[quote]Djwlfpack wrote:
Damici wrote:
I will say, my one fear (if you want to call it that) is that, with the UFC’s often quirky matchmaking, they sometimes tend to set up matches that no one is really all that interested in. Like Nog vs. Herring III (why?!). So I wouldn’t be TOO surprised if they throw Arlovski in there next, or even Tim, even though everyone’s been waiting YEARS to see the best of the Pride fighters (pretty much all but Fedor of whom – heavweights, anyway – are now in the UFC) fight the best of the UFC fighters, and we now have that chance. People have been longing to see CroCop and Nog fight Randy, Tim, etc. THOSE fights would be great to see. And that’s on top of the fact that Nog is (I believe) the #2 ranked heavyweight in the world. CroCop was #3 before getting beaten by Gonzaga, I believe, and I assume he’s still top 5 or 6.
Is anyone honestly going to try to tell me that Arlovski vs. Randy or Tim vs. Randy II is a more interesting fight than CroCop vs. Randy or Nog vs. Randy?? Please!! Hopefully Dana and company will do the right thing.
Sure, to the hardcore fan base, Randy vs. CroCop or Randy vs. Nogiuera are the more desireable matchups for Couture, but you have to remember that there’s still a large percentage of the fan base that doesn’t know much about PRIDE and what those 2 accomplished over there.
They tried to build CroCop up as something special but that kind of blew up in their face when Gonzaga smoked him, and Nogiuera struggled to beat Herring, a guy he beat pretty easily twice in PRIDE.
While I think a win by CroCop will move him up the ladder, I think it might take another 1-2 fights for Big Nog to get the proper build to headline a PPV against Randy.
That’s why I still think Arlovski could get the call. He’s an exciting fighter (with the exception of the 3rd Sylvia fight when he was hurt and the Werdum fight where he was just trying to get a win to protect his spot) who is popular with the fans. Plus, his style could present some problems for Randy.
But, with Randy’s injury and his filiming of the Scorpion King prequel, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an Arlovski-Cro Cop fight, with the winner slated to fight Couture, who I figure will want to fight sometime in Feb. or March of next year.
[/quote]
I’d personally love to see a Cro-Cop vs. Arlovski fight. I’ve felt that that would be a good match up for some time now. Perhaps have those two fight it out for the #1 contender spot. This would also most likely give Randy enough time to fully recover and get his training back up to where it was before the Gonzaga fight.
And since Sylvia was the former champion (although I agree an incredibly unappealing one), if he does beat Vera let him fight for the #1 contender spot vs. Nog next (the winner to fight the winner of the Randy vs. Arlovski/Cro-Cop). That way we get to see the top pride guys fight the top UFC guys and still get some pretty decent (unless Sylvia somehow beats Nog) fights for the title.
Now if the UFC signs Fedor, well then it’s probably only a matter or time before he gains the title and defends it indefinitely as he has in Pride. Honestly, I think that Randy probably has the best shot (or at least as good a shot as anyone) out there of possibly beating Fedor.
I seriously think that if he applies his game plan well there may be no one out there who can beat him (short of a puncher’s chance), especially in the cage. He is definitely the smartest fighter in MMA if you ask me.
Good training,
Sentoguy