So I'm finally getting into MMA watching...

[Nev]

YouTube is pretty sweet.

I find watching these people fight helps me work out these days, if only not to feel so inadequate.

So far I really like Cro Cop's style of fighting, but I haven't seen many matches at all.

I saw the one where he shattered Sapp's face, and the one where he wrecked Silva with a downward roundhouse kick - Cro Cop actually kicked *down* on Silva's head, and he was just done.

The one that got me into whole thing was watching Bob Sapp fight Hongman Choi. Not particularly because it was a great fight, but because the sight of someone the size of Bob Sapp backed against the rope, and getting repeatedly pounded by Hongman's clublike fists, was possibly one of the biggest displays of pure brutal strength I've ever seen. Hongman is a beast.

And there are women MMA fighters too. Wasn't expecting that!

[Julius Seeker]

Hehe, the Japanese and Koreans used to love Bob Sapp; not so sure about recently as I haven't heard much about him. He used to be the #1 highest paid MMA fighter in the world.

If you like Cro Cop, you might want to check out K1 Kickboxing, that is where he spent most of his career. They have a lot of really diverse styles of fights ranging from K1 rules, to judo, to MMA, to a bunch of MA styles that you might not have even heard of =P

Bob Sapp vs Jerome Le Banner with mixed rules (round 1 ancd 3 K1 style and round 2 and 4 MMA style):

http://www.dailymotion.com/visited/sear ... rvsbobsapp

Here is a good highlight of Andy Hug who fought a very similar style to Cro Cop, Hug was the shit back in the 90's and the major reason I got into martial arts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXeeOodaHNQ

Here're highlights from the Cro Cop Andy Hug fight, Hug discovered he had cancer shortly after this fight and died two months later: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev-A0X3z8-w


Here's another striker you might like, Anderson Silva:
vs Leben: http://www.dailymotion.com/visited/sear ... rson-silva

Then there is Kid Yamamoto: http://www.dailymotion.com/visited/sear ... uki-miyata

Would have been the fastest KO in history at 2 seconds if the ref got his hands up quicker =P



Oh yeah, and here is a fighter which I think anyone is guaranteed to like, Cung Le, he has dozens of victories and is still undefeated, none of his MMA fights have lasted the first round, here are a couple of San Shou fights: http://www.dailymotion.com/visited/sear ... s-rudi-ott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujBlUFc9Vwc

Here is an MMA fight with Cung Le: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQk4DHwaxws


Then there is Fedor Emelianenko who is the #1 MMA fighter, and still quite young as far as the top MMA guys go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I-6UVNpAXo

[Nev]

I also like fights with large, beastlike men wailing on each other with ridiculous brutality and questionable technique, if you have any of those. (For instance, the Hongman Choi vs. Bob Sapp fight)

I dunno, I just find those interesting as I am such a tiny fucker myself that those dudes almost look like a different species from me. Whether or not Sapp has good technique, there is no denying that the man is indeed a beast. That guy is just...big.

But yeah, thanks for the links. I will definitely check those out and get back to you.

[Nev]

G'jesus...I watched about half of those...

That Kid Yamamoto KO was unreal. It looked like he ran full speed at the other guy, feinted a right knee in *mid-air* after having jumped about three feet up and four across, and then switched to the left knee as the other guy's head dodged to the left...then, done. I thought it was some sort of knee-scissors headlock at first.

And I like Cung Le, too. It just seemed like every time his opponent in one of those you linked got too close to him, all of a sudden the other guy would be three feet above the ground and about to bounce hard. That's just ridiculous.

[Julius Seeker]

Cung Le is awesome, every single fight he has done is entertaining. He is involved with the K1 and Strike Force organizations. Strike Force's events are usually fairly huge having higher attendance than most UFC events (I think they hold the record for highest attendance in a North American MMA event, actually), but they don't have the same kind of TV deals that UFC has. K1 is the largest fight organization in the world, in Japan its NYE event had a 19.9 rating, which is roughly 10 times what UFC does in North America. K1 was exdeeded by Pride for a short time, but then out of no where the whole Yakuza accusations came up and Pride lost its TV deals in Japan. Pride has been slipping, they lost Kazushi Sakuraba to K1 (Sakuraba to Pride was like what Randy Couture is to UFC, so a very very major loss) and they also lost Cro Cop who was their #2 or #3 heavyweight (Nog is the other guy argued as #2).

As for Bob Sapp, he is currently a free agent, though I don't think UFC or Pride will be willing to shell out the kind of money he will be demanding; likely he'll end up back in K1.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrYV6_jOWsQ

Here was arguably the top UFC fight of 2006, GSP vs. Matt Hughes. GSP is a Kyokushin Karate black belt, a very powerful striker. This fight had a gigantic build-up for it.

[Julius Seeker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXQGUVSKo7U Here is a fight from Vale Tudo which shows the legendary Rickson Gracie vs Koichiro Kimura (related to the guy who the Kimura arm-lock is named after). Rickson Gracie is often considered the greatest fighter of all time, with a record of 410 wins and 0 losses, though many have debated the legitimacy of that record (because it is insanely high).