Your most exciting fighter in MMA history?

oldschoolmmafan said:
I got chills when watching certain fighters step into an arena to fight. Remembering back to fighters like Saku, Rizzo, Igor, Cro Cop and Fedor would walk in, I could hardly control myself. Not many fighters in the modern era have given me that type of feeling other than GSP, Hunt, Khabib.
View attachment 824987
Click to expand...

We just get too much mma (which i'd rather) for the anticipation to overflow like back then. I used to buy the pride ppv's, order the early VHS' in the mail etc. and even the UFC's weren't quite like that for me. The production of Pride, the songs lol, it just had a different feeling but a lot of that imo is we just have so much mma you can't consistently anticipate something as much as when it's few and far between. Plus these days I literally don't allow myself to get excited till about weigh ins cause half of the great fights get cancelled.

There's been some great ones and I don't really pinpoint one fighter cause there's just so many over the years. Sakuraba is my favorite of all time, but there's so many..it's just more realistic for me to say who were my picks for most exciting in waves and era's especially cause I started watching in '93 and got everything I could get my hands on.
 
GaryEric said:
i enjoyed the Semmy fight just because of the sheer size difference. Semmy was a scary motherfucker to have across from you too...
Click to expand...

EVen that certainly wasnt "dull", not LnP or stalling, just not balls to the wall action like pretty much every other Fedor match.
 
When gsp fought i knew i was about to get the some of my best sleep ever.
 
Kazushi_Sakuraba_2015.jpg
 
Typrune Goatley said:
Definitely past his prime there, also dealing with major injuries and he was doing okay in that fight until he got kneed in the balls a few times by a reckless Kongo.
Click to expand...
I always had a hard time believing that wasn't prime Cro Cop against Gonzaga and Kongo, since just 7 months before the fight, he beat Barnett and Wand in Pride.

But if he had major injuries, it makes sense. I wonder what the injuries were? My google skills are apparently lacking.
 
Typrune Goatley said:
Definitely past his prime there, also dealing with major injuries and he was doing okay in that fight until he got kneed in the balls a few times by a reckless Kongo.
Click to expand...

I think a combination of injuries, not adapting to the cage allowing Kongo to clinch him into it, significant cheating by Kongo(Big John seemed to view it as "you need to hit both of them at once for it to be a foul") and simply mental holdover from the Gonzaga loss.

That does I think stand out in Mirko's career that he was a confidence fighter, after the Randleman upset for example he gave quite an uninspired performance against Kanehara and after the loss to Fedor he also gave less than great performances against Barnett and Hunt.

The difference after his first UFC run I would say is that before he could rebuild confidence his body started to give up on him, he looked progressively less impressive in Dream and by the time he returned to the UFC he was clearly a lot slower and unable to use his hold tactics picking out one off fight ending strikes.
 
oldschoolmmafan said:
I got chills when watching certain fighters step into an arena to fight. Remembering back to fighters like Saku, Rizzo, Igor, Cro Cop and Fedor would walk in, I could hardly control myself. Not many fighters in the modern era have given me that type of feeling other than GSP, Hunt, Khabib.
View attachment 824987
Click to expand...
Anderson and Fedor for sure, especially when they both had their signature walkout songs, as soon as that song started playing I would get chills. Aldo as well and Pettis and Penn for a long time.

As for today, Aldo still of course but there's also a sense of apprehension so I guess Izzy and Khabib. As much as I disliked him for many many years I think I also have to add Jones to this list because, for all his faults, he's probably the greatest MMAist we've seen to date and you never know what's going to happen when he steps in the cage, (aside from him walking out with a win).
 
BabyBlue_Bomber said:
His fights with Maia, Leites, and Cote were all pretty bad...

But yes, even watching those fights as they were happening, I was still on the edge of my seat because he just had that ability to finish the fight at any moment.
Click to expand...
Exactly, they were bad in hindsight but watching them live they were exciting because he could do something incredible at any moment. (Kind of like Izzy/ Romero).

Though the first 12 minutes or so of the Maia fight were pretty fucking exciting when he was touching him at will while mocking him and Maia had a look of pure terror on his face knowing there was nothing he could do about.

Shame he did that to Maia though who seems like the nicest guy in the sport, never really understood what that was all about aside from Anderson being jealous he was a rich white boy which seems kind of petty and also out of character for Anderson. There must have been more to that story.
 
Prime Anderson Silva’s title reign is p4p most exciting. Even in his downfall.

Spider Bless
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,280,306
Messages
58,275,316
Members
175,990
Latest member
gorakk

Share this page

Back
Top