David vs Goliath is a famous biblical story (1 Samuel 17), which has found its way into common vernacular and common English, where the much smaller fighter manages to beat a much larger opponent. It's a tale that tells you that despite the odds, no matter how big your opponent is, if you have the heart and the spirit you can always win.
Despite the fact that in UFC 1 there were no weight divisions, Royce Gracie managed to win the event being perhaps the smallest fighter on the card. Similarly, Fedor fought fighters much larger than him such as Hongman Choi, and Zuluzinho, and was victorious, and then you have Minowaman winning the Super Hulk openweight championship in Dream in 2009, where he defeated much larger opponents such as Bob Sapp and Hongman Choi.
Additionally, the sport of Sumo Wrestling in Japan has no weight divisions, and so you can see David vs Goliath style match-ups, between much smaller fighters who rely on technique and speed, versus gigantic tank-like Sumo wrestlers.
So why has this type of match-up completely disappeared from the modern sport of MMA? Probably nothing gives the audience more joy than to see an outmatched underdog manage to become victorious. But these days, what we see is people cutting weight to try and fight smaller and smaller opponents, to the extent that they will fall unconscious on their face on the day of the weigh-in, rather than challenge themselves against the odds for true glory.
Despite the fact that in UFC 1 there were no weight divisions, Royce Gracie managed to win the event being perhaps the smallest fighter on the card. Similarly, Fedor fought fighters much larger than him such as Hongman Choi, and Zuluzinho, and was victorious, and then you have Minowaman winning the Super Hulk openweight championship in Dream in 2009, where he defeated much larger opponents such as Bob Sapp and Hongman Choi.
Additionally, the sport of Sumo Wrestling in Japan has no weight divisions, and so you can see David vs Goliath style match-ups, between much smaller fighters who rely on technique and speed, versus gigantic tank-like Sumo wrestlers.
So why has this type of match-up completely disappeared from the modern sport of MMA? Probably nothing gives the audience more joy than to see an outmatched underdog manage to become victorious. But these days, what we see is people cutting weight to try and fight smaller and smaller opponents, to the extent that they will fall unconscious on their face on the day of the weigh-in, rather than challenge themselves against the odds for true glory.
