Again and again there are posts about how Tim beat Ricco who was top 5 at the time because he beat Nog despite the desision.
I desided to watch the fight again and realized Ricco was just as much human blanket as Tito if not more which is as good strategy as any to win fights in the UFC but fortunately not in Pride.
For those of you who think that Ricco won the fight with Nog is this break down of how DSE judges fights and why Nog won pointed out by SpacePotato in some other thread which is here
http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=1157
The criteria is as follows:
1. Effort to finish the fight by KO or submission
2. Damage
3. Standing combinations and ground control
4. Takedowns and defense
5. Aggressiveness
6. Weight differences (15 Kilos or more at heavyweight) (10K at middleweight)
Let’s take a look at the recent match between Nogueira and Rodriguez to better understand the criteria:
1. Effort to finish by KO or submission:
Nogueira wins by a large margin due to his multiple submission attempts and active attack. Based on this, there is no reason to consider any further criteria as they are in descending order, however, for educational purposes we will continue.
2. Damage:
No damage from striking by either party. Possible damage from deep Kimura in round 3 by Nogueira, however, no award given to either.
3. Standing combinations and ground control:
Neither fighter showed superiority in standing skill. Nogueira dominated ground control as he constantly went for submission and gave away neutral position for inferior position, yet he was able to move back to neutral position with relative ease each time. Nogueira also had a forced reversal. Rodriguez had a reversal while Nogueira was passing guard. Forced reversals are more difficult to achieve and more valuable for ground control. Rodriguez was warned many times throughout the match to improve position but chose to stay in neutral guard without damaging strikes or attempts to pass to dominant position.
4. Takedown and defense:
Nogueira scored one clean takedown and defended 2 times. Ricco scored 3 Takedowns. Ricco wins this criteria.
5. Aggressiveness:
Nogueira wins by a large margin due to his many attempts at submission and his forward progression while striking. The referee warned Ricco many times in this area, but did not award a yellow card penalty.
6. Weight difference:
N/A. Ricco had a sizeable weight advantage but was not more than 15 kilos.
Penalties: No penalties were given although Ricco had many warnings to improve position.
Decision: Nogueira
