NHB Was More Exciting Than MMA

[007]

When fighters would fight anyone!!

 

[Dragons Roar]

I dont think its a coincidence that the very first UFC fight to have a time limit introduced.... went the full distance. Prior to the infamously boring Shamrock v Gracie bout, out of the 48 UFC fights that took place, only 5 lasted longer than todays 1 round (5 mins).

Its a different mindset when there is an end in sight. People seem to think with no time limits, fights would last all night long etc, but that couldnt be further from the truth

 

[Hotei]

I still feel like PRIDE rules were more interesting to watch...a nice tradeoff between the NHB and a user friendly approach.

 

[Ah Man]

You guys watch too much Bloodsport.

Listen, I admit, that crap was exciting, but as time goes on we realize what things were ridiculous in hindsight.

A few decades ago, kids could ride in the back of a station wagon and you could smoke damn-near anywhere.

Times have changed, we are much more health conscious.

Not to say I preferred NHB to MMA—I didn't—but are you arguing that competing in MMA is healthier? I'd be inclined to think it the other way around. Those gloves are the worst thing that ever happened to fighter health.

 

[peytonlucy]

Is that the promotion that had a fighters such as Marcus "Conan" Silviera, "The Zen Machine" (forgot his real name just remember his nickname), and Igor Zinoviev?

Zen Machine = Mario Sperry, who claimed he was like 300-0, which was modest compared to Rickson's claim of 400-0, even though we know Rickson lost a sambo match.

 

[MacGregor]

Conor vs Floyd was exciting because it had that unknown style vs style element the nhb days had.

 

[Bubblun]

Although I bought a considerable number of PRIDE PPVs, as good as they were, there was something about the original UFC format with the tournament elimination style contest with an added Superfight was still my favorite of any of this NHB/MMA competition.

I have tremendous respect for Royce Gracie but his fighting style was not the style I found most exciting. The style I enjoyed most was the powerful, double-leg takedowns delivered with the force of a freight train by guys like Coleman, Kerr, Couture and Frye was my absolute favorite when it was followed by devastating ground and pound where knees to the ribs were legal. So I suppose (I'm not using fight finder of Wiki) my favorite era was mid to late 90s, especially in UFC, but also in PRIDE and after The UFC lost Coleman and Kerr, then PRIDE was favorite promotion of that era (I'm thinking very late 90s to mid 2000s).

Being American and knowing catch wrestling is the American martial art, that just adds some pride to the emotion I feel when I see that era of fighting. Of course there are always ex options to the rule and as much as I liked Coleman, Kerr, Fye, and Couture there were couple other guys I really liked to watch fight - Vitor Belfort and Tank Abbott. Vitor's hand speed was shockingly faster than that any of hissers and a thing of beauty to watch. Tank Abbott was not the most well rounded fighter, his cardio was sometimes mediocre at best, but he was fearless and brought an aura of danger to The Octagon with the awesome power he packed in a single punch. That was plenty of reason to cheer him already but in addition, he was by far the wittiest, funniest guy on The UFC roster when doing interviews or even guest color commentary. Tank had the gift of gab!

In PRIDE, in what I think was the early 2000s, I added a few new favorites to my list. ""Slampage" Jackson was entertaining in and out of the ring and his powerslams were things of awesomely destructive beauty to see. I was so happy when he finally beat Wanderlei Silva! I also thought Sakuraba was awesome, especially for his size and no wonder! He was trained by American catch wrestling legend Billy Robinson! I was in awe of CRo-Cop's finely tuned Terminator-like machine of a body. Even Fedor was a little chubby but Cro-Cop seemed to be such an efficient fighting machine with no extra fat and an awesome catch phrase - "Right leg hospital, Left Leg cemetery!"

Finally Bas Rutten was the best color commentator, light years beyond Rogan, and he was also no slouch at competing in the ring either. he's obviously a man with a tremendous amount of knowledge of different fighting techniques and appears to have reached a high level of proficiency in lots of them. He's also a guy who is a perfect example of someone with charisma and personality who can cut a good promo without needing to resort to "shit-talking." He's far too creative to just take Coonor McGregor's style of endlessly repeating "I don't give a F**K which was exactly what we heard in the build-up to the fights with Diaz.

Billy Robinson was british, so is the art of catch wrestling.

 

[PabloMEX]

I watched those too but the problem is that it's hard to get quality athletes to participate in something like that. More often than not you end up with crazy brawler types when there aren't many rules (Tank Abbott etc)

Yeah that is a big part of it. The sport is hard enough with these rules and weight classes in place. For pro fighters it is better overall.

That being said, I would love to see current MMA skillsets in NHB scenarios. Could do without groin shots, but head butts needs to be in place. Pride rules with no gloves be nice too.

 

[Toco]

pride+elbows are the best rules ever

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

NHB was MMA in its purest form. I think MMA has been overly sterilized for mainstream appeal. But a middle ground like pride rules would be the best of both worlds.

Actually the purest form involves weapons, which have always been a big part of martial arts. What the Roman Gladiators did was the purest form of MMA.

That's never coming back, and for the same reason a lot of new rules were added since the time of NHB - without those rules it would be banned.

 

[tru3f4n]

pride+elbows are the best rules ever

ONE Championship has those rules

 

[Toco]

ONE Championship has those rules

yeah I know, but maybe people don't know about ONE, so pride+elbows makes it more clear

 

[dmwalking]

It would be nuts to have NHB rules with gloves at the current skill level except for no time limits. I'm cool with no rounds. It will definitely change things. Same for stomps and soccer kicks. But no time limits will result in lots of long boring fights of exhausted guys dancing around, putting their hands on their knees, and not having enough energy to finish each other.

 

[beastman]

It would be nuts to have NHB rules with gloves at the current skill level except for no time limits. I'm cool with no rounds. It will definitely change things. Same for stomps and soccer kicks. But no time limits will result in lots of long boring fights of exhausted guys dancing around, putting their hands on their knees, and not having enough energy to finish each other.

For anyone who was watching around that time period could agree that time limits are a good thing.

 

[Bubblun]

This video says it all about this thread, including TS love for NHB, but the brutal spectacle couldn't last.
Imagine athletes of the caliber of Jon Jones doing stomps and knees on a grounded opponent, say goodbye to those sweet FOX deals that put mma alongside with football and other sports.

 

[yeguiza]

pointfighting is taking over violence

 

[beastman]

This video says it all about this thread, including TS love for NHB, but the brutal spectacle couldn't last.
Imagine athletes of the caliber of Jon Jones doing stomps and knees on a grounded opponent, say goodbye to those sweet FOX deals that put mma alongside with football and other sports.

The funniest argument regarding NHB was that a noob could just kick an MMA fighter in the balls during a fight and win. Bitch, Jon Jones could place a ball shot with much more precision and power than you can.

 

[ClosetVitorFan]

Actually the purest form involves weapons, which have always been a big part of martial arts. What the Roman Gladiators did was the purest form of MMA.

That's never coming back, and for the same reason a lot of new rules were added since the time of NHB - without those rules it would be banned.

Have you ever heard of pankration? The oldest unarmed fighting Olympic sport about 2600 years old. No, fighting with weapons is not the purest form because that could lead to a fight to the death. In Pankration rules if you kill your opponent YOU lose. Look it up and learn some history. NHB was basically pankration, nhb became mma today.

 

[Agent Mulder's Hair]

MMA hit it's peak around 2000-2010. The Golden Age of UFC vs PRIDE wars. That was the best this sport has ever been and unfortunately due to regulations and rules, it will be impossible to EVER be that great again. But at least most of us here got to witness the golden age.

 

[CoffeeAndBeer]

Having been a fan of NHB (no holds barred) fighting since I bought UFC 2 way back in 1994, I have to say The UFC PPVs were more exciting when they were still NHB. I liked almost everything about it better: The tournament format, the danger and excitement of fights in which the only techniques not allowed were biting, eye gouging, and fish hooking, the format of no rounds and no time limit - simply a fight to the finish. and the absence of weight divisions which meant the winner of the tournament wasn't just "the best for his size." The winner was the best for any size. he was simply the best. Period.

Ultimate fighting was better than NHB.