Laverne Clark first mma fight - Shonie Carter *Video*

By the way mucho thanks for posting this video up
 
A lot of old school aggression in this thread; well in, Barman.


Buuuuttttt to label Laverne Clark just a boxer is a major mistake. Clark wrestled in elementary and high school (state runner-up) and didn't take up boxing till he was 19. He was a wrestler first and that showed in all of his fights save the one versus Shonie. Damn near all of his fights involved him stuffing take downs with a monster whizzer (dude had incredibly solid hips) and ending up in his opponent's guard, where he'd land garbage GnP till he got subbed. Seriously, dude has 9 losses via triangle choke, I gotta think that's some kind of record!

For a boxer, he had the most ground-based attack I've ever seen!
 
TRYHARD 2001 said:
A lot of old school aggression in this thread; well in, Barman.


Buuuuttttt to label Laverne Clark just a boxer is a major mistake. Clark wrestled in elementary and high school (state runner-up) and didn't take up boxing till he was 19. He was a wrestler first and that showed in all of his fights save the one versus Shonie. Damn near all of his fights involved him stuffing take downs with a monster whizzer (dude had incredibly solid hips) and ending up in his opponent's guard, where he'd land garbage GnP till he got subbed. Seriously, dude has 9 losses via triangle choke, I gotta think that's some kind of record!

For a boxer, he had the most ground-based attack I've ever seen!
Click to expand...
Boxer wins. End of story.
 
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Gah... I’m not a big fan of 2010 Barman myself.

thanks for bumping this monstrosity
 
MC Paul Barman said:
I once used this same gif in a thread about me kicking the shit out of a herd of humanity. Moz of them getting dropped with the first shot
Click to expand...
I vaguely remember. Stepped inside by mistake and got accosted, but little did they realize...

A grappling dojo of some sort, wasn't it?
 
MC Paul Barman said:
Back in 1997 boxer Laverne Clark made his debut into mma.
Boxing out of the midwest he was struggling to find meaningful fights in boxing.

An opportunity presented itself in a striker vs grappler match up on Extreme Challenge 4 - Clark's first mma fight.

His opponent was a grappler named Shonie Carter making his debut as well (which is only based off of arbitrarily stating what was and was not considered an mma fight back then).
Shonie Carter was an accomplished wrestler. Started wrestling while in grade school and by the time he was in college (U of Tenn) he was doing wrestling/judo and bjj.
In 95 or 96 he was at the olympic trials for the wrestling team.

His match against Laverne Clark was supposed to be a walk through.
This was 1997 and striking wasn't considered effective in this format. Certainly not if striking was your main weapon. Liddell wouldn't be on the scene for about another year (1998).... and Maurice Smith's gift (shock) to the mma world wouldn't be felt for about a half a year later when he would beat grappler Mark Coleman.

This isn't to say that guys like Victor Belforte and Don Frye didn't use their hands effectively - but no one viewed them as strikers.... they were grapplers who could strike. The distinction was much more prevalent back in those days. Hell, sherdog's forums main break used to be UFC/MMA/Grappling as one forum and the hodge podge "Striking" forum as the other.

Laverne Clark was a boxer first and he was supposed to be Shonie Carter's toy for that fight. That is, until the fight actually started (and quickly ended).

Carter was so impressed with Clark that the very next day (or, very next days) after it he started incorporating boxing (and kickboxing) into his training.

So, here's their fight (around 3:09):

Click to expand...


Did you purposefully mispell Vitor Belfort the way some people mispell Josay Aldo or other names? Innocent question: some people do it out of ignorance, some as an inside joke.
 
FYI I was able to find a reddit post with this fight on it. TS post video got removed. Crazy fight!

Laverne Clark and Shonie Carter did ok in ufc.
 
This thread was a throwback in 2010. Wild read.

The way Shonnie Carter describes his training schedule really brings me back. Run here to train, run there to train other discipline, study for a few hours, work, cardio and sleep. Was a tough life but it was probably the most fun I've had.
 
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