What are the top 5 most skilled or impressive MMA performances ever?

Fedor stalking the most gifted striker in the sport (Cro-Cop) around the ring was something to behold. Another one was Rua's demolition job on Rampage.

 

Eh to be honest I'm not sure, I've never really ranked the fights I've seen before, I just know that I was pretty awestruck by the 2 performances I mentioned.

 

GSP vs. Hughes II & III at UFC 64 and 79 respectively.

Jason MacDonald vs. Demian Maia is easily in my top 2 favorite fights of all time. Just an absolutely amazing display of heart, skill and determination for the fight. UFC 87

Royce Gracie winning UFC 1 (the tournament itself...I guess?)

Anderson Silva vs. Chris Leben UFN 5 (What? 100% Strike accuracy? And people forget that Leben was on, what? A 5 fight winning streak and was one win away from a title shot?)

Wanderlei vs. Rampage I & II...ass whoppings! Moreso II because of the ending, but impressive nonetheless...

It's almost impossible to pick just 5 because of the enormous amount of variety in MMA and what each person would find impressive. I find it all amazing because I started with a striking based art when I was 4 and continue to do it even now and found grappling when I was 16 and LOVE it! It's, by far, the most effective thing you can use in a fight...

So, asking to pick 5 is damn near impossible...you'll probably get a range of enjoyment for your combative athletics pleasure.

 

And **** Sakuraba was impressive back in the early days of Pride...some sick stuff if you appreciate grappling because he was so unorthodox and would make many "mistakes" that people simply didn't know how to exploit...really exciting stuff! And he beat the **** outta Vitor!

 

Hmm very tricky. I know at least two I'd put on my list. Anderson Silva vs Rich Franklin I and Kazushi Sakuraba vs Carlos Newton. I'll have to go think about some others and come back.

 

Hard to limit it to five so here are some that haven't been mentioned:

Randy Couture vs. Tim Sylvia
Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell I
Randy Couture vs. Vitor Belfort I & III
Shinya Aoki vs. JZ Cavalcante II
Shaolin Ribeiro vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri II
Rampage Jackson vs Chuck Liddell I
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Renzo Gracie
Jens Pulver vs. BJ Penn I

 

What about Big Nog v Bob Sapp?

Technically speaking Nog was clinically dead after Sapp piledrived his head into the mat, but still he managed to win. "Dead guy wins fight" - now how impressive is that?:hey

 

ok here some

fedor vs cro-cop
fedor vs noguera I
sakuraba vs renzo
sakuraba vs royce (not too entertaining but a landmark fight)
anderson silva vs Rich franklin I & II
anderson siva vs ryo chonan (just for that damn crazy submission)
gomi vs kawajiri
nick diaz vs gomi
gomi vs bj penn
bj penn vs gsp
matt hughes vs frank trigg II
wanderlei vs cro-cop II
wanderlei vs rampage I
wanderlei vs sakuraba I
liddel vs couture I
liddel vs tito ortiz I
don frye vs takayama (have you ever seen a fight like this?)

for real high drama I think boxing has the best matches. still would place marquez vs diaz I ahead of any of these fights. watched that 6 or 7 times and can never tire of it.

ohh and I want to say pride fc is the best!!:happy:happy:happy:happy:happy

 

cotoure gonzaga

penn gsp II

 

Fedor vs Big nog was impressive. I like the way fedor just dominated one of the most gifted mma fighter.

Wanderlei Silva vs Rampage 2- silva was amazing in this fight

Bj Penn vs Matt Hughes 1--coming in as the underdog bj shocked the world

Anderson Silva vs Rich Franklin 1--i was surprise at how he dominated franklin so easily.


GSP vs BJ Penn 2--man gsp dominated bj all 4 rounds with the help of some vaseline

Vitor Belfort destruction of Wanderlei Silva :happy

chuck Liddell dominating Tito Ortiz twice

Fedor Knocking out Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski both in the 1st round

 

Im just gonna throw a few out there as performances that stand out in my mind off the top of my head :

Kendall Grove W Alan Belcher UD - absolute clinic
Thiago Alves W Josh Koscheck UD - Dropped 3 times and generally flawless performance
BJ Penn W Kenny Florian Rnd 4 RNC - Enough said
BJ Penn W Takanori Gomi Rnd 3 RNC - Rumble on the Rock , for those who havent seen it , its a must
Tito Ortiz W Vitor Belfort UD - G & P clinic
George St Pierre W John Fitch UD
Jens Pulver W BJ Penn UD
Urijah Faber W Jens Pulver UD
Matt Hughes W Royce Gracie Rnd 1 TKO

Just a few to think about !!!!

 

...No.