With the recent news of the UFC signing a 7 year deal with Fox, it is safe to say this 18 year old sport is on its way to becoming “officially mainstream.”But in order to appreciate the now, we must look back, back to the multitude of fighters that got…
With the recent news of the UFC signing a 7 year deal with Fox, it is safe to say this 18 year old sport is on its way to becoming “officially mainstream.”
But in order to appreciate the now, we must look back, back to the multitude of fighters that got this sport through the dark ages of near extinction and helped to build the UFC into a new kind of sports organization.
Power ranking the 50 most important fighters in UFC history is not a job for mere mortals, at least not this one – so please forgive me for simply putting them in chronological order.
Georges “Rush” St. Pierre, the current UFC Welterweight champion, is 22-2 in his professional MMA career and has gone 9-0 since his loss to Matt Serra in 2007, defending his Welterweight title six times.Though he’s been criticized recently as over…
Georges “Rush” St. Pierre, the current UFC Welterweight champion, is 22-2 in his professional MMA career and has gone 9-0 since his loss to Matt Serra in 2007, defending his Welterweight title six times.
Though he’s been criticized recently as overly cautious, there can be no denying St. Pierre’s dominance—since regaining the Welterweight belt in 2008 he has won 23 out of 25 rounds, not including his TKO victory over BJ Penn. Whether by using his vaunted wrestling or newly dominant boxing, St. Pierre has proven that he has what it takes to defeat all challengers at Welterweight.
While there are still fights to be had at Welterweight, Nick Diaz at UFC 137 and potentially Carlos Condit after that, St. Pierre is coming as close to “cleaning out” a division as we’ve ever seen. Add to this the talk that St. Pierre will eventually step-up in weight for a superfight against Middleweight champion Anderson Silva, and the question has to be asked…
How would Georges St. Pierre fare against the UFC’s top Middleweights?
George St. Pierre‘s genius as an MMA fighter is his ability to put his opponents exactly where they don’t want to be. Against strikers (see: Alves, Hardy), that usually means St. Pierre taking top position on the mat and not giving them an inch of space. Against wrestlers (see: Koscheck, Shields), it usually means keeping the fight standing and jabbing them into a living death.
But in both cases, it hasn’t translated into dramatic finishes recently. Aside from his corner-stoppage win over BJ Penn at UFC 94, the last time that GSP has legitimately TKO’d or submitted an opponent was during his rematch with Matt Serra, over three years ago. Now two months away from his UFC 137 title defense against Nick Diaz, St. Pierre has picked up a reputation among some fans and observers as a “safe” fighter. One of his recent critics is Diaz’s trainer/manager Cesar Gracie, who shared some less-than-kind words to Full Contact Fighter:
George St. Pierre‘s genius as an MMA fighter is his ability to put his opponents exactly where they don’t want to be. Against strikers (see: Alves, Hardy), that usually means St. Pierre taking top position on the mat and not giving them an inch of space. Against wrestlers (see: Koscheck, Shields), it usually means keeping the fight standing and jabbing them into a living death.
But in both cases, it hasn’t translated into dramatic finishes recently. Aside from his corner-stoppage win over BJ Penn at UFC 94, the last time that GSP has legitimately TKO’d or submitted an opponent was during his rematch with Matt Serra, over three years ago. Now two months away from his UFC 137 title defense against Nick Diaz, St. Pierre has picked up a reputation among some fans and observers as a “safe” fighter. One of his recent critics is Diaz’s trainer/manager Cesar Gracie, who shared some less-than-kind words to Full Contact Fighter:
“The thing is it’s really not my business how he fights; he’s not on my team, so, I truly don’t care how he fights. Now if you’re asking me as a fan, yeah, that style is not what I like to watch. I like to watch guys that just go completely for it, take chances, and give crowds what they want, which is ‘Ultimate Fighting,’ not ‘ultimate stalling’ or anything like that.”
If Gracie is just saying that to get under St. Pierre’s skin and insult him into fighting a different kind of fight against Nick Diaz, well, his strategy probably won’t work. But from a fan’s perspective, he has a point. Keep in mind that Georges St. Pierre was unable to finish Dan Hardy in 25 minutes when they fought at UFC 111, while Carlos Condit subsequently knocked Hardy out in the first round, and Chris Lytle tapped him in the third. That seems to imply something about GSP’s finishing ability and/or risk-aversion.
Meanwhile, Nick Diaz’s current ten-fight win streak includes six TKOs and three submissions. Admittedly, Diaz’s level of competition hasn’t always been as high as GSP’s, but it’s obvious that when both fighters enter a cage, the objective is different. One is looking to win, the other is looking to kill.
So whose strategy will prove more effective when they meet on October 29th? And does GSP’s decision-streak affect your enjoyment of his fights?
Mixed martial arts is the fastest-growing sport in the world.The UFC, the largest mixed martial arts organization in the world, is the primary reason for that. Over the past 10 years, Dana White and the Fertitta Brothers, Frank and Lorenzo, have t…
Mixed martial arts is the fastest-growing sport in the world.
The UFC, the largest mixed martial arts organization in the world, is the primary reason for that.
Over the past 10 years, Dana White and the Fertitta Brothers, Frank and Lorenzo, have turned the UFC from the sideshow spectacle it was in the early-to-mid 1990s into an organization with the best mixed martial artists on the planet.
Their pay-per-view events sell out 20,000-seat arenas and generate upwards of one million PPV buys on several events a year.
This past April, the UFC held its 129th PPV event in Toronto at the Rogers Centre, the home of baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays, and attracted UFC records of $12,075,000 in total gate revenue and an attendance of 55,724.
Compare that to UFC 52, a PPV event six years earlier—at the time, the biggest in UFC history—which drew a crowd of 14,562 and a gate revenue of $2,575,450.
Six years, 40,000 more people and $10 million later, the UFC has become mainstream.
The hit reality series “The Ultimate Fighter,” which follows the lives of hopeful UFC fighters as they fight their way through a tournament for a UFC contract, introduced the U.S. to the quality of international fighters.
The live, free-televised events put on several times a year also gives the fans many chances to see not only quality UFC fights, but also the men who “do nothing but stand around and beat the sh*t out of each other.”
Dana White has, several times, expressed an interest in expanding markets into England and China—a move that, if completed, would be huge for the future of the UFC.
Earlier this month, the UFC reached an agreement on a long sought-after network television deal with FOX, ending the company’s multiple-year partnership with SpikeTV and Versus.
With a seven-year deal that will include four events on the main FOX network, 32 live fights a year on Friday night on cable network FX, 24 events following The Ultimate Fighter and six separate Fight Night events, the UFC has given fans the access to UFC events and programming that it had been lacking not being on network television.
Now that the UFC will have air time similar to that of the four major sports, fans will have another viewing option during each sport’s respective offseason.
With mega-stars like Brock Lesnar, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Rashad Evans, Rampage Jackson, etc., that have been the UFC’s established core for several years, as well as young top-tier fighters such as Jon Jones, Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos, Chad Mendes, Joseph Benavidez, Dominick Cruz, etc., who should be around for years to come, the UFC has a very bright future ahead.
Remember when Randy Couture came out of retirement and dominated Tim Sylvia? How about when Quinton Jackson shocked the world by knocking out Chuck Liddell in the first round? Or, when Georges St-Pierre captured his first welterweight championship by b…
Remember when Randy Couture came out of retirement and dominated Tim Sylvia? How about when Quinton Jackson shocked the world by knocking out Chuck Liddell in the first round? Or, when Georges St-Pierre captured his first welterweight championship by beating Matt Hughes in a rematch?
All of MMA‘s greatest fighters have career defining moments; instances that encapsulate them as a fighter, or that they will always be most remembered for.
These moments are inherently important. Some of them are significant solely because they’ll help us to always remember the greats of the sport, but many of them have actually helped to shape the sport of mixed martial arts and bring it into the mainstream.
Today we take a walk down memory lane, examining the 75 greatest fighters in MMA history and the moments that defined their careers…
The UFC has been in existence for nearly 18 years, and there have been many legends who have entered the ultimate proving ground for fighters: the Octagon.There are currently seven fighters in the UFC Hall of Fame—Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, Dan …
The UFC has been in existence for nearly 18 years, and there have been many legends who have entered the ultimate proving ground for fighters: the Octagon.
There are currently seven fighters in the UFC Hall of Fame—Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Randy Couture, Mark Coleman, Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes—and an eighth is likely to be inducted at the next UFC fan expo.
Those seven fighters are some of the most iconic fighters in the history of the UFC, but who are the most iconic fighters of all time in every weight class?
Mixed martial arts is the fastest-growing sport in the world.