Kens lack of technical knowledge was on full display when he was a coach on tuf. He was under qualified to coach even then which most of the cast was well aware of.
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I just remember how Pat Smith winced in pain and tapped hard as fuck and was like “yea, i wanna know how to do that”. Mightve been the first leg lock I ever saw if I remember right. Ive literally been watching the UFC since it started when I was 11 years old. Over 30 years
At one point in time yes.
Then Olympic gold medal winner Kurt Angle became it!
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Ron mysterio could just turn over there to relieve the pressure. No hip control.
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Paul Harris was the real king of leg locks
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That Kimbo fight was the most obvious work in the history of MMA. Ken’s knees were so shot he could barely move that second “takedown” was the most ridiculous thing i have ever seen. He walked towards Kimbo leaned as far over as his back would let him, grabbed the back of his legs and Kimbo had to literally throw himself down. Then the head to head talking tie up and talk like old school pro-wrestling they were doing. Ken having hooks in and undefended RNC by some miracle he could not finish. Kimbo being able to stand up from that position. Ken took that shot and Kimbo looked like oh shit i hit him too hard. Ken then went over and once again pulled the old pro-wrestling trick of blading himself of the cut.
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I wish Ken retired after his Kimo 2 fight.
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Paulson was also quite a bit smaller. He was the shooto champ at 167 I believe. In modern weight classes he’d be a 155er.
Paulson was very good at leg locks. Definitely technically better than Ken, less horsepower as previously mentioned though.
Ken was good, definitely the best in the UFC early on.
Suzuki and Funaki were both better than him though, leg lock wise. Ken is definitely up there, not number one in that era though.
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Every time lol. They post it every time and always think they’ve made a brilliant point.
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OP asked if Ken was the king of leg submissions in his prime.
Ken’s Prime was in the 90s.
He coached Tuf in 2006.
He was definitely the leg lock king of the 90s.
There might have been guys out there more technical with them. But they weren’t doing it on the big stage vs the big names at the time.
Ken admitted that after his comeback he had just been training with his Lions Den guys and not evolving, which part of the reason he started training with Paulson.
I have also heard that the Tuf editing wasn’t very kind to Ken.
Regardless, what he was doing in 2006 doesn’t have much to do with what he was doing in the 90s as a fighter and founder of the first real MMA camp in the U.S.
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Yep.
Would have been the perfect time.
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Wow.
Brilliant surface-level take.
You should pat yourself on the back.. whoever you are.
Ruas was pretty good with the heel hooks
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What that supposed to prove exactly?
That specific entry he, funaki, and Suzuki were all good at is really pretty close to the k guard to backside 50/50 we see a ton nowadays
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