The heavyweight champion of the world is often viewed as the baddest man on the planet. Mike Tyson carried that moniker on his back and translated it into international notoriety that will forever live in infamy.In mixed martial arts, several men have …
The heavyweight champion of the world is often viewed as the baddest man on the planet. Mike Tyson carried that moniker on his back and translated it into international notoriety that will forever live in infamy.
In mixed martial arts, several men have been lucky enough to call themselves the biggest and the best. Other heavyweights have earned a place in the hearts of fans, but never quite reached the peak of the mountain.
With the upcoming championship battle between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez only one month away, it’s easy to get worked up thinking about heavyweight action. In anticipation of that fight, let’s take a look at the most popular heavyweights in MMA history.
Many years from now, when fans look back on the sport, they will be able to recognize several important men who were celebrated for their contributions and achievements in the sport by way of the UFC Hall of Fame. Sadly, should they content themse…
Many years from now, when fans look back on the sport, they will be able to recognize several important men who were celebrated for their contributions and achievements in the sport by way of the UFC Hall of Fame.
Sadly, should they content themselves with that accounting they will never know such fighters as Frank Shamrock, FedorEmelianenko, Jeremy Horn, KazushiSakuraba and others—men who either fought for other promotions or who simply weren’t on Dana White’s list of friends.
The UFC Hall of Fame is a great thing, but it will never be a true HOF for the sport because it is totally dependent on the whims of a single man who is not above ignoring the contributions of others if he does not like them.
A true HOF is not dependent upon the selections of one man. The International Boxing Hall of Fame has five categories (Modern, Old-Timer, Pioneer, Non-Participant and Observer). Those inducted are chosen by an international panel of boxing historians and members of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Votes are cast and tabulated, and inductees can become members.
And that is just what the sport of MMA needs: a true HOF that recognizes fighters and other contributors to the sport with no biases for or professional prejudices against. It would be a committee of many minds and sensibilities, not an army of one, and from there, recognition and induction would be the byproduct of a concerned consensus.
Which is how it should be.
As great as the UFC is, the sport is too big to have its HOF members decided upon by a single man.
So, who should be inducted without hesitation or delay once such a HOF is born?
Here are the names of 25 deserving individuals for your consideration.
Back before fighters were well rounded the game was a crap shoot. For the UFC, the days of one dimensional fighters came to a close shortly after Zuffa purchased the promotion from Semaphore Entertainment Group in January of 2001. Back then fast hands,…
Back before fighters were well rounded the game was a crap shoot. For the UFC, the days of one dimensional fighters came to a close shortly after Zuffa purchased the promotion from Semaphore Entertainment Group in January of 2001.
Back then fast hands, sinister submissions or wrestling could get a fighter by. And I don’t mean a combination of the three, I mean mastering one single element alone. That seemed to suffice.
As primitive as combat may have been at the time, fans played witness to numerous highly entertaining bouts. A solid handful of men excelled back in the day, and that’s what this piece is all about: examining the golden age of the UFC’s existence.
Here’s a look at 20 of the toughest men to compete for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and their career’s pre-Zuffa. Nothing they’ve accomplished beyond December of 2000 inside the octagon is going to be factored into this list, so refrain from spilling into a rage when Mark Kerr doesn’t top the list!
Gentlemen, have you ever found yourself watching a Miesha Tate fight and thought, “You know what, that woman is a great fighter, I would love to show her my penis over the internet.” Well today is your lucky day, because a thread on the UG recently brought to light that the former Strikeforce bantamweight women’s champion has apparently launched a “members only” website, where just $4.99 a month (!!!!) gets you access to the following:
-Latest and up to date news
-Latest and up to date appearances and schedule -Exclusive photos not found anywhere else -Exclusive videos not found anywhere else
-Access to store for merchandise and memorbilia
-Contests available to fans only
-Be able to submit your picture with Miesha that will be permanently on her website
-Chance to Video Chat with Miesha herself (times and days TBD)
-Book 1 on 1 video chat
-See Marzia stream live from her phone (coming soon)
Gentlemen, have you ever found yourself watching a Miesha Tate fight and thought, “You know what, that woman is a great fighter, I would love to show her my penis over the internet.” Well today is your lucky day, because a thread on the UG recently brought to light that the former Strikeforce bantamweight women’s champion has apparently launched a “members only” website, where just $4.99 a month (!!!!) gets you access to the following:
-Latest and up to date news
-Latest and up to date appearances and schedule -Exclusive photos not found anywhere else -Exclusive videos not found anywhere else
-Access to store for merchandise and memorbilia
-Contests available to fans only
-Be able to submit your picture with Miesha that will be permanently on her website
-Chance to Video Chat with Miesha herself (times and days TBD)
-Book 1 on 1 video chat
-See Marzia stream live from her phone (coming soon)
In all seriousness (or at least as serious as we can be while discussing this), the items on this “members only” list seem to range from whatever the opposite of business savvy is to downright strange. Why would you limit who can purchase your merchandise to only those who have signed up for an additional fee to do so? Does she realize that most of these “exclusive” videos and photos will be made public as soon as they are put up on her website? And what kind of basement-dwelling sad sack would actually pay to have their fanboy photo with Miesha on her website? Though to be fair, it could bring a whole new meaning to the term “fist-posing.”
I went there. I apologize.
But rather than continue to mock this idea all over again, I’d rather let the anonymous members of the UG who came across this news do it, because they pretty much cover all the pseudo-sexual and downright mean comments were planning to say anyway. Enjoy.
YellowWrkedByTapIn: She is going to see a LOT of dicks.
Hocky Balboa: I’m kinda broke at the moment, so I’ve been jerking off to Giant Silva video chats for less than a dollar a month. (Ed note: This is my personal fav.)
58miles: Well when even elite WMMA fighters make less than a 17yr old full-time cashier at Walmart, these kinds of situations are going to occur.
_33 24: How long till Honda pays for a chat to break her balls?
And finally, Card, who proves that life, as in movies, is about showing, not telling:
According to the thread, Ronda Rousey has apparently already been notified of this and if history tells us anything, we can expect and epic surprise chat session any day now.
That being said, you know things aren’t exactly good for somebody when…you know what, I’ll just let this press release sent to Cagepotato.com yesterday explain:
Maryland, 29 th October 2012 [Author’s Note: The date was wrong, so I figured things weren’t exactly off to a promising start…] – UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock has announced the launch of his own fundraising chat line, allowing fans of the legendary icon to call him directly on his cell phone.
His service is part of growing micro-access phenomenon, whereby well-known public figures can connect anonymously by phone with their followers on a pay-per-minute basis.
“Okay, so I’m making a living as a fake fighter. Things can only get better from here, right?”
That being said, you know things aren’t exactly good for somebody when…you know what, I’ll just let this press release sent to Cagepotato.com yesterday explain:
Maryland, 29 th October 2012 [Author’s Note: The date was wrong, so I figured things weren’t exactly off to a promising start…] – UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock has announced the launch of his own fundraising chat line, allowing fans of the legendary icon to call him directly on his cell phone.
His service is part of growing micro-access phenomenon, whereby well-known public figures can connect anonymously by phone with their followers on a pay-per-minute basis.
Calls to the UFC celebrity are priced at $11.99 per minute, and he will join a growing list of sports luminaries who have agreed to have fans call them directly.
That’s right, Ken Shamrock is now allowing strangers to call his cell phone for money, through a service called Call a Champ. So all of you Ken Shamrock fans out there who have at least $11.99 that you haven’t already thrown into a woodchipper can buy a conversation with “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” himself. Maybe you’re just dying to ask him why he never fought Dan Severn over at Juggalo Championship Wrestling. Or maybe you want to know where to buy a good steak in Reno. Or maybe you just want to buy an incredibly awkward conversation with the former champion, where you can gush over his achievements while he occasionally says “Thanks, I appreciate that.” Regardless, you now have an outlet for all of this, and at $11.99 per minute, I imagine that the line will almost never be busy.
But the fun doesn’t stop there, unfortunately. Be sure to read Shamrock’s biography on the Call a Champ website, where the author talks about MMA and professional wrestling as if they’re the same thing:
Mixed Martial Arts is the fastest growing sport in the world today, and Ken Shamrock, as one of the sport’s founding athletes, is among the most widely recognized of the MMA fighters. With Shamrock’s unparalleled impact on the sport as a fighter and wrestler, he can only be described as an icon. Best known for his participation in the Ultimate Fighting Championships, The World Wrestling Federation, Pride Fighting Championships, Pancrase and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, no other fighter possesses the credentials that have rightfully earned Shamrock the title coined by ABC of “The World’s Most Dangerous Man.”
If you’re looking for yet another reason to give up on life today, check out some of the other “well-known public figures” that have signed up for Call a Champ. If you happen to be a die-hard New York Giants fan, you can call Chris Calloway and ask him to apologize for every terrible Giants team of the mid-90s. If you’d rather talk to a champion, you can talk to Reuben Droughns, who was the fourth-string running back for the New York Giants when they won Super Bowl XLII, and is now an assistant coach for a Serbian football team. You can also call 1989′s NBA Sixth Man of the Year, Eddie Johnson, Loyola Marymount University Hall of Famer Bo Kimble and the first American to win a gold medal in inverted aerial skiing, Nikki Stone. So yeah, this service by no means comes off as a way for broke former pros to see if anyone will pay money to talk to them.
Granted, Ken Shamrock isn’t the first MMA fighter to sign up for something like this; for only $100, Thiago Alves will send you a recorded message! I guess the difference here is that unlike Ken Shamrock, Thiago Alves is still relevant in MMA, can still make money by fighting, and can almost sort-of justify the $100 talk-to-Pitbull fee.
Forgive me if it seems like I’ve been harping on this, but where does Ken Shamrock think he’s going to find people willing to pay $11.99 per minute to talk to him when he hasn’t been relevant in years? He’s not providing THAT kind of phone service, is he? Let me re-read that disclaimer at the top of Ken’s page…
We offer discreet one on one talk with Ken Shamrock! If Ken Shamrock is not by the phone or on another line your account balance will not be deducted. All calls are private and fully confidential. No one listens in and calls are never recorded.
We are all familiar with the clichéd tale of the great champion who can’t walk away from the sport he loves. While we admire the courage of these athletes, we wince every time we watch them climb inside the ring or the cage and take unnece…
We are all familiar with the clichéd tale of the great champion who can’t walk away from the sport he loves.
While we admire the courage of these athletes, we wince every time we watch them climb inside the ring or the cage and take unnecessary punishment.
We know that they should have retired years ago, yet we can do nothing to stop them from putting themselves in harm’s way for one last shot at glory or a much-needed paycheque.
With that in mind, here is my list of the top seven fighters who really should call it quits.
