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Originally Posted by Kewl144
They showed his dressing room (I remember seeing a tall idiot standing there about an hour before the fight with a UFC belt around his waist).
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I specifically remember that as well.
the problem was that Rich knew there was a great deal of hype surroundign him, that is why I hate Dana White and his antics. Rich was a great striker on a UFC level but Silva is on a professional K-1 kickboxing level. None of UFC's america fighters posess this striking quality and Rich knew A. Silva did. I'm sure he watched all of Silva's fights, even the Chonan fight and knew he was in for a huge test.
He looked like Franklins normal opponents do when he fights them as he was being side-stepped and was punching air, it was very difficult to land the one punch he did and after that, it pissed Silva off and he went into phycho mode and Rich was scared, you can see the fear in his eys in the pictures, he was scared and he was hurt.
He was a poster boy, they put way too much pressure on these fighters but if the opponents originate from the UFC (or have average training) Rich will look like Fedor does in his fights as far as dominance and that is exactly what he had been doing. When UFC brought in a world class fighter (very well rounded, much more than just a striker) with his training background, it changed everything. We saw how easily he handled Leben and Leban was 14-0 and people were thinking he was going to be a contender in the near future.
A chin and heavy hands have been taking UFC fighters very far but if UFC continues to pickup world class fighters with extensive training backgrounds, the champions will continue to be exposed. Chuck vs a Brazilian or Russian (you know who they are, there are 4 brazilians and 2 russians) or even rampage (especially in a cage) the outcome would likely be very similar though the dominance would likely not be the same as Chuck has defeated som very impressive fighters but then again, only 1 striker and it was Vitor and he wasn't exactly a consistant fighter to say the least.
My point is that UFC ius beefing these guys up far too much and if they continue to make international acquisitins, we will see more of the same, American champions falling to world class fighters.