occurred. First Oleg looked like he had zero standup training at that point. Second, the thai boxer in the second fight has his corner throw in the towel the second the fight hits the ground...that is fucked. Third, looks like Oleg stole the thai boxers shorts and wore them in the last fight, which had another bizarre stoppage while he was sitting in mount on what appeared to be another Sambo fighter.
The towel throw was weird...but he did have a nice little armbar to get the tap from the mount on the Sambo fighter.