You take em any way you can.
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It is interesting to compare Carlson and Rickson.
Carlson appears to have fought every tough champion he could. And he was very well cross trained for his era - using striking, judo and wrestling besides BJJ.
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Rickson was significantly older and not much bigger.
He had fought a whopping three times in the previous six years, two of the fights against a 0ā6ā2 Takeda.
All eye pokes and nut shots
Older, sure. Rickson walked in his prime at 185 and Renzo around 165. The specific number I gave was accurate.
This has nothing to do with anything I said.
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You are smarter than basically every ammy and pro I know.
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Rickson had been almost completely inactive while Renzo was fighting Henderson, Newton, Sakuraba etc.
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I donāt understand. You said yourself heās much older. Wouldnāt it stand to reason that when he was 40 he would have less recent fights than Renzo?
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Haha, Iāve seen a couple of people only realise what theyāve agreed to when theyāre warming up. I saw another decide he didnāt want to fight when he saw a knockout in one of the first bouts (he did, though).
For clarity: I never fought vale tudo/MMA - only kickboxing. Iām a hilariously bad grappler.
Renzo fought some of the best of his era.
Rickson fought a procession of handāpicked bums.
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I think you could say the same about fighting as an amateur.
I probably wasted 6 months to a year of my life training to have a fight just because it was something I wanted to do to prove to myself (and maybe to some others) that I could do it.
Never happened because I had to take a look at how it was affecting my life outside of training.
Having customer visits (both going to see them and them coming to see me) and Iām all bruised up, have a shiner, or have my fingers taped up and seeing the reactions on their faces when Iād explain what I was doing made me realize it might not be the best thing for my career.
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Not sure about that but it was pretty obvious to me that training and fighting were a passion for me but not a realistic pathway to financial success and not a way to provide the stability necessary to have a family.
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For sure if youāve already graduated into adulthood and have a real job and family. I fought while in college, the entire 4 years of undergrad were a waste of time so fighting didnāt change a thing
Lol Ricksonās fights are mostly from tournaments. He retired right after UFC 5. Everyone who wasnāt under 170 and in shooto fought bums in 94 and 95, thatās what the sport was.
You can complain that he talked shit after he retired, thatās fair. But pretending he was dodging killers by doing VTJ instead of his douchebag relatives UFC events is dumb. What were all these other events you want him to have done in 94 and 95?
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No, different move. Itās a straight knee bar. Another quirk is that you have one of your own legs folded up, like when you throw someone and armbar them immediately, or like you do with the round the world armbar.
Also, almost nobody was hand-picked, because, as stated earlier, there was minimal Internet, and you had limited ability to research fighters.
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Tough fight for Rickson, but Kerr was certainly beatable.
I havenāt read his book.
Why single out Kerr?
I think it might be like Kerr other BJJ opponents. Laying in his guard and small hammer fists. After a long boring match Rickson has a bloody nose and Kerr calls himself king
The thing is neither of them were strikers or necessarily very offensive from the clinch.
Theyāre both at their best on the ground, both prefer top position, and Kerr is significantly bigger and stronger.
So itās going to become a grappling match with strikes on the ground.
Kerr also has an excellent grappling resume.
Itās better than his MMA resume.
That said, I donāt know who I would pick.
Never gave it much thought.
Too many things I would want to see play out.
I wouldnāt bet money on that fight.
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