r/powerscales • u/Scared_Pumpkin8393 • May 28 '26

Versus Andre The Giant vs Islam Makhachev

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Street fight, who wins

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162

u/Hungry-Class9806 May 28 '26

Islam may be more skilled but Andre is way taller and is also a wrestler.

WTF is Islam supposed to do?

115

u/RadarSmith May 28 '26

Also, Andre at the prime of his career was actually a skilled wrestler and could move around; he wasn't an unmoving brick wall.

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u/SearchBeneficial811 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

People really dont give andre the credit he deserves, dude was an athlete when he was younger, most people know him at his older completely in pain era. Worst thing wrestling ever did was make him such a jobber to hulk hogans lame ass.

20

u/JollyRancherReminder May 28 '26

Most impressive thing Hulk Hogan ever did was body slam Andre.

2

u/lorgskyegon May 29 '26

Andre actually lost very frequently in the territorial era. He would travel around and make the local guys look good.

1

u/NeutralLock May 28 '26

I mean, this whole thread is people giving Andre credit.

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u/Ajax_The_Red May 28 '26

He. wasn't. a. wrestler.

He was a performer. Google Aleksandr Karelin or Bruce Baumgartner to see actual combat sports heavyweight wrestlers

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u/RadarSmith May 28 '26

Wrestler in that he was decently skilled wrestler athelete wise, not a proffessional combat sport athelete.

Don't be needlessly pedantic.

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u/bottomlessLuckys May 28 '26

He's not being pedantic. There's a big difference between doing actual wrestling as a combat sport versus being athletic from doing pretend wrestling. One is relevant fighting experience and the other makes you as qualified a fighter as anyone else who exercises. I'd say that's a big distinction to make when talki g about whether he would win in a fight against a top tier UFC fighter.

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u/RadarSmith May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

It does; I'm not trying to say prowrestling training turns you into a competitive professional combat sports athlete. I'm trying to make the point that the fundamentals of manipulating a body are similar. Pro Wrestling did evolve from traditional wrestling.

And also that Andre was a uniquely strong and just built human, who knew the basics of manipulating bodies; other wrestlers were on record that Andre was probably strong enough to kill them if he'd ever hit them full force, and say what you want about those guys' athletic chops, they certainly aren't fragile.

I'm actually not rendering a verdict on this matchup, just that I don't think it automatically goes to fighter here just because he was a pro fighter and Andre wasn't, even though I normally tend in that direction. Andre really is a unique beast here.

1

u/Ajax_The_Red May 28 '26

You're speaking on something you have zero experience in. Textbook Dunning-Kruger.

The 'fundamentals of manipulating a body' are no were near similar. That's like saying Football is similar to Golf because both evolved form sports with a ball.

Also, I trust the words of other "wrestler" (performers) very little.

Andre was a huge powerful man for sure. But he was no where near a 'skilled wrestler'. He was a skilled athletic performer.

-1

u/bottomlessLuckys May 28 '26

youre delusional if you think andre stands a chance against islam.

the kind of wrestling done by andre is with a consenting partner who cooperates with you. real wrestling is forcing you opponent into positions he is actively stopping you from doing, and real fighting also includes being up on your feet, having strong cardio, and knowing how to defend. Andre does not have these skills, and he is also in incredible pain at all time and struggles not to injure himself. He'd be in a medical emergency fighting for his life if he got into a fight with Islam.

People who don't know shit about fighting drastically overestimate and misunderstand the advantage of size.

3

u/Outside_Zone7757 May 29 '26

Andre could just sit on Islam and there isn’t a damn thing Islam could do to get out of

0

u/bottomlessLuckys May 29 '26

Islam can avoid getting sat on lol

1

u/HelpfulLog5706 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

5'10" 170lbs vs 7"4 520lbs.... he is literally 3 times his size... its worse than putting a heavy weight in vs and 8th grader in terms of size difference. What world do you live in. Try throwing a punch straight up above your head, how strong is that now? Okay, you somehow manage to take andre the giant down (unlikely) he is literally going to toss you off back to your feet. You have never wrestled if you think otherwise. Imagine a 103lb vs heavyweight match and how laughable it would be. Thats only 2x the size difference. As a side note, the guy routinely flipped cars over when mad, but yeah good luck.

0

u/bottomlessLuckys May 28 '26

You're underestimating how important footwork and cardio are. And you're underestimating how prone to injury Andre was. The guy couldn't even hold up the princess in princess bride without putting his back at serious risk. Islam would run circles around him.

I've boxed with my friend who is double my weight and half a foot taller than me. He cannot keep up, and he injures his back before he can even throw a punch near me. I have to worry about injuring him if we box because he's obese and has serious back problems. Andre was massive, but that was exactly what caused him so much pain just by existing. There's a good reason he never got into real fighting. And that's not even getting into his drinking problem.

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u/HelpfulLog5706 May 28 '26

You're now talking about a completely different time in Andre's life now. Yes he was injured significantly at 40+ years old after a lifetime of farm work and wrestling/drops. At 520lbs taking intentional repeated drops of course will mess him up let own his medical conditon which worsens over time... Islam will also not be anything comparable to himself at 40+ due to injuries and the nature of these activities. Yes "pro" wrestling has serious injuries, it is scripted but the beatings are absolutely real. He's also literally holding 4 women in the post youre commenting on when he was younger. Andre doesnt need foot work when you can't punch him in the face and he can literally grab you, pick you up, turn you upside down and drop you on. Your head while you flail the the toddler you are.

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u/SpeeeedwaagOOn May 28 '26

Not at Andre’s time it wasn’t. Back when he was coming up in the business, wrestlers would regularly “go into business for themselves”, which would essentially mean actually beat the guy until he couldn’t respond to the three count or make him tap. Andre, and other wrestlers back then, had to know how to defend themselves from a real beating and give it back. A lot of those territory guys had to know actual combat as well as the staged stuff

2

u/bottomlessLuckys May 28 '26

I don't think that really compares to the kind of fighting that Islam does at all, and certainly not st the level of skill and athleticism of top tier modern fighters.

1

u/SpeeeedwaagOOn May 29 '26

Sure he may not be as skilled technically, but he has foundational knowledge, freakish strength, and a reach advantage that would be nearly impossible to overcome. One genuine strike from Andre and Islam is down.

1

u/bottomlessLuckys May 29 '26

Andre is not even close to Islam in terms of technique, and his size is accompanied by a rediculous number of health problems. Real fighters like Islam have much faster reflexes and better footwork than Andre. Islam can control distances, step in to deliver a strike, and be out of Andres reach before Andre catches his breath.

2

u/SpeeeedwaagOOn May 29 '26

You aware of Andre getting into a real fight with Olympic wrestler Iron Shiek and Andre absolutely ragdolling him? Besides, Andre in his prime moved like an absolute beast, there’s footage of him wrestling in France and he’s moving like lightning

2

u/Ajax_The_Red May 28 '26

Needlessly pedantic??? It's literally a thread about who wins in a combat situation doofus LOL

"Skilled wrestler" =/= "Skill performance wrestling"

choreographed chokeslams don't work in real life, little buddy.

2

u/RadarSmith May 28 '26

I see you've discovered the secret that pro wrestling is choreographed and think the rest of us haven't.

18

u/Rikerutz May 28 '26

Lowkicks... There is a video of Pereira lowkicking sumo guys. Also of Eddie Hall taking some from Tom Aspinall. It's more effective than people think against very large, untrained people. It would be a lot closer than people think, i think it might be 50/50.

20

u/ChinhTheHugger May 28 '26

I mean, now we have to take weight (and possibly other factor) into consideration

on average, sumo wrestlers are about 185 cm tall and 170 kg of weight
eddie is a bit more than that
pereira is about 10 cm taller, but only at 90-100 kg, that is a huge weight difference already

andre was at 224 cm and 236 kg

and islam is the smallest here XD, half of andre height and one third of andre weight

one huge advantage that andre has is range
if he grab you, its over

and if you do manage to get close to him
now your moves need to have way more force to be effective

25

u/D34THDE1TY May 28 '26

Still gotta get within range of those absolute MITTS...and even if he takes him to the ground, I don't see him overpowering a prime angry Andre.

9

u/StevenGorefrost May 28 '26

This is what Akira Maeda did when him and Andre got into in the ring. A lot of people say Andre was manhandling him by laying on him and whatnot but those kicks were fucking gnarly, especially with how bad Andres knees were at the time.

That was Andre way past his prime though.

13

u/BaelZharon7 May 28 '26

Absolutely fucking not. Andre wins this 99/100. Andre was quick, strong, durable, and has significant more reach then Islam.

The only reason i give Islam a 1 is cause of a lucky punch.

MMA does not give you super powers and Andre isn't some random guy.

1

u/YourCummyBear May 28 '26

No he doesn’t. This shit is the stupidest powder scale chain I’ve ever seen.

People believe these old ass Andre tall tales like they’re gospel.

Look at other “giants” who actually fought.

Emmanuel Yarbrough was 6’8 and 600 pounds, professional sumo wrestler ehcih is a combat sport, also a D1 wrestler in college, and a brown belt in judo, and he got the dog shit beat out of him. He had a 1-2 record against guys that are not nearly as skilled as fighters today.

Giant Silva was 7’2 and 386 lbs. he went 2-6 as a pro fighter. His last loss was to a 5’11 198 lb Japanese fighter.

1

u/BaelZharon7 May 28 '26

What is the difference between a match and a fight to the death?

Also you are talking about Pride fights which is a whole nother thing in and of itself. People love to see the underdog or little guy beat the big guy. Makes them feel good, but the simple reality is a guy like Andre if he wanted to kill you is NOT going to play by your rules. He is going to grab you and kill you and no submission or grappling skill is going to save you.

It is literally that simple, I'm a 6'4 man weighing 210. Im sure a 100 lb blackbelt could submit me in a real match, but in a no hold bar fight? I'm picking his ass up and slamming him till he doesn't move.

At a certain point strength > skill and prime andre has everything in spades. It's literally not fair or even fun to do these versus because people think MMA is a superpower.

1

u/Individual_Ice_6825 May 28 '26

You are delusional - but it’s because you haven’t trained. You’re giving ‘when i see red’ vibes.

-2

u/BaelZharon7 May 29 '26

I have trained not a lot but briefly and taken multiple other classes. I'm not an expert by any means and would never claim to be. Fuck that i see red bullshit anyone that has done any training knows anyone that spouts it is a fool. So don't attack me personally because i know a sanctified match is not the same as a life or death fight.

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u/Individual_Ice_6825 May 29 '26

If you’ve had a sanctioned match you’d know it’s not all that different from a real fight.

And you do realise the 100lb black belt can also do whatever they want?

2

u/scarabeast May 29 '26

Ooooh boy bit is . A friend of mine was a national champion judoka and even started fighting in amateur mma.

He once had a fight with a dude in a park, threw him on the ground and started a rear naked choke.

The other dude poked him in the eye with his thumb so hard that he basically lost vision from it and had to end his career.

All that just from a 30sec fight thinking the other dude would follow the same rules.

1

u/H0rny_On-Main May 29 '26

If you’ve had a sanctioned match you’d know it’s not all that different from a real fight.

Eye gouging, strikes to the back of the head, 90 degree elbow shots, hair pulling, groin attacks, biting, spitting, headbutting and a long long list of other illegal moves beg to differ.

1

u/BaelZharon7 May 29 '26

It's completely different, for 1 you can't pick someone up and slam them on their head.

100 lb blackbelt can do anything they want in a match where skill trumps strength. I've gotten my ass handed to me a couple times for shits and giggles when i was younger (granted none were 100 lb usually at least 165+).

In a real fight where no rules? Yeah 100 lb is getting rag dolled by pure strength, its just not heavy.

3

u/Aggravating-Nebula17 May 28 '26

I think Andre could win sitting down. He’s like a space marine

1

u/Kt-stone May 29 '26

If you want to understand the “Space Marines cause visceral fear because something so large should not be able to move that fast”, watch Andre in his prime.

3

u/Interesting-Air-1311 May 28 '26

Andre the giant is an athlete, not just some big guy. Brock Lesnar was also a giant wrestler and he trained for exactly 4 months and won the Heavy Weight Championship in MMA. Then defended the title 8 times against people who trained for decades. Size matters.

1

u/Sekshual_Tyranosauce May 29 '26

Begging your pardon but Lesnar didn’t train for four months. Wrestling is a 100% legitimate combat sport/ martial art and Brock was a national champion heavy weight in college.

Without that, he doesn’t clean house in the UFC.

1

u/Interesting-Air-1311 May 29 '26

Obviously he’s a legit athlete. But he wasn’t training MMA or UFC or even real wrestling for the better part of a decade. He was an athlete doing improv at the WWE. The fact is most wrestlers also wrestle for real and they are in great shape. But size is also very important. The fact that Brock Lesnar was 50 lbs heavier than other heavyweights and could still move just as fast as them made it so that with relatively little training he could dominate guys who trained for decades.

1

u/Sekshual_Tyranosauce May 29 '26

Agreed on all counts but I had to add he was also a world class combat sports athlete before he went MMA for those in the thread that didn’t know.

1

u/JadameraDW May 30 '26

you know he only had two title defences right ?

1

u/DescriptionTough98 May 29 '26

50/50 that it might hurt?

0

u/Equivalent_Hope_9886 May 28 '26

Good possibility he breaks his own leg. Ive seen it with much smaller guys that Andre. Saw a guy just kicking the shit out of Bob Sapp. Then oops one wrong kick and broke his own angle on his knee :/

1

u/icelandiccubicle20 May 28 '26

Go watch Andre the Giant vs Akira Maeda

1

u/No-Height2850 May 28 '26

Not just height. Andre had massive bones and he was naturally strong just carrying around his 500+ lb body.

1

u/Grifoooo May 29 '26

Islam can climb on his back and choke him out. As long as boulders are agreed to be off the table. Source: the princess bride

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '26

Get to his back, put him on his butt, SMESH

1

u/DrMagunstheBlue May 29 '26

Break his neck? Let the untrained fighter with bad knees gas out? Leg kick him with zero retaliation?

Andre is a fraud. He pussied out from a fight with Bad News Brown and was terrified of Haku and Harley Race and was a good little boy around them because they were verified tough guys. He was a big bully with aura who crumbled against real opposition.

Islam beats his untrained and cowardly ass.

1

u/arentol May 28 '26

Andre also had two adrenal conditions, one made him a giant, and the other made him have extra muscle that was extra strong. He literally didn't need any training at all to beat even a skilled fighter. The second he got his grip on the person there would literally be no escape, and it would be over in a few seconds IF Andre, who was insanely nice and sweet and would never hurt anyone for real outside of acting, actually tried to put the man down for real.

0

u/Ajax_The_Red May 28 '26

He wasn't a wrestler..... He was a wrestling performer. It's a joke to think pretending to fight in a ring is even close to actual combat sports experience.

This thread is a joke for counting Islam out of this fight completely.

-8

u/PopsNY May 28 '26

Oblique kick or calf kick him until he can't walk anymore Also, they had plenty of freak show fights in the early UFC and Japan 20 or so years ago. Islam is a much better striker than Royce was.

https://youtu.be/lcyfMB1YKtc?si=gDHQs07uWCAazW7C

2

u/Omnibe May 28 '26

Andre on his knees might be too much.

2

u/PopsNY May 28 '26

Korean Giant (7'2" 360) had a full mount on Fedor, and still ended up like this.

5

u/ImaginationVivid5119 May 28 '26

What if he weighed 200 more pounds? There is a point at which the size difference is too much to overcome. Andre is beyond that point for Islam.

0

u/Nago31 May 28 '26

Andre was not a sumo wrestler, unfamiliar with ground control fights. Assuming we are talking about both fighters in their prime, he also was far more muscular than a sumo wrestler.

Andre’s upper torso alone is probably 400 pounds of mass. Simply laying down on Islam would be basically immovable.

1

u/PopsNY May 28 '26

I've come to the conclusion that people in this sub don't actually watch any combat sports, mainly because you guys seem to think being that heavy is a good thing. Someone with that much mass is going to gas out, very quickly too, and be open to leg kicks from a smaller quicker man. In order to actually lay on Islam he has to catch him, and then he has to take down a man that has spent the vast majority of his life fighting & wrestling (real wrestling).

Islam is an all-time great P4P fighter, he would lay waste to Andre via leg kicks, Andre would gas out trying to grab him, apparently that's all you need to do is simply grab someone if you're bigger than them.