quote:

Gracie's a has-been who's still living off his early UFC fame. The MMA landscape has changed so much since his glory days. You need to be verse in not only grappling but striking as well. He wouldn't have a chance in hell these days. I would love to see Sakaraba take him in PRIDE rules match just to see Gracie get his ass kicked.

DIdn't you see the quarterfinals of the 2000 Pride GP tournament where Saku punished, toyed with, and demoralized a game Royce? The
match ended when Gracie didn't answer the bell for the ??th round.
It was a 90 minute classic battle.

quote:

The thing is, I don't need to see a Giant Silva or a Yuji Nagata on a MMA show. I want to see the real fighters. Don't get me wrong, if they have talent that's fine. What I question is when one of these guys do win, you get the argument of the match being a work. I feel it's not fair to the fighters who train their asses off just to have the legitimacy of their sport questioned.

True, I don't want to either, but like you said...they are big money draws in Japan since Pro-Wrestling there has a cult-like following. Freak shows are proven to receive the highest ratings, especially the Inoki Bom Ba Ye show where Genki fought Butterbean with a 150+ lb difference. In a tournament style competition though, these guys will be weeded out to a certain extent. I believe this Heavyweight GP could have had bigger, more consistent names but I guess the politics involved along with prospetive fighters' contracts with other organizations restrict this crossover. Barnett would have been a great addition.

I believe those who do participate in worked matches probably need to rectify a previous loss in order to be included once again in the main draw. Coleman and now Randleman both participated because they
each came off a recent loss and needed to boost moral for the Japanese fans by losing to one of their heros. ie Coleman and Takada, Randleman and Sak.

JMC- have you seen the CroCop Story available for download? Good stuff and now I look at him in a whole different light.

I'm not sure about the trend I'm beginning to see with the K-1 fighters crossing over to MMA. It is exciting to watch the destructive stand up power of these fighters, but there needs to be more ground training if they are ever going to get respect from all the fans. I think LeBanner is ready after watching some clips of him in practice. HE and CroCop are the only ones athletic and well-rounded enough to be top 10 material. We'll see if those like Leko and Hunt can 'stand up' to the challenge.

___________________
edit sig- image exceeds size restrictions