Any fights that represent what mma is all about? a fight you can be proud of as a fan? a fight that you admire?...I'm not talking about a guilty pleasure here.. (such as Takayama vs Frye )... I'm talking about fights feat technic , pure skills , heart.... My personal top 5 , I'd say 1 Nogueira vs Emelianenko 2 Sakuraba vs Renzo Gracie 3 Nogueira vs Crocop 4 Wanderlei vs Jackson ll 5 Yoon vs Manhoef There's a few others of course but these in particular...are very memorable imo.
Sakuraba vs Royce Gracie Wanderlei vs Rampage 2 Nog vs Crocop Fedor vs Crocop Shogun vs lil' Nog Nog vs Fedor 3
Good ones too!... Fed vs cro , brilliant...Sak vs Royce , one of pride's most important fight too. shogun vs rogerio was pretty good too.
MMA as it was Royce Gracie vs. Art Jimmerson Ken Shamrock vs. Pat Smith Mark Kerr vs. Branco Cikatic MMA as it changed Royce Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba Mark Coleman vs. Maurice Smith MMA as it is now Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mirko Crocop
Elaborating on it a bit, Cikatic vs. Kerr is probably the most illustrative fight of the early course of MMA history, and Fedor vs. Crocop is the best modern illustration. Or perhaps Crocop vs. Gonzaga or Saint-Pierre vs. Serra should be nominated. :yep
Wait...why Kerr vs Cikatic? I think i remember that one...Cikatic kept hitting Kerr with illegal elbows to the back of kerr's head or on his neck..Cikatic was scared shitless , almost traumatised and couldn't control himself....that fight was ruined imo
Maybe illustrative of the one dimensional fighter, no matter how great that fighter may be, and make no bones about it, Cikatic was a great kickboxer, ceasing to be an effective force in MMA? Maybe the start of the peroid of American wresterlers ruling the HW division? although this fight was after Coleman lost to Mo Smith, another good kickboxer. Maybe the imposing of more rules in MMA (the real fight was once Kerr finally got pissed off and almost killed Cikatic). Theres a few different reasons why it could be considered important, but I don't quite know what CT was going for. To me, it illustrated how ****ing frustrating a ring is for MMA.
I just watched Cikatic vs. Kerr and its hilarious, Cikatic seems **** scared of Kerr and has a terrified look on his face. Whats also funny is Bas is in Kerrs corner but also doing commentary, when Kerr goes ape****..Bas gives a really demonic laugh. Cikatic is ****ing nuts though.......he was fighting for his life and took it wayy too seriously.
You hit on most of them. 1. "Deadly" techniques (elbows to the back of the head/neck/back) don't really work in the real world. 2. Strikers can't sustain themselves without some grappling ability--pure grappling arts are FAR more formidable than pure striking arts. Since this was the best kickboxer in the world at the time, the point is perfect. 3. The period of dominance of the wrestlers. I never considered the fight as illustrating the increase in the number of rules, but you're right. :good
Define MMA? Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar I or any Tank Abbot fight. That guy was a true master of the craft.
Cikatic is certifiably insane. He's a reknowned criminal kingpin in Croatia, and spent time in jail for a plot to kill Mirko with a car bomb when Mirko left his kickboxing school.
