Grant Ellis
29th April 2005, 06:45 AM
Chronologically:
Royce Gracie vs. Dan Severn
This was the one that had me hooked at a very young age. We really thought Dan Severn might be a "bad dude" as we often would call good fighters in those days. A long struggle, albeit a little lackluster, but Royce pulled it out in the end and we saw perhaps the end of the days when "size didn't matter."
Tank Abbott vs. Oleg Taktarov
The first UFC I ever saw live on PPV. Tank got screams out of us from our chairs, but we were rooting for Oleg. We could tell he didn't want to lose to some guy who just waltzed in off the street and started busting heads. No rounds, just sambo vs. street-fighting. Tank became a household name and Oleg proved what it meant to be a champion, even if that meant requiring extensive oxygen being pumped into his body afterwards.
Mark Coleman vs. Maurice Smith
I was a Mark Coleman fan growing up. I liked the way he would wrestle the other guy down and, to put it simply, beat the shit out of them. He was what I thought an Ultimate Fighter should be. Then of course, Mo Smith waltzed in a 25-1 underdog, weathered the flurry, and proceeded to pick him apart. It was hard to watch, yet I couldn't take my eyes off of it. The days of "A grappler will ALWAYS beat a striker" seemed to be over and the importance of conditioning was made known to me.
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Royce Gracie
Ok, this fight was the whole reason I wanted to watch the PRIDE Fighting Championships in 2000, let alone the reason I returned to training and watching mixed martial arts again. Old school vs. New School. Gracie Jiu-jitsu vs. Japanese Pro-wrestling. The greatest open-weight MMA tournament of all-time. I knew who Sakuraba was, I had seen him in Ultimate Japan. Aside from a 90 minute war, we saw Royce was willing to adapt, Sakuraba was willing to take out Royce and then fight Igor Vovchanchyn, and that MMA was officially starting to return to the American public. I cheered for Royce so hard I went hoarse for a week, but in the end I was a fan of both men and was prepared to fully embrace MMA fandom ever since.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Heath Herring
At the time I saw it, even if it can be called one sided, I have to say it is the finest MMA fight between heavyweights I had ever seen. Nogueira was awesome (standing up with the perhaps over-anxious Herring and using straight punches to rock his head back) and demonstrating a highly technical jiu-jitsu game that would create one of the best winning streaks we had ever seen. It was a match meant to happen and I think very few top level fighters have put on a display that intense, for twenty minutes straight, since then.
Royce Gracie vs. Dan Severn
This was the one that had me hooked at a very young age. We really thought Dan Severn might be a "bad dude" as we often would call good fighters in those days. A long struggle, albeit a little lackluster, but Royce pulled it out in the end and we saw perhaps the end of the days when "size didn't matter."
Tank Abbott vs. Oleg Taktarov
The first UFC I ever saw live on PPV. Tank got screams out of us from our chairs, but we were rooting for Oleg. We could tell he didn't want to lose to some guy who just waltzed in off the street and started busting heads. No rounds, just sambo vs. street-fighting. Tank became a household name and Oleg proved what it meant to be a champion, even if that meant requiring extensive oxygen being pumped into his body afterwards.
Mark Coleman vs. Maurice Smith
I was a Mark Coleman fan growing up. I liked the way he would wrestle the other guy down and, to put it simply, beat the shit out of them. He was what I thought an Ultimate Fighter should be. Then of course, Mo Smith waltzed in a 25-1 underdog, weathered the flurry, and proceeded to pick him apart. It was hard to watch, yet I couldn't take my eyes off of it. The days of "A grappler will ALWAYS beat a striker" seemed to be over and the importance of conditioning was made known to me.
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Royce Gracie
Ok, this fight was the whole reason I wanted to watch the PRIDE Fighting Championships in 2000, let alone the reason I returned to training and watching mixed martial arts again. Old school vs. New School. Gracie Jiu-jitsu vs. Japanese Pro-wrestling. The greatest open-weight MMA tournament of all-time. I knew who Sakuraba was, I had seen him in Ultimate Japan. Aside from a 90 minute war, we saw Royce was willing to adapt, Sakuraba was willing to take out Royce and then fight Igor Vovchanchyn, and that MMA was officially starting to return to the American public. I cheered for Royce so hard I went hoarse for a week, but in the end I was a fan of both men and was prepared to fully embrace MMA fandom ever since.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Heath Herring
At the time I saw it, even if it can be called one sided, I have to say it is the finest MMA fight between heavyweights I had ever seen. Nogueira was awesome (standing up with the perhaps over-anxious Herring and using straight punches to rock his head back) and demonstrating a highly technical jiu-jitsu game that would create one of the best winning streaks we had ever seen. It was a match meant to happen and I think very few top level fighters have put on a display that intense, for twenty minutes straight, since then.