Why didnt we ever see Melvin Manheof in the UFC?

[Fedor Emelianenko]

What was happening during his run? Melvin may have never been champ but he is a solid fighter with godly striking.. shame about his chin.

Dream fight is Lombard vs Manheof.

 

[gotBooched]

He fought overseas (of NA) majority of his career.

he was old as fuck when he got into Strikeforce and got rocked there IIRC.

bad timing ultimately. He was an animal. He and Remy are my two favorite kickboxers.

edit - I didn’t remember his MMA much. I was way off. Totally forgot he's fighting Bellator. Who could forget he lost to Joe Schilling. The only MMA fighter i've ever heard of that smokes!

 

[phatron]

cause he wasn't an mma fighter and basically lost any fight that went longer than 30 seconds

 

[Sweater of AV]

Because Melvin > UFC.

 

[Elvis.]

Would have loved to see him fight Anderson about 12-14 years ago

 

[Simple Southerner]

One trick pony Melvin would have got beat down in the ufc

 

[HaulParris]

Manhoef vs Lawler in Strikeforce was awesome - if you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil it, it’s well worth a watch. Starts off slow, then...

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Joe Silva would’ve booked him against nothing but wrestlers to de-value him anyway. Kind of glad that didn’t happen

 

[blaseblah]

He never had a win streak to justify bringing him over.

 

[POWER2]

What was happening during his run? Melvin may have never been champ but he is a solid fighter with godly striking.. shame about his chin.

Dream fight is Lombard vs Manheof.

2005 Melvin would have been an UFC legend.

 

[PrepareForGlory]

It's a shame.

Him vs. the Chris Leben's and the Drew Mcfedries of the world would have been some insane scraps

 

[Loking]

wrasteling grappaling
edie: joio jiutsdu

 

[superpunch]

Today, there's a very good chance he would be signed. Back then, the UFC normally signed guys at a higher level that hadn't proved they don't have the potential to become champion yet. Manhoef had shown he wasn't ever going to be a serious top fighter, that he was never even going to be a full time MMA fighter (part time MMA, part time kickboxer), and was just a fun fighter; UFC generally didn't sign guys like that.

For example, it used to a known rule that anyone who lost 3 consecutive fights would be cut. It didn't matter who you were. You could be Matt Hughes, Anderson Silva, or Conor McGregor. If you lost 3 fights in a row, you were gone. There are several guys I can think of on 4-5 fight skids right now that weren't cut. Carlos Condit comes to mind real quick.

As the UFC has become larger, it's also expanded the scope of fighters it puts and keeps on the roster.

 

[EYEKICKFACES]

Didn't he straight knock out a ref once? If it's the fight I'm thinking of, it was one of the better KO's I've ever seen.

 

[EYEKICKFACES]

Weird that people in this thread are saying he wasn't a full time MMA fighter. The guy has almost 50 MMA fights.

 

[Russie]

He would've been an interesting addition. I doubt there would have been a solid run of success for him. I wonder how much if any did he even try to pursue the UFC or if it was just the UFC not having any interest.

 

[superpunch]

Weird that people in this thread are saying he wasn't a full time MMA fighter. The guy has almost 50 MMA fights.

He was a kickboxer that also took tons of MMA fights. He didn't actually train MMA full time and try to fix his weaknesses so that he could reach the elite levels of the sport.

 

[Jose Beehive]

Won his last 2 fights.. Never knew he was a Brown belt in BJJ! 0 Submissions in 49 fights. Pretty mad.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Weird that people in this thread are saying he wasn't a full time MMA fighter. The guy has almost 50 MMA fights.

I think the issue is more he wasn't exclusively an MMA fighter, UFC doesn't sign guys who kickbox (or at least they have to stop if they sign for them).

 

[Aluminati]

Didn't he straight knock out a ref once? If it's the fight I'm thinking of, it was one of the better KO's I've ever seen.

That was Yvel, pretty sure.