Despite only fighting twice for the UFC, the promotion will honor a legend in the sport at the 2017 UFC Hall of Fame ceremony, as Kazushi Sakuraba has been announced as the latest edition. Sakuraba joins Joe Silva, Maurice Smith and Urijah Faber in the elite class, which will be enshrined during UFC International Fight […]
Despite only fighting twice for the UFC, the promotion will honor a legend in the sport at the 2017 UFC Hall of Fame ceremony, as Kazushi Sakuraba has been announced as the latest edition. Sakuraba joins Joe Silva, Maurice Smith and Urijah Faber in the elite class, which will be enshrined during UFC International Fight […]
The men and women of MMA are tough, that’s a given. Realistically, you couldn’t fight if you weren’t tough to some degree, right? Eventually, as a fighter, you’re going to get hit and you’re going to have to fight through it if you want to win- and everyone wants to win – otherwise, what’s the point?
The men and women of MMA are tough, that’s a given. Realistically, you couldn’t fight if you weren’t tough to some degree, right? Eventually, as a fighter, you’re going to get hit and you’re going to have to fight through it if you want to win- and everyone wants to win – otherwise, what’s the point?
Well among the sea of professional fighters that want to win, there are a select few that want it just a little more than the others. These fighters are willing to do what others won’t and can take what others can’t. They’ve been labeled as too many things to list, but for the sake of simplicity, let’s just call them tough.
The text book definition of tough is “strong enough to withstand adverse conditions or rough or careless handling” or “involving considerable difficulty or hardship; requiring great determination or effort“. Now those descriptions are nice, but they don’t do it justice. To really capture the grit that these pugilists represent, we have selected 10 fighters that physically embody the term itself. These fighters push through the pain like no other and have left us occasionally shocked, sometimes speechless and always inspired.
These are the human beings that can rally back after all hope appears lost. They have that extra gear that most are not built with that takes them to the finish. The effort is not always a winning one, but they give it all they have and don’t give in to the demands of their body to quit. These fighters have minds constructed of greatness, with the ability to push past physical boundaries and run on nothing but fumes and the desire to get their hand raised. The criteria for this list? Super human level resilience, nothing less.
Former Pride FC middleweight champion and UFC veteran Wanderlei Silva is once again ready to fight. After a drawn out legal battle with the Nevada Athletic Commission and the UFC, ‘The Axe Murderer’ is now signed to Bellator MMA and Rizin FF. The Brazilian striker was released from his UFC contract in January this year,
Former Pride FC middleweight champion and UFC veteran Wanderlei Silva is once again ready to fight. After a drawn out legal battle with the Nevada Athletic Commission and the UFC, ‘The Axe Murderer’ is now signed to Bellator MMA and Rizin FF. The Brazilian striker was released from his UFC contract in January this year, and his lifetime ban by the NAC was overturned. He is set to face fellow legend and former two-time opponent Kazushi Sakuraba in a tag team grappling match for Rizin. Paired with Kiyoshi Tamura against ‘Saku’ and Hideo Tokoro, Silva also hopes to fight under MMA rules for both Bellator and Rizin this year.
With a renewed vigour for combat competition clear in his latest media appearance, chances are Wanderlei will come in great shape for the busy months ahead. Speaking with MMAFighting.com, ‘The Axe Murderer’ was a far cry from the down and out and somewhat spiteful character we’d seen over the last two years. Check out the best bits from his interview hosted by Ariel Helwani:
“I was not happy with the terms (under the UFC), I was not happy with fighting, I just did not want to fight any more. But the Bellator and Rizin changed that, I got released from my contract, and now I want to fight again, they took away my problems. I think something went wrong, I was coming from the old school, I tried talking to (Dana White) but he said bad things about me. I like him, I respect him a lot, he helped changed the sport, so we finished our history and now we are going to start a new history.”
Now free of the ‘shackles’ the Zuffa promotion had once held him with, Silva still has very hard feelings towards the NAC, who have upheld a three year ban on the Brazilian competing in Nevada, in relation to a drug test he fled from in 2014. In Silva’s defense, they never really had the right to do so under the old rule set, as Silva wasn’t even a licensed fighter at the time. He continued:
“The Commission has no place telling someone who can and can’t work, I have to work to put food on my family table. How can they catch someone, and then two months later after they fight, then they reveal the test failure? If he is famous it’s one rule, if he’s not so famous it’s another….
Throughout the comparatively short history of mixed martial arts (MMA), there’ve expectedly been a host of fights that stand out as one-sided beatdowns from one man or woman to another. The bout’s referee stopped some of these fights mercifully, a participant’s corner stopped some, and some went to a decision, but ultimately they all featured
Throughout the comparatively short history of mixed martial arts (MMA), there’ve expectedly been a host of fights that stand out as one-sided beatdowns from one man or woman to another.
The bout’s referee stopped some of these fights mercifully, a participant’s corner stopped some, and some went to a decision, but ultimately they all featured one-sided results
To be clear, we aren’t talking about one-punch or kick knockouts; those are a defined subset of a different sort. These bouts are just the most devastatingly one-sided contests in MMA history regardless of if they ended with a single knockout blow or not, and the magnitude of the fight was taken into account for judging.
They also not surprisingly feature some of the greatest fighters who’ve truly helped shape thee polished MMA picture we enjoy today.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the 10 worst beatdowns in MMA history.
The complete Renzo Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba Metamoris 5 video is above. Honestly, it was a little boring, but it’s good to see these two old-timers in action again. Full results from the event are after the jump…
The complete Renzo Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba Metamoris 5 video is above. Honestly, it was a little boring, but it’s good to see these two old-timers in action again. Full results from the event are after the jump…
You gotta hand it to the folks over at Metamoris; in two short years, Ralek Gracie & Co. have managed to book some of the most intriguing Jiu-Jitsu matches outside of an ADCC tournament. Bringing guys like Chael Sonnen, Josh Barnett, and Eddie Bravo into the fold has helped the oft overlooked sport a wider audience than it has ever received, and it looks like Metamoris will continue that trend with their fifth event, which features quite possibly their best main event matchup so far.
Yesterday afternoon, the submission-only grappling promotion announced the lineup for Metamoris 5, which goes down on November 22nd, and it looks a little something like this:
Renzo Gracie vs Kazushi Sakuraba
Rory MacDonald vs J.T. Torres
Yuri Simoes vs Rafael Lovato Jr
Vinny Magalhaes vs Kevin Casey
Garry Tonon vs Zak Maxwell
Secret Match
Yes, you read that correctly: Renzo Gracie. Kazushi “The Gracie Hunter” Sakuraba. Rory MacDonald. Vinny Magalhay-eyes. Tell them what we think of this lineup, Philip J. Fry.
As any MMA fan with even an ounce of dignity knows, the main event will serve as a rematch of sorts to Sakuraba and Gracie’s Pride 10 match, which saw Sakuraba break Gracie’s arm like a goddamn chicken wing with 17 seconds left in the second round. While both men’s MMA careers have taken something of a downswing in the time since, the heat behind this matchup should be at a fever pitch. Should Sakuraba emerge victorious, expect to see Royce Gracie get all up in his grill backstage like the true professional he is.
After the jump: Sakuraba vs. Gracie at Pride 10. UH-DOI!
You gotta hand it to the folks over at Metamoris; in two short years, Ralek Gracie & Co. have managed to book some of the most intriguing Jiu-Jitsu matches outside of an ADCC tournament. Bringing guys like Chael Sonnen, Josh Barnett, and Eddie Bravo into the fold has helped the oft overlooked sport a wider audience than it has ever received, and it looks like Metamoris will continue that trend with their fifth event, which features quite possibly their best main event matchup so far.
Yesterday afternoon, the submission-only grappling promotion announced the lineup for Metamoris 5, which goes down on November 22nd, and it looks a little something like this:
Renzo Gracie vs Kazushi Sakuraba
Rory MacDonald vs J.T. Torres
Yuri Simoes vs Rafael Lovato Jr
Vinny Magalhaes vs Kevin Casey
Garry Tonon vs Zak Maxwell
Secret Match
Yes, you read that correctly: Renzo Gracie. Kazushi “The Gracie Hunter” Sakuraba. Rory MacDonald. Vinny Magalhay-eyes. Tell them what we think of this lineup, Philip J. Fry.
As any MMA fan with even an ounce of dignity knows, the main event will serve as a rematch of sorts to Sakuraba and Gracie’s Pride 10 match, which saw Sakuraba break Gracie’s arm like a goddamn chicken wing with 17 seconds left in the second round. While both men’s MMA careers have taken something of a downswing in the time since, the heat behind this matchup should be at a fever pitch. Should Sakuraba emerge victorious, expect to see Royce Gracie get all up in his grill backstage like the true professional he is.
After the jump: Sakuraba vs. Gracie at Pride 10. UH-DOI!
To purchase Metamoris 5 on internet stream pay-per-view, go here.
