IronMan said:
The question is "What if sapp had a better skill set or better cardio?" and the answer is no. Sapp had a "good" skill set and nog is a pride heavy weight, which means that he had the BEST skill set. Nog and Gracie are both great fighters and the fact that he was rushed to the hospital after the fight shows a level of commitment that missing now in alot of MMA formats.
... I want to see the dominant fighters like Hughes and Franklin fight the top heavyweights like sylvia and arlovski. Maybe they get killed and maybe not, but it'd be fun to watch.
That's my pitch.
As much as I like watching any Bob Sapp train wreck, I'd have to state at that time he had
NO skill set at all. The original post asks if Size matters, with my example I'm pointing out that it does. The only thing that Sapp has going for him as a fighter is his Size and Strength. The fact that Nog got rushed to the hospital attests to the fact that
he was getting mauled, and ended up literally fighting for his life. If Bob Sapp was the same size as Nog, I doubt he'd be able to: 1) Stop a takedown by up-ending the fighter and dropping him on his head. 2) Stop a Triangle/armbar by lifting muscling him up and slamming him(this is Nog's bread 'n' butter sub combo). 3) Stuff a kneebar by simply dropping all his weight down on him. The fact that Nog won is definitely a testament to his skill. The fact that Sapp was able to hurt him so badly is a testament to his physical size.
I'd like to see what the World Class/Champs of lighter weight classes could do against those in the HW and LHW classes out of curiosity. But just from sheer concern for these fighters well-being, I'd rather not. Just imagine the type of record Randy Couture would have if he was always fighting at 195, or Kazushi Sakuraba if he wasn't fighting opponents who were 25lbs larger than him on average.
Food for thought isn't it?
On the subject of cutting weight, I believe it's part of the game now. With that in mind, cutting too much weight can be really bad. When guys have to go back to hospital lobbies to IV up and re-hydrate after the weigh-in, something is wrong. Stripping your body of that much water is just damaging by itself. Jumping between weight classes is also real risky for a lot of MMA fighters. The reason being is that they will usually jump between weight classes (up or down) within a matter of months in order to make fights. Most boxers will do so gradually over time.
I think that once a fighter is able to find a comfortable weight for them to fight at, they should stick to it as long as they can. Once they start having trouble making weight, then they can start moving up. But doing the elevator rise/drop in weight doesn't end up paying off for fighters. See Joe Riggs, or BJ Penn as examples.