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If Bas Rutten was in his prime and fighting today, how would he do?

6K views 20 replies 17 participants last post by  Voiceless 
#1 ·
Was watching some old Bas Rutten fights today and man I love watching that guy fight!

How well do you think he'd fare in the UFC today if he was in his prime? Champion? Top 5? Top 10? Irrelevant?
 
#3 ·
If he fought the same as he did back then but was still in his prime, he MIGHT be Top 10 but I doubt it. He'd have to adapt to the changes in MMA. The game changes every year but I don't see Bas beating the likes of Jon Jones, Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida, or even some people further down the ladder like Ryan Bader who are gonna put him on his back.
 
#9 ·
Thank god he's not so I can live in an imaginary world where he would beat everyone.

Realistically if you take his stories about cortisone injections etc. into account, he wouldn't have been able to compete under the type of testing they do now.

But my GOD did he hit hard. Even in his "return" fight against Villereal his striking looked devastating compared to most UFC fighters.
 
#18 ·
Hockey isn't a good example with all the rule changes offensive players get so much space it's unreal. Gretzky Yzerman Mario Howe all would smash the nhl today. More like Crosby and Ovey would be in hell trouble playing with them in their time.

Football would be better anyone think the 72 dolphins or the 85 bears would even crack 500 in the modern nfl.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3
 
#20 ·
...I think many of the older fighters & ex-champions-even in their prime wouldn't fair well against the new, more well-rounded, highly trained coached fighters of today. We all know MMA has evolved by leaps & bounds over the years. Bas knows all the tricks of the trade, it's the aggressiveness and improved techniques of today's fighters thats on a different level...
 
#21 ·
Aggressiveness is probably not on a different level, at least not on a higher one. At Rutten's time, fighters went to a fight to put the oppenent away, today a big part of fighters gameplan to win 2 of 3 rounds. Gameplaning, that's something that really has evolved by leaps & bounds.

And I'm not so sure, whether at HW, apart from the Top5, technique has improved that much. Rutten's striking was technically better than from most of today's HWs. His problem would rather be that he'd be a very small HW today and be overpowered by the big guys.
 
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