Mixed martial arts was piggybacked by the likes of these proverbial legends in the sport, who reigned dominant in their heyday as champions or notable figures.However, like with every reign, all good things must come to an end.Case in point: Chuck Lidd…
Mixed martial arts was piggybacked by the likes of these proverbial legends in the sport, who reigned dominant in their heyday as champions or notable figures.
However, like with every reign, all good things must come to an end.
Case in point: Chuck Liddell, who is arguably the greatest light heavyweight to have ever lived. The prestigious honor is no stretch, as “The Iceman” was an early dominant force in the organization, having bested several world-class opponents in devastating fashion.
However, the knockout artist would later succumb to his own lopsided losses at the tail end of his career and blemished his legacy because of it, much like these men who called it quits just a little too late.
One of the scariest and saddest things for a sports fan to go through is the process of the changing of the guard. The time when many of your favorite stars are aging, declining and getting beaten like you have never seen them beaten before. The UFC is…
One of the scariest and saddest things for a sports fan to go through is the process of the changing of the guard. The time when many of your favorite stars are aging, declining and getting beaten like you have never seen them beaten before.
The UFC is experiencing a large changing of the guard in 2011 with legend retirements and losses mounting as the holiday season approaches. This year has seen the retirement of such notables as Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell (officially Dec 29th, 2010), Chris Lytle and most recently Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic.
Along with the retirement of those fan favorites, Matt Hughes, Wanderlei Silva, Kenny Florian and BJ Penn have all pondered or are pondering calling an end to their respective careers. It is a tough jab to slip for an older fan who has fallen in love with the UFC on the visions and backs of these men. It makes you reflect and wonder if your passion to tune in and follow will remain as strong once the last of your favorites rides off into the sunset.
But wait, experience as a broad sports fan has told me that all is not doom and gloom when a changing of the guard takes place. I am an NHL fan almost as passionately as I am a fan of MMA and the UFC and I survived a very similar shift on the NHL a few years ago.
Gone were my favorites Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman and Dougie Gilmour and I was left depressed, feeling my passion to watch was in jeopardy for the first time in my life. Well, tuning in to a couple of games or highlight reels featuring Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Shea Weber and Jonathon Toews cured me of the malaise and my NHL passion is very much alive and well.
The show will go on, it will just feature different stars and the same can be said with the shifting of the UFC.
Carrying on is the heart and drive of a Frankie Edgar, the integrity and class of a Cain Velasquez and the incredible new skill of a Jon Jones.
I’ll admit, it has been a tough year for this old school man seeing Wanderlei Silva, BJ Penn and Matt Hughes get beaten down by the younger and up and coming fighter. Following all sports as long as I have teaches you that new and exciting athletes are always in the pipeline and a changing of the guard is not even close to the end of the world.
Dwight Wakabayashi is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA and correspondent for MMACanada.net.
After missed press conferences, injuries, and possibly BJ Penn’s retirement fight, Nick Diaz vs. Georges St-Pierre is back on. This time the fight could take place on a bigger stage: Super Bowl weekend. Diaz wasted little time calling out the…
After missed press conferences, injuries, and possibly BJ Penn’s retirement fight, Nick Diaz vs. Georges St-Pierre is back on.
This time the fight could take place on a bigger stage: Super Bowl weekend.
Diaz wasted little time calling out the welterweight champ after his main event victory over Penn during Saturday’s UFC 137, claiming that St-Pierre was not injured and that he was scared.
Diaz is without a doubt one of the most exciting fighters in MMA today.
Because of his unique personality and troubled past, Diaz is also one of the most hated and possibly misunderstood fighters today.
Despite already being screwed by Diaz once this year, the UFC will give him another chance at St-Pierre.
St-Pierre has been one of the most dominant fighters in MMA history. Also, he’s been considered one of the more boring fighters in MMA today.
No one can doubt St-Pierre’s greatness. However, the fact that he is not as exciting as Anderson Silva or finish fighters like Jon Jones have turned some people against St-Pierre.
Diaz may not be the most liked fighter outside of the Octagon, but inside the cage, Diaz can put on a great show.
From his willingness to take crazy risks, his fearlessness to stand and trade with anybody and his arrogance to taunt an opponent right after getting hit by them, Diaz is flat out entertaining.
If Diaz could some how beat St-Pierre, it would do a few things.
It would give new life to the welterweight division that has been nearly cleaned out by St-Pierre.
A Diaz win would also give the UFC a possible new bad boy champion, much like Tito Ortiz was.
Diaz as champion could also be a risk.
Because of a post-fight brawl that involved Diaz, Strikeforce got pulled from its television deal with CBS.
Diaz has also been involved in a hospital fight with fellow fighter Joe Riggs, been suspended for having marijuana in his system, and was originally pulled from his UFC 137 fight with St-Pierre for missing two press conferences.
Diaz could provide the excitement that the UFC needs while the company is trying to go mainstream. He could also bring excess baggage.
(Ah, 2007. A very fine year for gogoplatas. / Photo via Sherdog)
By Ben Goldstein
Over the last two decades, MMA has evolved so consistently that fighters are still finding new and unexpected ways to destroy their opponents — while causing fans to spit their beers in shock. We decided to take a lil’ spin through MMA history and identify the single most awe-inspiring technique from each year since the sport’s modern inception. We expect you to disagree with us; there’s a comments section just for that purpose. And away we go…
1993:Royce Gracie’s Rear-Naked Choke vs. Ken Shamrock @ UFC 1, 11/12/93
(Fight starts at the 3:54 mark)
You have to remember that in the early ’90s, a well-placed roundhouse kick to the head was considered the pinnacle of martial arts. What Royce Gracie introduced to fight fans in his early UFC run was something much more practical, less flashy, and a little bit scary. Gracie’s submission of Ken Shamrock — and the similar hold he used to stop Gerard Gordeau in the finals — proved that skill beat size, and pajamas beat man-panties.
1994: Dan Severn’s Suplexes vs. Anthony Macias @ UFC 4, 12/16/94
(Ah, 2007. A very fine year for gogoplatas. / Photo via Sherdog)
By Ben Goldstein
Over the last two decades, MMA has evolved so consistently that fighters are still finding new and unexpected ways to destroy their opponents — while causing fans to spit their beers in shock. We decided to take a lil’ spin through MMA history and identify the single most awe-inspiring technique from each year since the sport’s modern inception. We expect you to disagree with us; there’s a comments section just for that purpose. And away we go…
1993:Royce Gracie’s Rear-Naked Choke vs. Ken Shamrock @ UFC 1, 11/12/93
(Fight starts at the 3:54 mark)
You have to remember that in the early ’90s, a well-placed roundhouse kick to the head was considered the pinnacle of martial arts. What Royce Gracie introduced to fight fans in his early UFC run was something much more practical, less flashy, and a little bit scary. Gracie’s submission of Ken Shamrock — and the similar hold he used to stop Gerard Gordeau in the finals — proved that skill beat size, and pajamas beat man-panties.
1994: Dan Severn’s Suplexes vs. Anthony Macias @ UFC 4, 12/16/94
(Fight starts at the 1:53 mark)
Of course, the UFC’s formative years weren’t all about subtlety. The arrival of Dan Severn, followed by his ground-and-pounding spiritual descendants Mark Coleman and Mark Kerr, showed that a hulking wrestler could do just as well as a skinny grappling whiz. The suplexes that Severn pulled off in his UFC debut were straight out of a pro-wrestling match, but my God, they were real. As commentator Jim Brown sums up the performance, “what I’m looking at is a wrestler with a lot of strength, but not the true technique of the jiu-jitso man.” And sure enough, the UFC’s original “jiu-jitso man” Royce Gracie caught Severn in the Octagon’s first-ever triangle choke later that night.
1995: Marco Ruas’s Leg Kicks vs. Paul Varelans @ UFC 7, 3/10/95
It’s not like Marco Ruas was the first guy to throw leg kicks in a vale tudo match, but the technique became part of his legacy due to how he used them — as a savage fight-finisher, perfect for chopping down bigger opponents. During his 13-minute UFC 7 finals match against Paul “The Polar Bear” Varelans, Ruas executed a leg-kick based strategy that hobbled the American behemoth. Varleans became so aggravated that he started kicking back, and seemed to learn how to check the incoming kicks mid-fight. But in the end, the King of the Streets pulverized Varelans’s lead thigh until he collapsed to the mat, unable to defend himself. Of course, if the UFC outlawed fence-grabbing at the time, the fight wouldn’t have lasted half as long. Honorable mention:Ken Shamrock’s kneebar against Bas Rutten @ Pancrase: Eyes of Beast 2.
1996: Gary Goodridge’s “Goose Neck” Crucifix vs. Paul Herrera @ UFC 8, 2/16/96
Let’s just say that Big Daddy didn’t earn his 4th-degree black belt in Kuk Sool Won the old-fashioned way. But when the former arm-wrestling champ and all-around tough guy made his UFC debut, he at least knew how to pull off a rather nasty grappling maneuver that would leave his opponent’s head wide-open for elbow strikes. As Goodridge told us in his final “Ask Gary” column, “I was shocked like everybody. Since I practiced my counter-move the night before I was ready, but surprised it worked that easily.” Though Jon Jones pulled off a variation of this finish against Vladimir Matyushenko in 2010, the Goodridge Goose-Neck hasn’t been duplicated in the Octagon since, which is probably a good thing. Honorable mention:Bas Rutten’s liver shots against Jason Delucia @ Pancrase: Truth 6.
It’s hard to make the argument that both Georges St-Pierre and Matt Hughes aren’t in a class of their own; they are two of the most successful competitors in UFC history.Hughes is one of the most accomplished grapplers to step into the Octagon and was …
It’s hard to make the argument that both Georges St-Pierre and Matt Hughes aren’t in a class of their own; they are two of the most successful competitors in UFC history.
Hughes is one of the most accomplished grapplers to step into the Octagon and was arguably the most dominant champion of his era.
Georges St-Pierre is one of the most well-rounded fighters to make his presence known in the UFC, along with being one of the most dynamic and athletic fighters in the sport today. Together, they are two of the most decorated champions of all time.
In this slideshow we’ll compare their careers and look at their overall skill set, competition and title defenses, in order to determine who is the greatest UFC welterweight champion of all time.
Welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre will make the seventh defense of his title come October 29th when he takes on the dangerous Carlos Condit at UFC 137 in Las Vegas.The two men represent the upper echelon of the division and have been regarded as t…
Welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre will make the seventh defense of his title come October 29th when he takes on the dangerous Carlos Condit at UFC 137 in Las Vegas.
The two men represent the upper echelon of the division and have been regarded as top-tier competitors for the better part of their respective careers.
Outside of GSP and Condit, though, who else will go down in the mixed martial arts history books as the best welterweight fighters to ever lace up the gloves?
One of the scariest and saddest things for a sports fan to go through is the process of the changing of the guard. The time when many of your favorite stars are aging, declining and getting beaten like you have never seen them beaten before.