I think it would be cool to hear from Tim directly.
I always was a fan, especially when I heard about him persevere through matt hughes, bullying and acting like a dickhead at pat’s gym.
I remember watching Tim beat the absolute dog shit out of cabbage at mohegan sun before Tim was a star.
I can’t believe the punishment cabbage took in that fight.
It was weak, but still a lot stronger than it is today.
It’s just that it’s very top heavy and the top 3 guys would have their way with Sylvia. Despite his lack of consistency, I think he is very underrated.
In his prime he only lost to the top guys. Mir, Arlovski, Couture, Big Nog, etc…He not only won the championship once, but reclaimed it, that’s hard to do.
He’s always been vulnerable to the overhand right, and mercer’s power was still there.
I think Hokit moves a lot like fedor in terms of speed and size. He is definitely someone i’m interested in watching fight.
Nah you can’t do that to big Timmy. Randy isn’t just an all time great. He’s captain America. That dude defied logic and physics. That win says more about Randy than it does about Tim, Couture simply wasn’t losing that night.
I respect the fuck out of Randy and it was a great performance, but people use Jon coming up to HW and winning the belt in his late 30s as an indictment of how shitty HW is today. Randy was in his mid 40s, isnt big for a LHW nevermind a HW, and was coming off of a loss at LHW. He fights Tim, who is the biggest guy ever to hold a UFC belt, somehow wins the belt, defends it, then loses it to a guy with a 2-1 record who had his first fight 18 months earlier.
I get that theres more to it than that, but still, it doesnt sound great does it? as far as being a reflection on Tim or the overall HW division at that time.
Timmah was injured going into that fight but got booed for saying so. The UFC pressured fighters to fight even if they were injured a lot back then, have first hand experience of that.
Sylvia was simply not that good. He was the UFC champion when the best HWs were in Pride. It’s basically the equivalent of being LFA HW champion today. Paul Buentello was getting title shots lmao. Anything else is nostalgia cope.
Interestingly - Jon Jones would have a 4 ½ inch reach advantage
Unrelated: the difference between your height and reach is known as the ape index
Very fair and I admit that I’m a little biased against Hokit because I don’t care for his act. But to do what he did against Blaydes was definitely impressive I can fully admit. Lewis looked like he showed up for a paycheck and the attempt to finish the armbar Hokit tried looked like a shitty blue belt against a guy rolling in trial class. He’s tough, but is he technically skilled? Skill almost always wins in this game when toughness is equally matched. Gane is definitely a tough test.
Super cool to know that you can beat Andrei Arlovski in his prime repeatedly & one of the best submission grapplers in history (Monson) easily by not being good.
Yeah I get what you’re saying but you’re oversimplifying it for sure. Randy was a 2-1 dog in that fight IIRC but a lot of that was due to age and the belief that he was done at the top level.
Jones did win the belt in a weak heavyweight division but I think he would have beaten anyone at that time, except for possibly Aspinall.
Definitely looked like a white belt in that position
Imagine being on the mat with Mir, Barnett, Nog, Fedor or Ricco Rodriguez looking like that. I wonder how Hokitt would match up against Heath Herring in his prime.
Arlovski was better than Sylvia, but had a knack for getting caught.
Monson is nowhere near a great MMA win. Might as well say Roger Gracie or Buchecha are great wins if you’re going to rank wins by how good people were in grappling.
I’m not saying Sylvia was a can, but pretending he was an elite fighter is laughable. He was maybe Derrick Lewis level.
Anyone in the UFC who wins a championship (especially in the post SEG era) is elite. Do you know how good you have to be to even make it to the UFC?
If he runs through Gane id favor him over nearly any heavyweight mma fighter in history
Absolutely anyone reasonable person would agree that beating either of those guys in MMA is a huge accomplishment. What are you even talking about?
Sweet, and I think he was taking the piss with the armbar
Comparatively, as you already knew.
Yeah, now you’re just reaching. Monson himself was a better MMA win than those two by quite a long shot, but still not a top win.