The 100 Greatest Fights in MMA History: Fights 25-11

In reality, all of the top 25 fights in MMA history feature what passes for non-stop action in the sport.  People just don't realize that "non-stop action" after 10-20 (or 30 or 60) minutes of trying to force another gladiator to quit physically isn't the same as that in the opening seconds of a fight.

You're not gonna get Frye-Takayama for 15 minutes—the human body (specifically, the head) isn't built for that.  Shoot, Royler Gracie's leg's couldn't handle it and that puts such perseverance outside the realm of most normal homo sapiens.

Furthermore, each pairing sets one man in or near his prime against another of the same vintage with all the hype that accompanies the clashing of pioneers.

So the difference between these fights will be a matter of import and taste.  Let the name-calling begin...

For Nos. 25-11, I chose battles of will no less impressive than those in the top 10.  They merely suffer the indignity of being less significant to the MMA historical landscape.  Like I said, I expect a spirited debate (all links were working when posted—Nos. 50-26 are here):

No. 25—Matt Serra vs. Georges St. Pierre at UFC 69 Shootout

Pretty much says it all right there.

Arguably the greatest upset in MMA history—I say it's the Upset, but you could argue the flying heel hook Chonan scissored on Silva was bigger.  You'd be wrong, because St. Pierre's level of respect and achievement at the point Lady Luck deserted him were several orders of magnitude greater than the Spider's in his moment if ignominy.

Regardless, the fact it's at No. 25 and barely squeaks into the top 25 should give you a tantalizing hint of what's to come.

The actual fight itself is pretty short—there's some feinting and flirting, some wicked kicks from Rush, a few exchanges of pleasantries, and then the winging right hand catches GSP behind the ear.

And then the chase is on.

I'm not a habitual fighter so I don't know if you're aware of yourself in that drunken moment after the opposition rings your bell.  If you are, it cannot be wonderful—knowing your shields are down and there's some drooling Grendel somewhere out there...and he's coming for you.

No. 24—Ricardo Arona vs. Quinton Jackson at PRIDE Critical Countdown 2004

Power-bomb.  P-o-w-e-r-b-o-m-b.  Say it with me.

Sakuraba likes arm-bars, Royce Gracie preferred chokes, the Silva Twins (Axe Murderer and Spider) delight in ending fights with knees, and then there's Quinton Jackson's modus operandi—the slam.

Rampage is a much stronger, much more nutso version of Matt Hughes.  From his debut loss to the Gracie Hunter, Jackson showed a predilection for the Big Ride.

If the fight game really is an art, then this stroke is Quinton's masterpiece.

Here's the thing though—the fight itself was almost as good as the finish.

Arona was one of the many talented and homicidal light heavyweights in PRIDE at the time.  Entering his ill-fated match with Rampage, the Brazilian Tiger had taken pelts from Jeremy Horn (twice), Guy Mezger, Dan Henderson, and Ninja Rua.  After recovering from his nap, Ricardo would beat Dean Lister, Sakuraba, Wanderlei Silva, and Alistair Overeem.

Most impressively, he had the stones to step in a ring with the Last Emperor.  Even managed to survive Fedor Emelianenko to lose a unanimous decision.  This was a very bad man.

Check the post-dipsy-doo replay—those heel kicks that catch Rampage were about a minute before the night ended for Arona.  Rampage is even badder.

No. 23—Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre at UFC 65 Bad Intentions

If we could honestly call this GSP's crowning moment, it'd be higher on the list.  Thanks to Serra's previous entry, we can't so it's not.

Which is really too bad because this is a substantial work of genius by the French-Canadian mixed martial artist.

With chants of "U-S-A" murmuring in the background, GSP snipes away at the Welterweight Champion and looks on his way to resounding victory in this rematch.  Of course, that's precisely the blueprint of the earlier fight and that one ended with Hughes' arm raised.

You got the impression Rush had learned from his previous mistake and had no intention of repeating it or finding a similar way to fail.  That impression grew stronger when he knocked Hughes loopy right before the first round bell.

The second round would be no quarter for the American—St. Pierre, apparently emboldened by shaking off an adamant takedown attempt from the burly ex-wrestler, let everything go and was having even more success.  Kicks were finding their marks (instead of the champ's goodies) as were fists.

But the kicks, the kicks would be the fatal problem.

No. 22—Randy Couture vs. Tim Sylvia at UFC 68 Uprising

During one of my early passes through these fights, I had Captain America's return from retirement somewhere in the high 20s/low 30s.  Then I got to thinking what the fight represented.

Couture, along with Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz to a lesser extent, really thrust MMA into the mainstream of American popular sports.

Additionally, this was a 43-year-old former champion at two different weight classes returning to take on a 6'8", 30-year-old Heavyweight Champion in his prime.  I'm no fan of the Maine-iac (and not purely due to the dumb nickname), but he isn't a total schlub.

I'm not gonna try to turn Sylvia into a great fighter, though.

This was definitely about Randy Couture beating down Father Time once more.  Although it bears mentioning that even those with unyielding faith in the Natural probably didn't figure on him canvassing the giant.

Let alone in the opening flurry.

The five-round blood-letting that followed was less surprising.

No. 21—Rich Franklin vs. Anderson Silva at UFC 77 Hostile Territory

This was Dana White at his best.

You'll see in the very near future that there was no ostensible reason for this fight other than the fact that the first version caught UFC fans by surprise.  Those of us who followed the Spider through his earlier PRIDE days knew there was a good chance the Middleweight Champion was going down.

But the UFC fans LOVED Ace at the time; many still worship at his altar.  So seeing him reduced to a heaving puddle was a shock and it's entire magnitude didn't really register.

And that meant the dollars were still there in a rematch.  So Mr. White cued it up again—throwing Franklin a bone by hosting the event in his backyard.

If you're wondering why the challenger would get the home cage advantage, keep wondering, because I have no answer.

Not that it mattered.  I guess I should say mattered much since Ace did straggle into the second round this time around.  Fabulous, except that was his limit.  For good.

Now you can find Rich taking offers at light heavyweight.  Spoiler: That won't end any better.

No. 20—Fedor Emelianenko vs. Kazuyuki Fujita at PRIDE 26 Bad to the Bone

I heard this comedian doing a bit on the playing the guitar.  He said he picked it up as a way to quit smoking and failed miserably—said (I'm paraphrasing) guitar is so hard that, if he hadn't already seen people playing it, he wouldn't believe it possible.

First, I laugh every time I think of the bit.  Second, this fight is proof that the guitar can be played, so to speak.

I, for one, didn't believe Fedor was genuinely human until I saw Fujita prove it.

Sure, I'd seen the Last Emperor cut and bleed—I figured that was all part of the ruse a la the flesh ecto-skin on Cyberdine Systems Model 101.  More persuasively, I'd seen Fedor heat it up and slice through any challenger fool enough to get in his way.

You need to witness three things here:  (A) the bizarre, orgasmic soundings from the female Japanese voice at ringside; (B) the oopsy-daisy Fujita puts on Fedor around the 2:22 mark; and (C) the panicked, spasmodic flop by his victim once the Last Emperor sinks in the coup de grace.

I don't know what it is about this battle, but here's an equally strange packaging of it with better clarity.

No. 19—Rich Franklin vs. Anderson Silva at UFC 64 Unstoppable

Here's the visual argument against UFC 77 and any rematch between these two ever happening.

I'm not positive, but I think the 'Unstoppable' tagline referred to Ace because he entered the Octagon at UFC 64 on an eight-fight win jag.  His most impressive victories being his freshest ones to that date—a TKO of Ken Shamrock, another TKO of Evan Tanner, a straight KO of Nate Quarry, and a most recent UD over David Loiseau.

Additionally, like I said, the Spider was a new commodity from PRIDE and had only a Fight Night appearance to his UFC resume.  In retrospect, it looks ridiculous and, yet, at the time the focus on Rich Franklin made perfect sense.

And it stopped making sense at about the 9:20 mark, with Anderson's first Muay Thai plum of the evening.

Take special notice of the precision with which the Spider throws his murderous knees, the Brazilian's frightening accuracy, the way he tosses the fading Middleweight Champion around like a kid brother, and the amazed look of despair on Franklin's mug (about the 10:20 mark).

And Dana White saw a rematch.  Incredible.

No. 18—Dan Henderson vs. Wanderlei Silva at PRIDE 33 Second Coming

I'll cop to it—I have a nonsexual male crush on Dangerous Dan.

How can you not love an old-school guy like Henderson, who has all the talent in the world, works like a dog, and exudes humility only slightly more than he does respect.  I don't know if Henderson is, as the Japanese promo calls him, the "Ideal American" (I didn't know horse-riding was still part of our ideal).

But I can think of a large population of jackasses who'd due us much less justice than the one-time Olympian.

The American strolled into this skirmish with the Axe Murderer as the PRIDE Welterweight Champion (essentially UFC's middleweight equivalent).  The Brazilian approached the ring as the PRIDE Middleweight Champion (UFC's light heavyweight equivalent).  Silva was also the only such champ PRIDE had even known and was on the fifth defense of his belt.

Clearly in need of more seasoning, the ruckus provided Henderson the opportunity to avenge a seven-year old UD loss suffered at the Axe Murderer's hands (and knees).  And, hey, there are Chuck Norris and Nicholas Cage.  Woohoo!

The battle itself is as epic as you'd expect.

Points of interest include Dan getting seriously dinged at the end of round one (18:20), Henderson opening Silva up with some bombs (24:20), and the spinning backfist that begins the end of Wanderlei's night (set up with a flurry around 27:40).

No. 17—Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell at UFC 57 Couture vs. Liddell III

Hear ye, hear ye—the tale of a real trilogy between modern gladiators operating within hailing distance of their primes.

This is not a one-sided affair or a made-for-television rivalry.  Captain America locked horns with the Iceman and the two represented the best that MMA has to offer—supremely dangerous athletes with profound respect for each other going to sporting war.

In a rubber match—the Natural put Chuck to down with punches in their first meeting at UFC 43 and Liddell returned the favor in the return engagement at UFC 52.

To amp the stakes up just a tick, the final entry of the trilogy found the Iceman in the thick of his domination of the Light Heavyweight Division.  So this was a title fight between the UFC's two biggest stars, the men who would become the face of the organization and the sport to popular America.

Despite all that extra nonsense and hype, the fight delivered (the link is reaaaally slow).

Both contestants would demonstrate the skill that carried each to the top of the ranks and a warm spot in the Hall of Fame.  But Liddell would put on the slightly better show and send Couture into retirement with an atomic fireworks display.

No. 16—Dan Henderson vs. Anderson Silva at UFC 82 Pride of a Champion

Sadly, this is the last we'll see from two of my favorite fighters—not in their careers, but on this list.

Dangerous Dan came into his tussle with the Spider a mere six months after going five full and losing a unanimous decision to Quinton Jackson, surrendering the heavier of his two PRIDE belts in the process. 

Once the only man to hold a major organization's championship belt in two different weight classes at the same time, Henderson put his PRIDE Welterweight Title on the line against the UFC champ.

For his part, the Brazilian ace entered against Hollywood having gutted the Middleweight Division of any discernible challengers—Franklin had slumbered twice at the Spider's venom, Nate Marquardt as well, Travis Lutter had to tap, and Chris Leben never had a chance.

But Dan Henderson represented a different kind of challenge for Anderson Silva, or so we thought.  Here was a world-class wrestler and striker, not some faux-legend cooked up by the UFC machine.  Here was a guy who'd toed-to-toe with some of the fiercest and most reputed bangers from a spectrum of divisions.

None of it mattered.  The American's gameplan worked like a shiny charm for the first round—the slam plus ground-n-pound gave Henderson the round on points.

The second round would go to the Spider—as would the belts.  No surprise, knees were the culprits.

No. 15—Don Frye vs. Ken Shamrock at PRIDE 19 Bad Blood

This one needs two clips.

The first is to show the animosity between these two fine gentlemen—not to mention the similarity between Don Frye and Magnum P.I.  But the antipathy is the thing.  Usually, you can be pretty certain it's for show.

With the World's Most Dangerous Man and the Predator?  I'm not so sure.

These are two warriors from distinctly different schools of thought and approaches to the combat.  Shamrock being the bold and brash, mouthier monster of the two when compared to Frye's stoicism and blue-collar spin on life.

My favorite part of the initial clip is when Ken drops this gem, "I'm a professional, this mother[expletive] over here is not a professional."  Uhhh...

The second clip is the actual hostilities, and it's worth a view for the stare-down alone.

There is no feeling out process to this bout.  No feinting, no tip-toeing, no deception whatsoever.  To borrow from Major League Baseball, this is Vladimir Guerrero-grip-it-and-rip-it territory.

Only with fists instead of bats and another man's kidneys as the ball.

No. 14—Quinton Jackson vs. Mauricio Rua at PRIDE Total Elimination 2005

Another multi-faceted fight with a plethora of angles to wrap your noodle around.

Perhaps the sexiest was family pride—Rampage faced Shogun about two months after taking a split decision from the Brazilian's older brother, Murilo Rua.  I'm sure the younger sibling wanted to win for his own MMA aspirations and to avoid abuse at the mercy of merciless opponent.

But I gotta believe avenging Ninja was near the top o' his wish list.

Well, wish granted.

Having cringed while Shogun lost to Forrest Griffin and posted an outrageously lackluster victory over Mark Coleman, it's kind of shocking to revisit this fight because the victim is a Quinton Jackson with no fat, no rust. The highlight reel effect is strong on this one, but the bare-bones conflagration was only slightly less rap-video-esque.

You can add Mauricio Rua to that list of accomplished fighters who use savage knees as their destroyer of choice.  And you mustn't miss the 1:15 shot—there aren't many athletes in the world who could fake a body kick and land shin to the head with the other leg in one fluid motion.

Yet, it's one of many reasons to tread lightly around Shogun.

Beware.  Strikes are the flavor of this one, but Rua is like Anderson Silva—his ground game is just as nice.

No. 13—Rashad Evans vs. Lyoto Machida at UFC 98 Evans vs. Machida

I make no promises on this one.  The first link I had ready to go got taken down in the time it took me to write this blurb.  Hopefully, this one continues to work because it's a gnarly fight.

The first round is a little slow as two effective counterattackers try to bait each other and get a feel for the fight.

When two undefeated competitors meet with the Light Heavyweight Championship on the line, you expect a certain degree of reluctance and caution.  What I didn't expect was the Karate foundation to burst into an orgy of offense in Round Two.

The fury begins at the 6:20 mark in the link, with about a minute left in Round One.

You can say what you want about Sugar Rashad—there is some meat to accusations of being a TUF-manufactured flash-in-the-pan.  Plus, he wastes too much energy with the showboating garbage (something that makes little sense when you consider how much stamina a serious fight requires).

Consequently, Evans is not without reproach, but two sins he doesn't suffer are those of cowardice and physical weakness.  You don't blast Tito Ortiz (asinine to call that a draw), Michael Bisping, Chuck Liddell, and Forrest Griffin on pure luck and circumstance.

Unfortunately, the Dragon is a cut above all said fighters.  Evans found that out the hard way—and the integrity of yet another knee is thrown into semi-serious disrepair.

RIP:  Herein lie the questions about Lyoto Machida's finishing power.

No. 12—Frank Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 92 The Ultimate 2008

This is one of two fights in the superbly rarefied air that set the stage beautifully for UFC 100.

Had Mir simply beaten Minotauro to take the Interim Heavyweight Championship Title, the build-up to his rematch with Brock Lesnar might not have the same steam.  There'd still be the element of revenge motivating Lesnar and promoters can always get a country mile from such undercurrents.

But the suits really needed a little extra oomph to push back against the tide of Lesnar love that's been swelling in the wake of Brock's victory over Randy Couture. 

In the absence of a resounding victory by Mir over the legendary heavyweight jiu-jitsu expert, that tide would've trumpeted Frank's "lucky" victory over the ex-pro wrestler and it would've been a dicey proposition to argue.

It wouldn't have mattered that Frank Mir is perhaps Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 2.0—an incredible grappler in the heaviest division, but with razor-sharp hands and feet.

Luckily for all involved, Frank Mir didn't simply defeat Big Nog—he dismantled him and did it pretty much at will.

Yes, it looked like Minotauro was succumbing to his battles with Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko Filipovic and Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson as well as Mir, all at once.  Doesn't matter.

They fought, and Frank Mir dominated.  Bring on Brock Lesnar and let's get this "fluke" thing sorted out.

No. 11—Royce Gracie vs. Kimo Leopoldo at UFC 3 The American Dream

It kills me to drop this bad boy from the top 10.

Gracie's tongue-lolling affair with Kimo is probably my favorite fight of all-time.  I mentioned Royce's victory over Jason Delucia convinced me of the Brazilian's special place in the fight landscape and that's accurate.

But this is the MMA war that made me a Royce Gracie True-Believer.

You have to understand the intimidating presence of the Hawaiian freak show in the early days of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.  This was back in 1994, back before every professional athlete was a chemically fueled horrorscape from a Dali painting.

There were your occasional eruptions of sculpted muscle, but not like today.  So, when Leopoldo trundled to the Octagon (with an enormous wooden cross on his back), it was a spectacle in the midst of spectacle.

And, yes, that would be 'Jesus' tattooed across the larger fighter's stomach.

Royce Gracie entered the cage minus about 60 pounds of adulterated muscle (Kimo would eventually turn in a hot urine sample) to a polished, elite conditioned athlete.

By the grace of God and a ponytail, Royce walked out of the same cage with a victory over his barbarous adversary.  Of course, he needed help and was unable to return for his next fight in those tournament-formatted days.

Look at the two Men stagger around the Octagon after the final bell.  Folks, welcome to the land of no-rounds and real endurance.

Next up:  Nos. 10-1

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