People seem to hate on Chuck a lot for whatever reason, but I think he has the skill set to beat Shogun:
1) Shogun doesn't have strong takedowns. He takes fights to the ground when either A) he's already hurt his opponent and B) his opponent is a much lesser wrestler. Chuck has arguably the best takedown defense in the game imo. Maybe he'd fuck Chuck up and then take him down, but I think Chuck is a better striker and can avoid the clinch.
2) Shogun is highly aggressive with his somewhat sloppy striking. I think his knees and clinch are great by mma standards, but as far as trading punches goes, I don't think he'd fare well with a solid counter puncher like Liddell. We've seen Shogun get dropped before, take the Nogueira fight for example, and I'm sure its a safe to say Chuck hits harder than Rogerio. Also, Shogun's punches don't look straight to me, they look somewhat loopy like Wanderlei's.
I see Shogun chasing and trying to overwhelm Chuck and then getting clipped.
I think there are a few guys in that division who could give Chuck big problems, mainly Rogerio Nogueira, Arona, and Overeem, but Shogun and Wanderlei are tailor-made for Chuck's style. That's not to say I think Chuck is the number one LHW right now, because Shogun has fought tougher competition imo, but the style matchup is a tougher one for Shogun than Liddell.
doesn't the fact that I'm picking Chuck despite his KO loss suggest that I'm looking at more than hype? I haven't heard anything about Chuck really since that fight, so as far as hype goes, I don't really know how you can say that.
That's fine, I can see how people would lean toward Shogun. But what do you see him finishing Chuck with? Knees? Big punch? Clean punch followed by gnp?
Forget any hype, because most of us know how they fight by now. I can see Chuck landing a clean punch on Shogun, I just can but I believe Shogun to be the better fighter and if Chuck couldn't land a KO than Shogun would be the first person to really really beat Chuck down.
I think your right and you will be heavily ridiculed.
Then again a few months ago, Crocop would walk to the title with almost no effort if he went to the UFC, Monson would probably lose to dec to a vet like Fujita, Werdum would mop the floor with AA who's not even close to top ten, and Diaz V Gomi would def be a can matchup to show how much better the comp in Pride was to all these dumb Americans.
Accepting that the comp of the two major orgs is comparable is a really tough transition to make for some.
Sometimes the gravitational pull towards nuts takes years to break...like every other mental health issue it takes time and compasion.
I think Shogun has better striking than all the guys Chuck has beaten recently. Chuck's success has come from forcing non-strikers to strike with him.
Shogun's game plan of coming right at his opponent is basically identical to Chuck's gameplan of having his opponent come right at him. But, Shogun is also a better striker than Randy, Horn, Babalu, etc. It'll be interesting to see what happens, should this fight occur.
I think Shogun has good takedowns. But I do agree that Chuck would have a very good chance of adding another KO to his win column. Getting a good knee in on a passive Rampage doesn't make Shogun a great striker.
"I think Shogun has better striking than all the guys Chuck has beaten recently. Chuck's success has come from forcing non-strikers to strike with him."
You're right, he probably does, but I still don't know if you can consider him a striker really. He seems to take fights to the ground whenever possible. But maybe its just a testament to how well-rounded he is.
Shogun by KO or TKO. He's more rounded, more aggressive, and yes, IMO more technical with his striking. He may lack wrestling, but I don't think he'd try to take him down unless he was hurt. He'd probably just clinch then. Honestly. Chuck doesn't want to stay in the clinch with shogun.