As fighters continue to evolve in this sport, you see less and less submission wins at the elite level of MMA. Everyone knows how to defend the classic submissions we have grown accustomed to witnessing over the years; avoiding them has become the stan…
As fighters continue to evolve in this sport, you see less and less submission wins at the elite level of MMA. Everyone knows how to defend the classic submissions we have grown accustomed to witnessing over the years; avoiding them has become the standard.
It seems like when a fighter is forced to tap to a submission, he receives more criticism for letting it happen than his opponent receives praise for applying the technique.
While the submissions may be less frequent in this knowledgeable new age of MMA, when they do happen, they are spectacular.
For me, submitting an opponent when they are rocked is one thing. Submitting your foe solely with craft and patience is another. When it happens, it can be mesmerizing.
Here are the top 10 submissions that stick out in my mind from 2011.
Frank Mir knows what he speaks of, being a TKO victim of Brock Lesnar’s takedowns and ground-and-pound (GnP) in their second UFC fight. A reversal of roles less than a year after he submitted the former WWE headliner in their first encounter, whi…
Frank Mir knows what he speaks of, being a TKO victim of Brock Lesnar’s takedowns and ground-and-pound (GnP) in their second UFC fight. A reversal of roles less than a year after he submitted the former WWE headliner in their first encounter, which also served as the latter’s UFC debut fight.
His exact words from this article by Kevin Iole found on Yahoo! Sports:
Hey, if he (Overeem) hits you in the first two minutes, he could knock down a house. I’m not taking that away from him. Is he explosive? Absolutely. But the other guy [Lesnar] has the same thing. Brock is just as explosive, if not more. Brock is just as powerful, if not more. But when you’ve wrestled, are you telling me the striking is going to get easier as the fight goes on? No way. The only way Overeem wins that fight is if he can knock Brock out in the first minute, minute-and-a-half.
He’s also watched outside the octagon how Lesnar himself fell prey to the GnP of Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez, with opposite results.
Lesnar survived Carwin’s fists and later submitted his challenger to keep his crown. Then, less than four months later, he got pulverized by Velasquez until the referee stoppage sealed his defeat.
Even when he lost his UFC heavyweight belt to Velasquez, Lesnar wasn’t lying when he said, “…I’ve taken a lot of shots. I’ve never been knocked out cold.”
No matter the difference in the outcomes of these two fights, they have one thing in common: Lesnar, indeed, did not get knocked out. He tried to survive each time, without tapping out despite the battery.
Lesnar may get rattled with powerful strikes, but he has shown that he has the resiliency and will to weather them, successfully or not.
Unless Lesnar’s chin has been softened up significantly by all the GnP he’s taken, beating the UFC cash cow via striking will always be a grind.
For Overeem to successfully beat the former UFC heavyweight champion, he has to do a Velasquez and rock him early in any given round (ideally the first), to give him ample time to deal out punishment and eke out a TKO—or maybe even Lesnar’s first KO loss.
Otherwise, if The Reem “only” staggers him late in a round, expect Lesnar to hang on and be saved by the bell. Then, he can recover during the break and rebound in the next five minutes, as he did versus Carwin. (This is unless he gets sufficiently dazed in the prior round and can’t regain his bearings for the next.)
And UFC 141 on December 30th will be a long—or short—night for The Reem, in his disfavor.
Sure, he was able to stuff Fabricio Werdum’s takedown attempts in their Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Quarterfinal fight, but against a top-caliber wrestler in Lesnar?
The Dutch Cyclone, with 19 of his 35 career wins coming by way of submission, can always try to out-grapple the American champion wrestler.
Tough luck, though, as Lesnar learned to avoid getting submitted by the best submission artist in MMA’s heavyweight class in their rematch, the very fighter quoted in this article: Frank Mir.
There is a brotherhood among MMA fighters, as indicated by a recent picture showing UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and former UFC heavyweight champion and Pride legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira comparing scars. Nogueira is recently co…
There is a brotherhood among MMA fighters, as indicated by a recent picture showing UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and former UFC heavyweight champion and Pride legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira comparing scars.
It was broken by Frank Mir in a shocking finish at UFC 140. Nogueira had Mir seemingly knocked out, but instead of continuing the onslaught with his fists, he opted for the submission (which he claims to have done because of Herb Dean’s warnings).
The loss was the first time Nogueira has ever lost by submission. Interestingly, Frank Mir was also the first man to knock “Big Nog” out.
Cruz’s less theatrical but no-less-serious injury—a broken hand—was received in a fight against Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson at UFC on Versus 6.
The bantamweight champion even tweeted a graphic picture of his post-surgery hand back in October.
The picture of both fighters just shows the camaraderie that MMA fighters have with one another. It shows what it is that makes the sport special. There is honor among MMA fighters; they are brothers.
With Christmas almost here and with *some* remaining contacts at Zuffa who like us, we were able to snag a few photos using x-ray technology of what gifts a few UFC employees are getting this year. It’s amazing what apps you can get for your iPhone these days.
Anyway, at least we know that the recipients will be able to use these thoughtful token gifts.
Check the gallery out after the jump.
(Looks like it’s been a fruitful year at UFC HQ.)
With Christmas almost here and with *some* remaining contacts at Zuffa who like us, we were able to snag a few photos using x-ray technology of what gifts a few UFC employees are getting this year. It’s amazing what apps you can get for your iPhone these days.
Anyway, at least we know that the recipients will be able to use these thoughtful token gifts.
(“Look kid, I’m gonna find the man who did this to you. And when I do, so help me God, I’m gonna dock him one point for shorts-grabbing.” / Photo of Stout vs. Edwards aftermath via ESPN)
With a little help from the Potato Nation, we spent the last couple days gathering videos of the nastiest, ugliest, most-painful looking knockouts and submissions from this year. Finding 25 of them was the easy part. (Damn, MMA fighters. You seemed especially angry this year. Problems at home?) Putting them in order was a little more challenging.
Obviously, Frank Mir snapping Nogueira’s arm at UFC 140 was the people’s choice for #1. But how do you rank a head-kick knockout against a spinning-backfist knockout, when they both leave their victims zombie’d on the mat with their eyes open and their arms in the air?
So here’s what we’ll do. Instead of arranging these brutal stoppages in some arbitrary order, we’ll arrange them in groups. Use the links below to navigate through the sections, and take a moment to appreciate the human devastation that our great sport has caused in the last 12 months. And all this without a single death! Enjoy…
(“Look kid, I’m gonna find the man who did this to you. And when I do, so help me God, I’m gonna dock him one point for shorts-grabbing.” / Photo of Stout vs. Edwards aftermath via ESPN)
With a little help from the Potato Nation, we spent the last couple days gathering videos of the nastiest, ugliest, most-painful looking knockouts and submissions from this year. Finding 25 of them was the easy part. (Damn, MMA fighters. You seemed especially angry this year. Problems at home?) Putting them in order was a little more challenging.
Obviously, Frank Mir snapping Nogueira’s arm at UFC 140 was the people’s choice for #1. But how do you rank a head-kick knockout against a spinning-backfist knockout, when they both leave their victims zombie’d on the mat with their eyes open and their arms in the air?
So here’s what we’ll do. Instead of arranging these brutal stoppages in some arbitrary order, we’ll arrange them in groups. Use the links below to navigate through the sections, and take a moment to appreciate the human devastation that our great sport has caused in the last 12 months. And all this without a single death! Enjoy…
Two days after UFC president Dana White was shaking his head during the UFC 141 conference call wondering aloud what ever possessed Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira to opt to try to choke out a rocked Frank Mir rather than finish him up on the ground with punches during their UFC 140 bout a week and a half ago, and “Big Nog” has offered an explanation. According to the former PRIDE star and one-time interim UFC light heavyweight champion, referee Herb Dean made him switch gears when he told him his punches were illegal.
(Nog with his new bionic arm.)
Two days after UFC president Dana White was shaking his head during the UFC 141 conference call wondering aloud what ever possessed Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira to opt to try to choke out a rocked Frank Mir rather than finish him up on the ground with punches during their UFC 140 bout a week and a half ago, and “Big Nog” has offered an explanation. According to the former PRIDE star and one-time interim UFC light heavyweight champion, referee Herb Dean made him switch gears when he told him his punches were illegal.
Here’s what Minotauro posted on his official website:
“Last Saturday I fought and lost via submission for the first time in my career; it was a bad feeling, but it’s part of the sport. Everything that happens in a fight is quick and the fighter acts most based on his instincts and reflexes than [what’s] on his mind. I knew I made a mistake as I tried to submit [my opponent] on a fight where I could have won by KO,” Nogueira wrote. “But when Frank Mir was practically knocked out I heard the referee tell me to stop punching him at the neck and that is when I tried to choke him. Mir put himself together and must be congratulated for submitting me. I checked the videos and I wasn’t hitting him on the neck, but on Mir’s side of the head, which is allowed.”
In spite of Dana’s obvious disappointment with Nogueira’s lapse of judgment in the fight, he says that the UFC president has made sure that he had the best surgeons available to operate on his arm, which took place Monday as well.
“But I’m not here to apologize. I lost. I’ll recover from my arm injury and then move on, probably on the second UFC Rio of 2012. The good thing about the loss was that I got many supporting messages, and I really thank the great treatment that the boss (Dana White) gave mein Canada. Dana used to tell me ‘Nog we’re not sparing any expense, you’ll have the best experts so you come back soon and well. I’m sure I’ll still fight for many years. I fight because I like it and I feel I’m in one of the best moments of my career.”
Noguiera had a titanium plate and 16 screws installed to stabilize the broken humerus bone while it heals. It’s likely that the plate will remain even after the fusion is complete.
