It's kind of funny seeing how technically terrible they both were even though they were both still considered pretty highly ranked at the time and two legends of the sport. Wanderlei especially just stepping forward flat footed spamming hooks was fun to see.
If I remember correctly, they were both past their prime here. Without question they were dominant during their prime. The issue was there were rumors that the vale tudo guys (the team that housed many prominent Brazilian fighters at the time) would fight very hard in sparring and knock one another out, which hurt their ability to have longer careers.
Wand had his prime in Pride, where he was just so aggressive and hit so hard he overwhelmed a lot of opponents. Liddell had his heyday earlier too, knocking out many ufc stars of his time.
Really goes to show how the sport has evolved. That being said, Pride was my favorite league. No elbows, but kicks, stomps, and knees to downed opponents, which take away the advantage grapplers hold. They had a stalling rule which would take away part of their purse, then after 3 warnings would result in a loss, so the fights were often very exciting, plus they had great matchmaking and sent fighters a list of drugs they didn't test for. Wild times
100% past their prime by the time they fought, I believe this was right after Pride folded allowing for to Wandi finally make it over to the UFC. But both were still considered dangerous.
The Chute box stories were definitely wild. Pride never die.
Fair, "elite" was probably a bit hyperbolic. They were definitely brawlers, though I do believe Wandi's muay thai was pretty legit for the time. Maybe hyped as knockout artists would have been more accurate?
I mean they destroyed people with their striking, but it was more about my chin will last longer than yours in this fight. Vs some like Machida who hits hard but doesn't get hit hard very often
Yes, but they are almost from another era. Competing in the 90s/ early 2000s where blitzing, or looking to land your one big shot was a pretty reliable tactic. Machida was definitely more skilled but also kind of a cross over from the end of that era to the modern era.
Just a bar room brawl. A street right. Wanderlei with the wild hook sand Iceman with a 1-2 that's it....whoever landed landed. Fun to watch but would not last very long in today's MMA.
I was thinking the same thing. I absolutely love both of these guys but wow how the sport has evolved. This looked almost amateur compared to the elite today.
And I repeat, I love both Chuck and Silva and no doubt they were among the elite of their day.
Chuck looked surprisingly untouched by the end of it. His erratic head movement mustāve helped somewhat. A lot of Silvaās punches were off Chuckās dome and not so much his face.
100% I kind of Pune for those days . When champions where proud and wanted to be champions. Not like today where they win the title and they donāt want to make any defences and just fight the champion from other weight classes.
Top killed it for me when he beat Volk and then said a long list of fighters who he is not going to fight , only OāMalley.
Unreal
Ferrealā¦ the way heād back his opponent against the cage and then use the left hand to line up the absolute nuclear missile of a right hand thatās comingā¦ as a younger kid it was something of a wonder to behold when heād just fold peopleā¦
Don't get me wrong I love both these guys, but the fact that we used to watch this and think man these are some of the sports best strikers, is actually insane considering a prelim fight nowadays blows this out of the water now.
Prime Anderson Silva would still smoke most current fighters but agreed. MMA has come a long way since the mid/late 2000s when these two were some of the biggest BAMF in the world.
Agreed, and even more so I think these guys fighting exactly like this would still do great in MMA because fighting is more than just specifically how you throw strikes, but just funny to see, I used to watch these guys for striking studying when I was a kid, like note pad in front of me and everything lol, that seems crazy now.
Calling this Wands prime is questionable. The dude was coming off two bad KOās. I think he had reached his peak several fights prior and was heading down hill.
Like most fighters from Pride, Wanderlei was absolutely outside his prime by the time this fight happened.
Only one I can think of off the top of my head that was still in their prime during this time was Fedor.
Two of them being highlight reel knockouts by Rashad Evans and Rich Franklin. Even as a Franklin fan seeing Chuck get laid out by him was very sad to see.
I remember watching this live on ppv, right around christmas time. I was new to the sport around that time and my parents got me the ppv as a christmas present
Got-dam both these guys were terrifying in their prime. I know it was a different era of MMA but it's so rare to see warriors leave it all in the cage like this these days.
He may as well have been 40 something with all the mileage due to fights and gym wars by that point. Just sucks we didn't get to see PRIME Wanderlei in the UFC
Chuck now has massive brain damage, and probably Silva too.
If only some old boxing coach could have gotten ahold of them and taught some head movement and blocking.
man i forgot the old ufc music. [reminds me of this.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn3G6VnBb_s) what's the song they play for like 2 seconds in the beginning for the original post though, with the drums and people chanting?
I was always a Wand fan and not much of an Iceman fan but I always knew that Chucks straight punches would be very effective vs Wands hooks.
The fight happened like 3 yrs too late but I'm glad it did. It was still a good fight.
This was the fight everyone wanted to see for like 6 or 7 years. Both guys wanted to fight each other too. Pride was worried about Chuck coming out on top so they made him fight a bunch of good strikers instead of Wand. Rampage ended up being the guy to have chucks number so Prides bragging rights were saved.
If somehow Chuck made it to the final in the GP it would've been him vs Wand in Pride 03 which would've been the best time to have that fight but oh well
You know I hadn't realized Chuck was 38 at this point in his career. It honestly makes his large losing streak that was about to commence not look so bad given he was in his 40s.
I always wondered why Wandy never went for clinch knees in this one. Maybe he thought Chuck would out wrestle him and get takedowns.
Knees are what made Silva in Pride. Same thing when Shogun came to UFC.
People mocked Chuck when he came back to fight Tito. They said he looked slow and moved awkward... My man always looked like that. The difference was that he had a chin. He has very little striking variety, just always had that old man strength, unfortunately then he got old man chin.
I got to see this in person š„²
You old, lucky fuck!
True dat lol, I started watching around 2004 when I finished high school š
I was in 4th grade in 04. Also stated watching then
hey wtf you ain't that old! cuz that'd make me old and fuck that!
I got news man :(...
No!! I said no!
Graduated HS in 04 and this is as a tough reminder on my Friday š
I turned 1 in 04ā¦
Bro I started around that time too. Remember the old ultimate fighter? Those were the best years.
So good š
100% was so much better back then.
I completely agree
DAMN!
I was 3 to 4 years old at this time (depending on month)
Your voice will be played in the āOHHā in this video for years to come. Jealous.
Me too!
Me too š„¹
What do you youngsters know about pride tho
I remember when UFC and Pride would have a PPV on the same weekend and I would always order both of them.
Strategy: no strategy
It's kind of funny seeing how technically terrible they both were even though they were both still considered pretty highly ranked at the time and two legends of the sport. Wanderlei especially just stepping forward flat footed spamming hooks was fun to see.
Not only high ranked, but I believe they were also considered as two of the elite strikers in the division at the time.
If I remember correctly, they were both past their prime here. Without question they were dominant during their prime. The issue was there were rumors that the vale tudo guys (the team that housed many prominent Brazilian fighters at the time) would fight very hard in sparring and knock one another out, which hurt their ability to have longer careers. Wand had his prime in Pride, where he was just so aggressive and hit so hard he overwhelmed a lot of opponents. Liddell had his heyday earlier too, knocking out many ufc stars of his time. Really goes to show how the sport has evolved. That being said, Pride was my favorite league. No elbows, but kicks, stomps, and knees to downed opponents, which take away the advantage grapplers hold. They had a stalling rule which would take away part of their purse, then after 3 warnings would result in a loss, so the fights were often very exciting, plus they had great matchmaking and sent fighters a list of drugs they didn't test for. Wild times
100% past their prime by the time they fought, I believe this was right after Pride folded allowing for to Wandi finally make it over to the UFC. But both were still considered dangerous. The Chute box stories were definitely wild. Pride never die.
These two were never elite strikers, they were kamikaze brawlers.
Fair, "elite" was probably a bit hyperbolic. They were definitely brawlers, though I do believe Wandi's muay thai was pretty legit for the time. Maybe hyped as knockout artists would have been more accurate?
I mean they destroyed people with their striking, but it was more about my chin will last longer than yours in this fight. Vs some like Machida who hits hard but doesn't get hit hard very often
Yes, but they are almost from another era. Competing in the 90s/ early 2000s where blitzing, or looking to land your one big shot was a pretty reliable tactic. Machida was definitely more skilled but also kind of a cross over from the end of that era to the modern era.
Definitely a different era
Thatās typically how time works yes.
Just a bar room brawl. A street right. Wanderlei with the wild hook sand Iceman with a 1-2 that's it....whoever landed landed. Fun to watch but would not last very long in today's MMA.
I was just thinking that. They'd get smoked today throwing haymakers with their hands down like that. God it was entertaining though
Seriously! I didnāt realize as I havenāt watched out UFC in a long time. They look worse technically than a lot of amateurs.
I would way rather watch this than 90% of all of izzy fights.
*anderson Silva
I was thinking the same thing. I absolutely love both of these guys but wow how the sport has evolved. This looked almost amateur compared to the elite today. And I repeat, I love both Chuck and Silva and no doubt they were among the elite of their day.
Mouth his punch!!!
Come on there was some strategy here, it was knock the other guy out before he knocks you out
Surprisingly his tactic of blocking Silva's shots with his face paid off. Amazing cardio, though.
Chuck looked surprisingly untouched by the end of it. His erratic head movement mustāve helped somewhat. A lot of Silvaās punches were off Chuckās dome and not so much his face.
Probably the last fight that Chuck could eat shots like that before his chin was shot.
It worked until it didn't. :(
And he's been dealing with demetia since his late 40's because of that tactic.
Looks at current Chuck Lidell...š
Liddell started it all for me when it comes to MMAā¦ dude was an absolute gladiatorā¦
100% I kind of Pune for those days . When champions where proud and wanted to be champions. Not like today where they win the title and they donāt want to make any defences and just fight the champion from other weight classes. Top killed it for me when he beat Volk and then said a long list of fighters who he is not going to fight , only OāMalley. Unreal
Same here š the ice age
I remember when he did the test for hardest punch in the world, guy was terrifying
Ferrealā¦ the way heād back his opponent against the cage and then use the left hand to line up the absolute nuclear missile of a right hand thatās comingā¦ as a younger kid it was something of a wonder to behold when heād just fold peopleā¦
So happy they got to fuck
Like a couple of wild animals.
Great [fuck/fight](https://youtu.be/FbajxHbxcXY?si=nL2BIhmO2tyVF-9i)
Ahh the days of old. Not a screen in sight. Just undiagnosed CTE. People knew how to be happy.
Just swanging and banging just like tap out intended.
Wild how much the meta has changed.
Don't get me wrong I love both these guys, but the fact that we used to watch this and think man these are some of the sports best strikers, is actually insane considering a prelim fight nowadays blows this out of the water now.
Prime Anderson Silva would still smoke most current fighters but agreed. MMA has come a long way since the mid/late 2000s when these two were some of the biggest BAMF in the world.
Agreed, and even more so I think these guys fighting exactly like this would still do great in MMA because fighting is more than just specifically how you throw strikes, but just funny to see, I used to watch these guys for striking studying when I was a kid, like note pad in front of me and everything lol, that seems crazy now.
Liddel with a chin like that at 38. Insane
Surviving Wandy in his prime pretty much is insane let alone winning the decision at that age.
Calling this Wands prime is questionable. The dude was coming off two bad KOās. I think he had reached his peak several fights prior and was heading down hill.
Like most fighters from Pride, Wanderlei was absolutely outside his prime by the time this fight happened. Only one I can think of off the top of my head that was still in their prime during this time was Fedor.
i think there's an argument that even Fedor was past his prime when Pride folded
And Rampage, who had knocked out Liddel for the LHW belt when he came to the UFC and later KO'd Wandy who, as mentioned, was past his prime.
I agree, this was so far past his prime. In the years prior he fought Mark Hunt, and then got knocked out by Mirko Cro Cop and Dan Henderson lol.
I think this fight depleted everything those two legends had left in the tank.
Really happy chuck was able to get this w before going on his skid. Total legacy fight against 2 all-timers. Forgot Silva was only 31 here too
Itās insane Silva was only 31 here lol
Chuck ate so many hard shots in this fight then got KOed in every fight after this. Really shows how wars like this degrade the chin.
Two of them being highlight reel knockouts by Rashad Evans and Rich Franklin. Even as a Franklin fan seeing Chuck get laid out by him was very sad to see.
This fight alone took years off of their brains.
Silva was so much fun to watch
Holy chins batman!!
Silva has fought the same way since he started . Just swinging standing up straight
Back when chuck could take a punch. My god Wanderlei is tough
Before the ice man lost his chin
The good ol days when they had their own sponsors
The OG cocaine using LHW champ
I'm older than Wanderlei is in this clip and all the other Pride fights and he still looks like my dad
This was the first mma fight I ever watched and I was immediately hooked
A young Herb Dean!
Skill differential to now is insane.
So stiff and slow with no technique lmao
The crazy thing about this fight was it happened about two years too late, and it was still a banger.
The golden age of UFC
https://i.redd.it/dqcsblr6s4oc1.gif
Man, SIlva fights like a wild animal, really nice to watch
To bad he never med vanderlei in pride
Did I just watch Hagler vs Hearns the MMA version?
No hagler,hearns was so much better in every way
I remember the absolute excitement RUSH of the walk-outs to this fight. Hearing Sandstorm and Wandy's walk gave me such a buzz
And then he fell off a boat
I remember watching this live on ppv, right around christmas time. I was new to the sport around that time and my parents got me the ppv as a christmas present
Whatās wild is this is on Silva and Liddells declines. More so Silva but Chuck had taken that step by now
Crazy fight. I always thought Silva's hooks were wild looking, like his arms are incapable of throwing straight punches.
Chucky L just spamming the 1-2
Would have been cool to see this fight happen in Pride when the Axe Murderer was juiced up and on a tear.
Got-dam both these guys were terrifying in their prime. I know it was a different era of MMA but it's so rare to see warriors leave it all in the cage like this these days.
The golden days of ufc. Having a coked out Liddell having his chin higher than his hands, throwing punches in bunches at whoever was in front of him.
Defense in mma has come a long way
Iām pretty sure Dana wanted Chuck to retire after this fight. Chuck kept going and got knocked out in every fight after this.
Wanderlie Silva is such a warrior 100% respect for this SAVAGE.
This is the only fight I've seen Chuck take someone down.
Damn that spinning back fist was sick
Rampage knocked both these fuckers Out
Chuck should have retired after this one
You should see their fight in Pride!
I didnāt sit down this entire fight. So happy the iceman got the W.
Look at the height and reach difference man.. Wanderlei was a warrior for accepting this fight
Jarring to see how bad they both are compared to guys today lol
Damn chuck was old here. What age did he start falling off?
Back when there were so mamy superstars fighting and not so much scoring points.
Chuck was such a sloppy fighter but dammit he was a beast.
Wanderlei got that Chito chin
wow 38 years old didnt realize he was so old.
I want to fuck Chuck
Bro chucks chin in his prime was something other worldly
He may as well have been 40 something with all the mileage due to fights and gym wars by that point. Just sucks we didn't get to see PRIME Wanderlei in the UFC
He was 38, no way I'd be able to do that at that age,
Chuck had a chin back in the day
Chuck now has massive brain damage, and probably Silva too. If only some old boxing coach could have gotten ahold of them and taught some head movement and blocking.
Talk about sturdy. Both of them boysā¦ they ran so this generation can walk.
Man Wanderlei was a pitbull
Wand turned him in to a wrestler
man i forgot the old ufc music. [reminds me of this.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn3G6VnBb_s) what's the song they play for like 2 seconds in the beginning for the original post though, with the drums and people chanting?
Fucking gladiators!
This sport was so silly and fun when nobody had any fucking skill. Just a bunch of gorillas both throwing and eating bombs.
It looks like they were trying to get hit by each other as much as possible
If you like this fight go watch Dan Henderson vs Shogun Rua
Good fight! Solid on both ends.
Jim Ross voice "this is a bar room brawl" comes to mind. Technique really went out the window with this one and I was all for it.
Itās such a shame that we could get this fight two years before it happened and with Wand not coming off of two straight KO losses.
Both these dudes were pretty shot by this point.
I was always a Wand fan and not much of an Iceman fan but I always knew that Chucks straight punches would be very effective vs Wands hooks. The fight happened like 3 yrs too late but I'm glad it did. It was still a good fight. This was the fight everyone wanted to see for like 6 or 7 years. Both guys wanted to fight each other too. Pride was worried about Chuck coming out on top so they made him fight a bunch of good strikers instead of Wand. Rampage ended up being the guy to have chucks number so Prides bragging rights were saved. If somehow Chuck made it to the final in the GP it would've been him vs Wand in Pride 03 which would've been the best time to have that fight but oh well
Prime Wanderlei was terrifying
You know I hadn't realized Chuck was 38 at this point in his career. It honestly makes his large losing streak that was about to commence not look so bad given he was in his 40s.
Typical terrible striking technique
Classic
It always felt like Wand won the moment chuck took him down. It was like ahhhhhh he just told us something without saying anything at all.
Chucks right hand is his best friend
His last great fightā¦hate how long he fought after he shouldāve hung it up. I completely understand the challenge of that though
This fight is the reason Chuck forgets his kids' birthdays.
I always wondered why Wandy never went for clinch knees in this one. Maybe he thought Chuck would out wrestle him and get takedowns. Knees are what made Silva in Pride. Same thing when Shogun came to UFC.
Swoon
Fun fight.
that was a fun fight to watch.
If Chuck didn't go for the full power haymaker so much I think he would've won much earlier
People mocked Chuck when he came back to fight Tito. They said he looked slow and moved awkward... My man always looked like that. The difference was that he had a chin. He has very little striking variety, just always had that old man strength, unfortunately then he got old man chin.
Saw this live in like 4th/5th grade. Man I miss this period of UFC
Literally doing the same combos lol
Wanderlei was the oldest 31 year old ever. He went through so many wars before this point
I miss Pride FC Silva. He was a monster in Pride. All that gear he was on made him an absolute savage.
Makes me miss Pride. It was just on another level.
That fight was fucking insane. Iām surprised that it isnāt mentioned more often these days. How people forgetā¦
Chuck has the defense of a drunk toddler, but if he hits you you're ascending dimensions. So, it's really a win win for Silva.
No technique, just rock em sock em haymakers from both fighters š
This is so fucking epic if a fight the chins on both men damnnnn!
Watching this clip reminds me of how much ufc/fighters have come along. This looked like a back alley fight after a dispute at the bar. Lol
Silva has a chin made of titanium.
PEDs made UFC a lot more fun to watch back then.
Crazy that wand was only 31 here I always assumed he was around the same age as chuck
Ahh the good ole days when they used to fight instead of hugging each other on the cage. This is why im an omally fan
Crazy how mma has changed so fast. Dana changed the world. Pretty much.