Last 90's Legend standing

Couture and Liddell are retired and after Wanderleis loss to Leben he might as well be. He will get 1 more fight in the same way Liddell got 1 after Dana wanted him retired and I reckon Wanderlei gets the same treatment. Who would people want him to fight? Personally Id rather he was back at 205 for his final fight, I dont blame the weight cut on anything but I think his technique being a bit oldschool he would be better packing more power on those swingers and fighting someone earier to hit! For me Id want a fight with someone who would make for a war, Bonnar would work for me.

Coleman is more or less retired isnt he? Arlovski is having another fight but he is done at top level. Crocop may or may not have 1 more fight but thats him done too.

So of the 90's generationn who are still relevant we have

1. Dan Henderson (40) - SF Champ, fighting Fedor, top 5 ranked has to be seen as the best of them.

2. Tito Ortiz (36) - Shot into the rankings after the Bader figh, he had held his own against Forrest previously and without a point deduction would have beat Evans. After seeing the fighters with a tonne of fights under their belt take bad KO's im thinking Tito only has

3. Big Nog (35) - Suffered bad Knockdowns and KO's recently but is ranked highly still and even a win over Schaub could get him a rematch with Mir. The reason I rank him below Tito is because of chins, After seein a lot of those other guys with serious mileage take bad KO's like him I reckon Nog is going to end up KO'd and retired too.

4. Matt Hughes (37) - Last year he said he was semi retired from now and was only planning one fight a year from now on in. The thing is Diego, wether through bad decisions or not is up there as a contender, a win over him catipults Hughes into title contender status. Problem is I think he hits a Brick wall with anyone over Diego if he does win.

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Those to me are 10 of the biggest faces wether by achievment to just being recognisable to your mates who have dipped in and out of MMA. I know Crocop wasnt an MMA fighter since the 90's but but he was fighting K-1 in 96 and MMA in 01 and had near 100 fights between them!

One thing we are seeing is fighters Chin going to shit, More than in Boxing. I think guys chin leaves them after a career of Soccerkicks, Elbows and Headbutts.

Liddell, Couture, Arlovski, Wanderlei, Crocop, Coleman, Nog all have or had a bad chin by the end of their career.

Hendo and Tito still have great Chins, Hendo has had 4 years and 10 fights on him though as well as being a lot smaller for two guys in the same devision.

I think none of the guys have more than 5 more fights here but I think its a toss up between Hendo and Tito as to who will stay on top longest. I dont really see any of them getting a UFC title again but if I was to bet on any of them getting a UFC title fight it would be Tito because I think he would make UFC more money than Hendo in a unification fight.

I'd rank Tito below both Nog and Hughes. He won 1 fight. In like 5 years. Against an over-rated young fighter who was pushed too far too soon.

Let's what til he fights a real contender.

whats happening on the top picture? also do you really think randy is done i keep thinking he will come back at some point.

Ive No idea whats happening in the top picture mate! Either Gracie has just been floored by Crocop or is showing him some Street BJJ

I cant see Couture coming back, I like the Japanses way of thinking that you should finish your career on a loss. Id imagine he isnt stuck for money either!!

Anfield Id rate Tito above Nog because despite their records Tito gave both Forrest and Evans 50/50 fights... Where as Nog has been blown away and KO'd by the top guys in his devision, even nearly finsihed by Herring and Sylvia.

Hughes is a tough one to call, But again its not like he was holding his own against the top guys in his devision, BJ and Alves beat him down badly.

Tito isnt a better fighter than either legacy wise but he seems to be holding his own against the top guys in his devision right now. I hear he is after the Shogun vs Forrest winner. I think if Shogun wins him vs Tito could be an absolute classic.

Ben how have you forgot to include Ken Shamrock

For me it's Hendo, Big Nog, Tito and then Hughes.

I also think Hughes has a better chance than most people think against Sanchez. Tito did give Evans and Griffin 50-50 fights but he was beaten soundly by Hammil and I think most of the top contenders would destroy Ortiz. Davis, Shogun, Evans (in a rematch), Machida (rematch) Rampage and ofc Jones would all destroy Ortiz.

Nog was very ill against Mir and was Koed by the best fighter in the division. I think he would do ok against some of the other top Heavies. I want to see how he does against Schaub before I can really judge how he'll do today.

I think with Hendo's power,wrestling ability and amazing chin,those are the tools needed for along career in this sport.

Wrestlers just seem to naturally last longer in the sport than other styles,so add power that can earn him an early night and a chin that can help him survive sticky situations to that as well,seems to be the perfect recipe,so hendo for me should,even though he has age on the others,last longer,also he's all ready among the top of pile of Strikeforce LHW's,and they are all winnable fights,so he's not going to get thrown in with any of the top 5 UFC LHW's,who IMO all beat him(unless a merge happens of coarse)

Tito has two of the three skills that hendo has,but he lacks the power to usually finish fights early.
The thing also with Tito,he hasn't fought any where near the amount of times the others have,so if he has managed to clear up all his injuries,there could be a case made that he has less miles wracked up,so he may have a good bit left in him.
But I think once you suffer from back injuries,it's very rarely you recover fully from them,plus add in,after the bader win,he's put himself in a place where he might have to start facing those guys that Hendo will get to avoid in the UFC and if that happens i can't see things going well for him,injuries or not and he could soon find himself straight back where he was 6 months ago.
saying that though,Tito's last win has probably guaranteed him atleast another two fights though.

Now Hughes has more fights under his belt than any of the others,but he has taken the smart move of keeping in good stead with his bosses and being allowed to only fight once a year,which can preserve his career for a couple of more years,but the other side of that is,will only fighting once a year keep him up to par to compete with the fighters that would be worth his and the UFC's while matching him up against,I'm sure we will know alot more after the sanchez fight.
If he wins then that should guarantee atleast another year from him,if he loses,I think that could be it.

Now Nog believe it of not is the youngest of the guys you mentioned,but the guy has just took too much damage during his career,as a BJJ guy he's had to take too many bombs while on his back and judging from his last few fights,his chin doesn't seem to be able to with stand the punishment it once could and the wars seem to have taken a huge toll on him.
I hope he comes through the Schaub fight,but i'm not sure he will personally,even if he does i don't think he will last with any of the guys higher than schaub he'd get afterwards.
he's a warrior in the same mold as wandi,and will want to keep going I'm sure,but if he loses to schaub,i can see him only getting one more chance after that and that would probably be against someone like meathead and if he doesn't get past schaub,i'd see him failing in that one too unfortunately.

so my order would at the moment be,Hendo lasting the longest,then Tito,then its a toss up between hughes and Nog.
Nog probablly because he will get another chance if he loses to schaub,while i think if hughes loses to sanchez,he'll most likely retire himself.

I'm sorry, but Tito doesn't have a great chin. It's decent but nothing special.

And he's tapped to strikes a couple of times.

Not a great chin like Hendo's granted,but I would say he's took enough good shots from some hard hitting fighters and fought through them to say he has a good chin though.

Who exactly has he taken big shots from and fought through? He ran away from Wandi first time he got hit and spent the rest of the fight humping him. And he humped Vitor and avoided his punches at all costs.

Decent chin, nothing special. When Ken Shamrock rocks you, your chin is not the greatest.

I agree with you,I'm not saying he has a granite chin,I'm saying he has a descent one,good one or how ever you think it should be phrased.

But to be fair to Tito,I think it would be pretty unusual to go through 25 top flight fights against the likes of metzger,both shamrocks,wandi,tanner,janitor,Cote,Vitor,Chuck,Randy,forrest,Machida etc without having your chin tested a few times and since only two of those guys have actually stopped him with strikes,a Prime KO artist in chuck and a young inexperienced Tito after four hard rds against a frank at the very top of his game,I'd say he has had to have passed a few tests along the way.

I seem to also remember Vitor unloading a couple of flurrys on Ortiz in there fight and Tito survived them without getting rocked to bad,and not that he's any KO power fighter but can anyone remember when Forrest was showing all these Seagal students the front kick to the face and knocked Tito's mouth piece flying out of his gob,he just shrugged that off,Shit I'll give myself a pat on the back for remembering those but if your actually expecting me to remember every shot he took in his fights,well you got me there,the old brain box struggles to retain important shit,never mind things like that.

No love for Belfort? I'd have him as more of a 90's legend than Tito.

That's actually a great shout Sheldan.

Shit yeah good call, I should have included him, to be honest Id put him right behing Hendo for where they stand right now, and he is 6 years younger.

Great shout I can see him fighting another few years. Hard to believe he started in 96!!

What about Akiyama, everyone see Belfort beating him? The thing I think people forget is Akiyama was going to beat Leben if he didnt get subbed, he had Leben backed up and Rocked on the feet and all.

If Belfort beats Akiyama he should look to the Bisping Miller winner or a fight with Munoz/Leben for the next title shot because Id bet that Sonnen/Stann gets the next one. Aparently both Munoz and Leben have been calling out Belfort... Id rather see Leben fight him myself.

Got that Wrong, Munoz is after Leben but Leben wants to fight Vitor.

im beginning to really like leben. i would back vitor to beat akiyama, i think if bisping can smack him around for 15 mins then vitor will unless he gasses.

Although, you never know... Akiyama might actually use his Judo.

Sexyama likes to stand and bang for some reason, so I reckon he's going to sleep against Belfort. If he did use his judo, then he could give Belfort problems, but at the same time Belfort has a huge size advantage over Sexyama as well.

How about Babalu? Regardless of what people say he's still a good fighter and he's got only 2 bad losses on his record, and one of them was against someone much bigger than him.

Belfort for me could still beat Anderson and is probs the only one in the middle weight division who could... he got caught badly in their first fight and everyone was shocked, I really believe he could KO anderson. (sonnen obv will get close too).

Lebens shit simple as that.

i agree pinsman. don't think he will get another shot though

Nah it's a little too late for him now I think, to many more ahead of him... just wish some of these fighters were a little more active, Belfort has such big breaks inbetween fights!

Obviously he could knock out Silva, if he landed. But I don't that would ever happen, Silva's head movement is possibly the best in the world when it comes to MMA. Silva just has far too much skill for Belfort standing. Belfort is also horribly injury prone.

He needs at least another 3 wins before he faces Silva again. By then Silva might have retired
already.

The winner of Stann vs Sonnen will get the next shot at Silva. Then you still have Munoz, Mayhem/Bisping and Leben wondering around and the possibility of GSP still there. I reckon if he beats Munoz he should fight the Mayhem/Bisping winner or Leben.

Belfort could land on silva a piece of piss if he had been more aggressive, belfort is a pace pusher when he fought silva he was WAY to defensive and that's why he got KO'd, if my memory serves me right he did land on silva in the first round when he moved forward?

If mayhem, bisping and leben munoz are next in line it just shows how shit the middle weight division is at the moment