Tank Abbott was one of my favorites from that time period as well as Mark Coleman and Vitor Belfort at only 19 years old! I remember how psyched up I was for the fight between the two men that would determine the first UFC Champion ( as opposed to being the champion of a particular tournament only). It was Mark Coleman vs. Dan Severn in a fairly short but exciting fight. Coleman used his neck crank to win. Even though I liked the idea of them establishing an actual UFC Champion and Coleman and Severn were both elite level wrestlers and certainly among the best of their time, I loved watching the tournaments as well. To win a tournament you had to win 3 fights all in the same night! The prize was only $50,000 so it attracted guys who genuinely liked to fight and who were nothing like some of the prima donnas of today. Some of the fighters from the tournament days probably would have been willing to fight in the tournaments for free. Just the opportunity to get in some good fights and test themselves against other martial artists or Olympic level wrestlers and being able to kick someone's ass without going to jail would have been payment enough for some of them. The men from the NHB days really were cut from a different cloth than today's "sport fighters."
NHB Was More Exciting Than MMA
- Thread starter Blackjack
- Start date
Tank Abbott was one of my favorites from that time period as well as Mark Coleman and Vitor Belfort at only 19 years old! I remember how psyched up I was for the fight between the two men that would determine the first UFC Champion ( as opposed to being the champion of a particular tournament only). It was Mark Coleman vs. Dan Severn in a fairly short but exciting fight. Coleman used his neck crank to win. Even though I liked the idea of them establishing an actual UFC Champion and Coleman and Severn were both elite level wrestlers and certainly among the best of their time, I loved watching the tournaments as well. To win a tournament you had to win 3 fights all in the same night! The prize was only $50,000 so it attracted guys who genuinely liked to fight and who were nothing like some of the prima donnas of today. Some of the fighters from the tournament days probably would have been willing to fight in the tournaments for free. Just the opportunity to get in some good fights and test themselves against other martial artists or Olympic level wrestlers and being able to kick someone's ass without going to jail would have been payment enough for some of them. The men from the NHB days really were cut from a different cloth than today's "sport fighters."
you've never trained if you think these guys today are really prima donas. the journey to be great today is a fuckin grind. you think tank abbott put his heart into his training like guys today? but yeah, fighters have to look out for their interests today when back then they just competed.
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2014
- Messages
- 23,290
- Reaction score
- 27,082
no, the fight shown was from a one night tournament called --iirc- World Combat Championships in which Renzo Gracie was the winner. The promotion you are thinking of is Battlecade Extreme Fighting and the Zen Machine is Mario Sperry.
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2014
- Messages
- 23,290
- Reaction score
- 27,082
I agree with TS to an extent, except it is a lot easier to forget the boring stall/lay n pray fights from that era because it was so long ago and the awesome moments outshine them.
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2010
- Messages
- 13,058
- Reaction score
- 1,499
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2011
- Messages
- 11,034
- Reaction score
- 1
Couldn't agree more,
Has nothing to do with just bleed. Has to do with proper stoppages and not this over reactionary bullshit.
If you don't want to get hurt then don't join a sport where the point is to smash the face of the opponent with your hands and feet.
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2016
- Messages
- 35,481
- Reaction score
- 38,865
Actual fights compared to the sparring exhibitions that most matches are these days. Damn kids...
Tank Abbott certainly wouldn't be someone I would choose to represent the typical fighter from back then with regards to how much effort he put into training, or anything else about him. He was one of a kind. Just as I wouldn't choose "Big Country" Roy Nelson to represent the dedication towards physical conditioning that the typical fighter of today has.
You'd be hard pressed though to find too many fighters of today's era who would be as willing ti accept a fight on as short notice as Tank Abbott would and did on several occasions in his era. One that stands out was when The UFC had a Heavyweight challenger for then champion Maurice Smith who pulled out with only 7 days left , leaving Maurice Smith without an opponent. The UFC called several fighters and none of them was willing to fight Smith on 7 days notice except Tank Abbott.
So when I called today's fighters prima donnas I wasn't referring to all of them but just the general mindset so many of them have of pulling out of fights for practically any injury no matter how minor. If you have watched The UFC from the beginning as I have, you know that fighters pulling out of fights used to be a very rare thing compared to how often it happens today. It's practically an epidemic today!
Also you never heard any fighters say anything like the things Mark Hunt has been saying ever sine his fight with Brock Lesnar. For a fighter of The UFC's early day's to publicly ask "What if I had been killed in that fight" would have been unthinkable. That just was not the mentality of the fighters of back then. I'm sure there were some fighters using steroids back in the mid 90s and other fighters who didn'y but I never heard a fighter back then get so emotionally distressed and have a meltdown for the entire public to see just because he suspects Brock took more than just the Clomid which Lesnar tested positive for.
Fighters back then realized there were always going to be some fighters who tried t get a chemical edge on their opponents and while I'm sure they didn't like having to fight opponents who were on steroids or growth hormone, they conducted themselves with dignity regarding it unlike Mark Hunt. If they were upset enough about it they might do what Dan Severn did and simply leave The UFC to fight elsewhere but they never descended into the type of embarrassing and extremely crude behavior that we saw from Mark Hunt.
You have an excellent memory, thanks! BTW did Mario Sperry ever go on to accomplish much in NHB or MMA after Battlecade went out of business?
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2015
- Messages
- 8,122
- Reaction score
- 5,285
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2010
- Messages
- 13,058
- Reaction score
- 1,499
Of course its not just Just Bleed, but its a large element of NHB. As someone else mentioned there were alot of boring fights too but the fighters stepping into a cage with no rules gave you a true sense that literally anything could happen for better or worse.
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2014
- Messages
- 29,270
- Reaction score
- 2,611
WW2 Was More Exciting Than NHB.
Having been a fan of WW2 (World War 2) fighting since I saw Hitler's speech way back in 1941, I have to say fighting was more exciting when they were still in a war. I liked almost everything about it better: the full on countries vs. countries melee, the danger and excitement of death matches in which techniques like biting, eye gouging, fish hooking, skull bashing, dick chopping, artillery striking, civilian raping were completely allowed, the format of no rounds and no time limit - simply a fight to the finish. and the absence of weight divisions, 1 vs. 1 or no weapons rule, which meant the winner of the war wasn't just "the best at 1 on 1" or "the best at a fist fight". The winner was the best country ever. It was simply the best at fights to the death. Period.
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2007
- Messages
- 20,363
- Reaction score
- 404
Yes, I remember when I first saw Royce Gracie use the guard I thought "This is boring as hell"! But even though some fights ended up with one fighter in another's guard for what seemed like an eternity, there were more than enough great fights to make up for it. Remember the first time we saw Vitor Belfort and how his hand speed seemed to be double that of any other fighter we'd seen in The UFC? Or how about witnessing the invention of "ground and pound"?
Mark Coleman was one of my favorite fighters and his GNP was brutal, especially when he was still allowed to use headbutts. He had a legendary fight against Don Frye which showed just how tough Frye was. Coleman took Frye down and was just pounding the hell out of Frye's ribs until they were all bruised and discolored and as savagely as Coleman attacked Frye's ribs, Frye took that punishment for something like 10 minutes straight (no rounds then) until finally tapping out.
Vitor appeared to be on an entirely different level than everyone else with how quickly he was knocking out even Tank Abbott! It wasn't that he beat Abbott because several guys had beaten him, but the way he beat him was just stunning. Finally a 35 year old newcomer to the sport finally handed Belfort his first defeat. His name? Randy "The Natural" Couture!
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2014
- Messages
- 23,290
- Reaction score
- 27,082
Sperry won another NHB tournament in Australia -the name eludes me but I'm almost certain it has the word Blood in it- and had minor success in Pride, but his real contribution to the sport of mma was as a fighter/coach of Brazilian Top Team -in their prime-. he later on coached blackzilians for 7 months but that's hardly worth mentioning.
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2013
- Messages
- 1,905
- Reaction score
- 1,211
Not sure what to say so here's picture of Don Frye.
Boxing systems is way better than MMA's prowrestling-like organizations. Boxing has actual undisputed international world champions holding belts in multiple organizations at the same time. Boxing also has only four relevant organizations that recognize each other's belts. MMA is already much more fragmented, and doesn't have international or even interorganizational competition.
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2011
- Messages
- 11,034
- Reaction score
- 1
Boxing has too man belts and has been a broken system for a very long time. Plus they can crush their way up to popularity which is pretty much cheating.
MMA puts equal competition in the cage vs one another and is much more respectable.
I will never forget watching that fight live between Vale and Bitonio. The matchups were made so the final would be between Vale and Renzo Gracie. Vale's fight with Bitonio took a lot out of him like part of his scalp from head butts to Bitonio's face so he was not able to fight in the final. IDK what ever happened to Bitonio after that fight but man that guy had no quit in him and a lot of heart.
