UFC 103 (SPOILERS)

"Silva has so many tools standing up, he has his excellent head movement, deadly accurate punches, power, a good chin, lethal kicks and brutal Muay Thai. Cro Cop has power and the HK but thats it."

crocop had the most accurate punches of any heavyweight, even goldy/rogan said the other night he was a sniper. He also has a good chin, he was KOd twice, by a headkick from Gonzaga and by Randleman, i guarentee anderson could not take those shots. He also had the most deadly kicks of any MMA fighter ever, and a great kickboxing brain, he knew how to set things up (in a ring at least).

other things he has over anderson is that, in his day, he was a much more athletic, and he isnt cocky, and doesn't duck the heavyweight and up until recently light heavyweight divisions.

It's great that you defend your favourite fighter constantly but Cro-cop as you say yourself is not the fighter of five years ago,well for me he is but fighters have just overtaken him and left his confidence shattered.Five years in the fastest growing sport in the world is a lifetime ago.
I thought Naseem Hamed was the Dogs bollox but look what one loss can do to a fighter when he is brought back down to earth.
Do you think Naz would of been classed as one of the best if he had lost 50% of his fights over the next 5 years after against less than the top opposition out there?
How has his name still been mentioned as one of the best over that time is beyond me,his hype is what has carried him through not his results or strenghth of competition because lets face it his results have been below average for someone who was a so called top of the food chain fighter and as I said the competition he has faced has not been top of the food chain fighters either.

The mental side of the game is huge and I believe it worked for him for a long time like it did for Wandy to,people were scared of them before they entered the ring(not all)winning them 50% of the fight before it started,which in turn gave him the confidence to attack and feel unstoppable.
Once Fedor destroyed the myth and Cro-cop got a reallity check he lost that confidence that had helped him so much,that and the fact others were less intimidated by him and the evolution of the sport improved 10 fold,fighters eclipsed him in size,strenghth and all round skills,leaving him as a big name scalp that they all wanted to try and make a name off him.

So for me you are right in what you say,he didn't look like the fighter of five years ago but I put it down to when he was classed as a great the feild of compitition was weaker now it is stronger(thats evolution for you)he had a stronger frame of mind because he believed his own hype and other fighters were intimidated by him,Fedor put a big hole in his confidence and fighters no longer went into a fight with him with as much fear.

The rest of the pack caught up with him along time ago and have know eclipsed him by along way,it's just unfortunate for him and his fans that it has took them this long to realise it.

"crocop had the most accurate punches of any heavyweight, even goldy/rogan said the other night he was a sniper. He also has a good chin, he was KOd twice, by a headkick from Gonzaga and by Randleman, i guarentee anderson could not take those shots. He also had the most deadly kicks of any MMA fighter ever, and a great kickboxing brain, he knew how to set things up (in a ring at least).

other things he has over anderson is that, in his day, he was a much more athletic, and he isnt cocky, and doesn't duck the heavyweight and up until recently light heavyweight divisions."

Ye but Silva is more accurate with those punches, he completely outstruck Franklin who has the second highest percentage of strikes connecting in the UFC. He does have a pretty good chin admitidly, and I doubt any fighter could survive the Gonzaga HK (even Hendo and Cote) and those Randleman shots were brutal but at the same time, Cro Cop should have never let those shots go through, Doubt Silva would have. His kickboxing is good as well, forgot about that but Silva's Muay Thai is more dangerous IMO.

I don't think Cro Cop was ever that athletic, niether is Silva but I wouldn't say Cro Cop has a major advantage in that area. Silva is cocky but so are many fighters today and he has only recently turned cocky because of the shit Dana is saying and plus, he has more of a reason to be cocky than most fighters. As for ducking competition, Silva has already beaten the guys he is ducking comfortably and with so many fighters he has a right to ignore those guys now. He has 3 fights left and he doesn't want them to be against Nate, Hendo and then Belfort. If he ducks Belfort the il agree but Nate should fight Hendo to determine the number one contender and this is coming from a HUGE Nate fan. As for the LHW division, I think its ridiculous but its his right if he doesn't want to fight mr Machida. Its not like Machida wants the fight either, people don't fight there teamates all the time (think Kos-Swick-Fitch, Nog-Dos Santos ect)

And I really don't like Silva that much, I hope someone knocks him back to earth.

I think Crocop was MMA's best striker better than Anderson Silva. Mirko Crocop beat Most of K-1's top guys. Fair enough he lost to Hoost but Hoost was the greatest kickboxer ever! Remy Bonjasky (2nd or 3rd best ever) Peter Aerts (Top 5/10) Jerome Le Banner (top 5/10) Mark Hunt, Mike Bernardo, Sam Greco and showed Massive KO power putting away Jan Nortje and Bob Sapp wearing boxing gloves...

You cant forget him and Anderson are both natural Lhw's Anderson cutting from 230ish Mirko walking around at 220ish. For men the same size Mirko was twice as powerfull and thats why he fought at heavy I think. His freakish power allowed him to KO bigger guys and he maby saw heavyweight as the most prestigious title.... Im not sure but coming from a K-1 background maby he just wanted to be Heavyweight champ?

Even if Crocops head was in the game I think he would have beat Dos Santos. Forget being outweighted and slower at 35.. I think if his head wasnt in the fight at all. Mirko hadnt any confidence or any desire to fight. He just looked like he wanted out of there.

Its the Tyson story all over again. His Body didnt pack in and his Skills didnt leave him. After so many years as the most feared striker in the world he just lost his love for the game and his killer instinct.

Im not sure, maybe but he did lose 7 times in K1 and not always to big names. I just think Silva is much more diverse in striking. IMO Machida has the best stand-up in MMA but Silva has the best actual striking. Its his head movement that makes him so hard to hit, if they ever fought back when Cro Cop was amazing I think Silva could have won. He has a clear advantage on the ground should it go there and Silva is always one clich away from kneeing someone's face to oblivion, Cro Cop has that HK but I doubt Silva would let Cro Cop get so close to do that.

Also I belive Cro Cop fought at HW because he likes fighting bigger guys.

You say Cro Cops head was not in the game, so thats why Dos Santos win but you have to consider what was happening to Dos Santos. He was giving Cro Cop WAY too much respect and looked nervous. He could have gone for the finish several times but seemed hesitant to pull the triger. If the Dos Santos that we saw in the UFC previously came in againt Cro Cop, we would have seen a first round KO.

There has been a report that a suspicious substance was found in Cro-cops corner following his loss to Jnr Dos Santos.


A UFC spokesperson has said "judging by Cro-cops performance,the substance was deffinately not speed.