It could also be a very bad move for the UFC. Look at the bottle neck Fedor has created in Pride. But at least when he fights the contenter’s such as Cro-Cop or Nog, it lead to highly anticipated and very good fights. Same with the HW fights leading up “who gets to fight Fedor”.
The UFC doesn’t have any interesting fighters in the HW division, relative to Pride. The world doesn’t have anyone who can hold a candle to Pride’s HW division. Silvia and AA are good, but would not beat Mirko. Of course there is “always the off chance”…but it’s so incredibly small that anyone else could beat Mirko in the UFC, unless more Pride fighters came over.
[quote]Donut62 wrote:
Zap Branigan wrote:
CroCop will probably try to leg kick Sylvia and chop him down like a tree. It probably won’t take very many but he might leave himself open for some decent counterpunching.
You just never know.
Stranger things have happened. Tim is the perfect kind of fighter for Mirko, though. He doesn’t press the pace and generally will let Mirko dictate the action. Right leg kicks, and that change-up left that can probably reach up to Timmy’s head. The only time Cro Cop was knocked out was by Randleman faking a shoot. Without a ground game Tim brings nothing that Mirko has to worry about.
I’m wondering if his left foot can reack Timmah’s head. Sylvia has terrible posture at 6’ 8", Mirko dropped Aleks with a LHK who was 6’ 6" and standing straight up.
I assume they are going to announce this on the NYE show. I’m just surprised they didn’t do it last night. You figure announcing the acquisition of a former policeman, counter-terrorism commando, champion kick boxer, and parliament senator would have went over well with the troops. If promoted right, Mirko has the language skills and back story to become a superstar here. This also fits into Dana’s plan to expand to Europe where Mirko is already a deity.[/quote]
I wonder is Tim will attempt his high kick? Now a Tim Sylvia high kick knocking out CroCop would but turn the MMA world upside down! (I doubt this would happen though)
Also, much like Vera, CroCop is a “small” heavyweight so in theory he could drop down to fight Lidell.
I think it’s great CRO COP came to the UFC but there is just no competition for him. Does he get a title shot right off the bat or a warm up? Really if you look at it Sylvia is only just a warm up. Even if they do get Herring CC already pounded the crap out of him before he was as good as he is now.
Maybe Chuck goes up to HW? Maybe Vera in a year or so. I think they still need to lure a few HW’s from Pride or after Mirko takes Sylvias’ title he can drop to 205 and be a dual title holder. At 205 he has Chuck, Tito, Babalu and hopefully Rampage…
Haha, I posted a thread on this at about the same time. Pretty exciting news.
The website reports that he’ll be fighting Jake O’Brien. O’Brien has showed a lot of talent early on (undefeated now), but damn, talk about feeding someone to the wolves.
[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
Zap Branigan wrote:
Sylvia will kick his ass.
Does anyone know/remember an article/interview where Tim discussed how he would beat each of Pride’s top heavy weights? All I recall is “Fedor is just a little shit…” or something to that effect.
I’m wondering what Timmy’s game plan will be for CroCop? Aside from sitting back and waiting till CroCop throws a punch or kick and countering…oh wait that likely is his game plan.[/quote]
[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
Donut62 wrote:
Zap Branigan wrote:
CroCop will probably try to leg kick Sylvia and chop him down like a tree. It probably won’t take very many but he might leave himself open for some decent counterpunching.
You just never know.
Stranger things have happened. Tim is the perfect kind of fighter for Mirko, though. He doesn’t press the pace and generally will let Mirko dictate the action. Right leg kicks, and that change-up left that can probably reach up to Timmy’s head. The only time Cro Cop was knocked out was by Randleman faking a shoot. Without a ground game Tim brings nothing that Mirko has to worry about.
I’m wondering if his left foot can reack Timmah’s head. Sylvia has terrible posture at 6’ 8", Mirko dropped Aleks with a LHK who was 6’ 6" and standing straight up.
I assume they are going to announce this on the NYE show. I’m just surprised they didn’t do it last night. You figure announcing the acquisition of a former policeman, counter-terrorism commando, champion kick boxer, and parliament senator would have went over well with the troops. If promoted right, Mirko has the language skills and back story to become a superstar here. This also fits into Dana’s plan to expand to Europe where Mirko is already a deity.
I wonder is Tim will attempt his high kick? Now a Tim Sylvia high kick knocking out CroCop would but turn the MMA world upside down! (I doubt this would happen though)
Also, much like Vera, CroCop is a “small” heavyweight so in theory he could drop down to fight Lidell.[/quote]
The last time Mirko weighed 205 pounds was when he was a teenager. Before this year’s OWGP final Mirko was regularly coming in at 104-105(230-233) pounds. In shape. So getting to 205 pounds for a weigh in would be very very tough.
Besides Liddel stands no chance against Crocop standing. Liddel should go up considering that he must be stepping into the cage at 215 or so.
I like Crocop going to the UFC. It will be good for American audiences. They will finally have an elite HW who is also a great striker.
If Pride does fold it would not be the end of the world for the best guys should make it to the UFC and then they will truly have the world’s greatest fighters in one place.
[quote]oldcrabbybastard wrote:
Slyvia should get beaten up just for having a dumb nickname and a hatchet job of a haircut/facial hair. “Maine-iac” is the best he could come up with?[/quote]
That’s odd, CroCop probably has the most clips/highlight reels of any MMA fighter, yet the only Tim Syliva video at all on Youtube is the one I uploaded of his newest commercial which is pretty funny. Edit I mean actual fighting clips.
I’ve never seen a Tim Syliva fighting clip online yet, and I don’t particularly hate Syliva or anything no bias.
The last time Mirko weighed 205 pounds was when he was a teenager. Before this year’s OWGP final Mirko was regularly coming in at 104-105(230-233) pounds. In shape. So getting to 205 pounds for a weigh in would be very very tough.
[/quote]
Yup, I think the reason he came in at 220-222 for the OWGP is because his foot problems prevented him from training as hard as he could (pure speculation here). He was really huge back in like 2003-2004 or so, I think he was pushing 240. He could probably make 205, but I doubt he would go down for Chuck, Chuck would have to come up.
Its great news but at the same time who is actually going to compete with him in the UFC?
Perhaps ill be proved wrong but I cant think of a competitive fight out there. Sylvia has a punchers chance but will likely be taken out in a round. Look at Sylvias 1st fight with arlovski to see what will happen (minus the leglock). Arlovski also has a punchers chance but has too much of a glass jaw and judging by his last fight with sylvia he will be afraid to trade.
Vera is an up and comer but right now would get destroyed. Monson struggled to get sylvia down so i dont see him doing anything against Cro Cop who is a bastard to get down and will be trying to knock his head off.
Right now there is no one but it will make for a lot of quality highlight reels!
[quote]AdamC wrote:
Its great news but at the same time who is actually going to compete with him in the UFC?
Perhaps ill be proved wrong but I cant think of a competitive fight out there. Sylvia has a punchers chance but will likely be taken out in a round. Look at Sylvias 1st fight with arlovski to see what will happen (minus the leglock). Arlovski also has a punchers chance but has too much of a glass jaw and judging by his last fight with sylvia he will be afraid to trade.
Vera is an up and comer but right now would get destroyed. Monson struggled to get sylvia down so i dont see him doing anything against Cro Cop who is a bastard to get down and will be trying to knock his head off.
Right now there is no one but it will make for a lot of quality highlight reels![/quote]
Look at it this way: It’s a start. People (including myself) are constantly whining and bitching about how bad the UFC HW division is. Bringing a guy like Cro Cop in instantly elevates the divisions status.
Not only that, but it shows throughout the world that the UFC is becoming very strong by signing probably the most popular foreign fighter in Japan away from the perceived strongest organization in the world. It makes a strong statement about where the UFC wants to go, and with that other top fighters will be drawn in. Fedor has essentially created a cluster fuck in Pride because, quite frankly, no one can beat him. So you have all these great fighters like Nog who are essentially locked out of the title.
If Pride keeps slipping they will want to leave, and the UFC will appear very attractive with a huge name like Cro Cop holding the title. Cro Cop is beatable unlike Fedor, and fighters will want to give it a shot.
Just a year ago Pride appeared unstoppable: They beat K-1 on NYE in ratings for the first time and created a new mega-star in Shogun. Now, just a year later they are back to where they were in 2002-2003 with no TV outlet and riddled by scandals. Cro Cop fights a can, Sylvia, Vera, Arlovski. There is a years worth of good fights, and probably roughly the length of his contract. Who knows where Pride will be a year from now. It could be bigger than ever and still stacked and he could go back, or it could have collapsed and the UFC will be stockpiled with top heavyweights. Mirko made a very smart decision in my opinion. He will become a very rich man and an even bigger star while waiting to see what happens with Fedor and company.
As excited as I am about this, I was really hoping to see a Fedor/Crocop rematch in the near future. I really think Crocop has improved a lot since their first fight and considering how exciting their first was (at least I thought so, anyways), I’m dying to see a rematch.
But damn, Crocop is my favorite fighter and Sylvia is probably one of my least favorite–this is basically a dream come true for me!
