I was wondering on who you think is the better heavyweight champion of MMA. Do you think Andrei Arlovski (UFC) or Fedor Emeilanenko (PRIDE) is? Both have amazing wins.
Fedor. He's beaten the best MMA fighters consistantly and looked damned scary. Arlovski's good and I think he's the real deal, but we still don't know how good he really is because he hasn't fought against an especially high standard of competition
True. Fedor has beaten Randleman, Coleman, Herring, ect. I think Arlovski is a great heavyweight, I mean remember the Buentello fight?
Fyodor is the most dominant heavyweight in MMA history, Arlovski has faced nowhere near the same kind of competition. While there's no doubt that Arlovski is a gifted and powerful individual, he simply hasn't competed at the top so measuring him against Emelianenko is impossible.
I mean Arlovski needs to be put up against more skilled fighters then. I know he can beat them, they just need to come forward. He's very well rounded Sombo, BJJ, Kickboxing, and Boxing. He's powerful and can destroy anyone.
Fedor, but Arlovski could easily be as good, he just hasn't had the chance to show it against fighters of Fedors calibre.
Fedor is definitely ranked higher, but there's no reason that Arlovski couldn't do what Fujita did, and capitalise on it better.
I would say that Arlovski is the more dangerous man at the moment. I know I am asking to be shot down on this one but my gut feeling lies with him. DL
MMA is not a one sided event by any means but Fedor I think is the top guy in it as his mistakes are small and while he is not flash he is very sensible and effective. I think he is top dog.
got to go with sever the fact is the best fighters PERIOD fight in pride. I love the UFC and seeing UFC 1 on VHS in 1993 (before it got banned in the U.K., and the only way to see it was dodgy bootlegs from the states) got me into the mma, but the fact is every time i see a pride show i know the UFC fighters would get eaten alive by the pride boys.
i think that the top 3 heavyweights are fedor, nog, and cro-cop. arlovski isn't in the top 3, not even top 5 hws. he'd probably be #10 on the top 10. he thinks he has it, then he should bring it. there's nothing that stops ufc fighters to fight in pride fc. why ufc to pride fc? because of the crowd. pride fc is just better attended, better produced, and better distributed then the ufc. and the money in pride fc is way way bigger than the ufc. that's why they attract the better fighters.
I don't know what in the world would make you think that. I mean who has Arlovski beat that was top tier? Paul Buentello? Justin Eilers? come on get real. Fedor's cleaned out the entire Pride Heavyweight division... he's beat the likes of Cro Cop, Big Nog (3 times), Mark Coleman, Kazuyuki Fujita and the list just goes on. I think Arlovski is a very skilled fighter, but he needs to start fighting people who are actually good and ranked top 10 before people start comparing him to the likes of Fedor.
brainuse i do not wish to insult your views but if you look at almost any multi brand ranking system from Fighters only mag to Sherdog.com the pride boys are top of the tree. I do not think the UFC boys are not top fighters, not by any degree but every time a UFC fighter has entered Pride from Chunk Liddle to Royce Gracie to Jens Pulver they have been pounded on until they raised their game to the pride levels.
The problem with most website and magazine rankings is that, like almost ANY rankings, they're subject to bias and lack of MMA knowledge by those polled (like fighters who don't usually have the time and energy to learn about anyone asid from those whom they might fight). For the sake conversation, here's some off-the-top-of-my-head Top 10 Rankings for the big 6 MMA classes: Heavyweight: 1) Fedor Emelianenko (PRIDE) 2) Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera (PRIDE) 3) Andrei Arlovski (UFC) 4) Sergei Kharitonov (PRIDE) 5) Mark Hunt (PRIDE) 6) Mirko Filipovic (PRIDE) 7) Tim Sylvia (UFC) 8) Brandon Vera (UFC) 9) Fabricio Werdum (PRIDE) 10) Jeff Monson (UFC) Lightheavyweight: 1) Chuck Liddell (UFC) 2) Mauricio Rua (PRIDE) 3) Wanderlei Silva (PRIDE) 4) Renato Sobral (UFC) 5) Ricardo Arona (PRIDE) 6) Antonio Rogerio Noguiera (PRIDE) 7) Quinton Jackson (PRIDE) 8) Alistair Overeem (PRIDE) 9) Tito Ortiz (UFC) 10) Scott Smith (WEC) Middleweight: 1) Rich Franklin (UFC) 2) Dan Henderson (PRIDE) 3) Matt Lindland (Cage Rage) 4) Nathan Marquardt (UFC) 5) Akihiro Gono (PANCRASE) 6) David Loiseau (UFC) 7) Murilo Bustamante (PRIDE) 8) Chris Leben (UFC) 9) Evan Tanner (UFC) 10) Jeremy Horn (UFC) Welterweight: 1) Matt Hughes (UFC) 2) Georges St. Pierre (UFC) 3) Akira Kikuchi (SHOOTO) 4) Frank Trigg (ROTR) 5) Karo Parisyan (UFC) 6) Jake Shields (ROTR) 7) Diego Sanchez (UFC) 8) Josh Burkman (UFC) 9) Spencer Fisher (UFC) 10) Joe Riggs (UFC) Lightweight: 1) Takanori Gomi (PRIDE) 2) Tatsuya Kawajiri (SHOOTO) 3) Vitor Ribeiro (Cage Rage) 4) Hayato Sakurai (PRIDE) 5) Joachim Hansen (SHOOTO) 6) Yves Edwards (UFC) 7) Mitsuhiro Ishida (SHOOTO) 8) Norifumi Yamamoto (K-1) 9) Koutetsu Boku (SHOOTO) 10) Josh Thomson (PRIDE) Featherweight: 1) Gilbert Melendez (SHOOTO) 2) Ivan Menjivar 3) Joao Roque (SHOOTO) 4) Rumina Sato (SHOOTO) 5) Masakazu Imanari (DEEP) 6) Jeff Curran 7) Hatsu Hioki (SHOOTO) 8) Yoshiro Maeda (PANCRASE) 9) Antonio Carvalho (SHOOTO) 10) Rahny Yahrya
Again, this is factually false. First, most of the top 10s that you cited regularly include UFC fighters balanced fairly well with Pride's best. Second, most of the top 10s that you are refering to are horrifically bad. They tend to regularly ignore fighters who are absolutely top caliber (Akira Kikuchi can't get love anywhere; most westerners don't have the vaugest idea who Ishida and Boku are, etc.), they tend to base their rankings on noteriety and past successes rather than in ring performance (guys like Heath Herring and Vitor Belfort continually get love regardless of their records), they regularly place guys in fantasy weight classes, rank guys that have retired (Ricardo Almeida was on lists forever), and generally make glaring errors. Third, your body of evidence is poorly chosen. Liddell: *2-1 in Pride appearances. Knocked out Mezger and Overreem, and got pounded on by Rampage. *UFC win over Vitor Belfort, who was 4-1 in Pride. *UFC KO win over Renato Sobral, who choked out Pride superstar Shogun in IFC tourny *UFC win over (granted much smaller) Pride fighter Murilo Bustamante. Royce: *His early success in the UFC was in 1993-1995, against guys virtually no MMA grappling experience. He was then out for 5 years, beat the useless Takada in the first round of the Pride Tourny, and then survived 90 minutes with a prime, bigger Sakuraba. *You will notice that though his NYE 2003 fight with Yoshida is a Draw, this is due to the rules for the fight stipulating no judges decision if no one can finish the fight. Royce looked extremely good, giving again a much bigger Yoshida trouble throughout and dominating at times. Pulver: *Hasn't been the orginal dominating Pulver since sometime in 2002 so the point is somewhat moot. *Was always a small 155, and had dropped down to 143, before trying to come up to 160 in Pride against the two guys who are absolutely gigantic at 160, Gomi and Sakurai. Knocked out the overrated TAISHO between those two fights. You also neglect to mention that guys like Josh Thomson and Sean Sherk were successful in their Pride appearances, that an out of shape Ricco Rodriguez nearly managed to steal a decision from Nogueira, that a lot of these guys train together and a lot of guys circulate throughout the talent pool and turn up in a variety of organizations with success, and a variety of other facts that go against your point.
Tito shouldn't even be on that list. Kaz Nakamura should be about 9 or 10. Karo should be above Trigg Imo.
