More MMA Fights

Brawls

These fights don’t display finely-tuned martial artists slowly breaking down their opponents; they show fearless warriors with little regard for their own safety forgetting about protecting themselves and trying to knock the other guy out with every punch they throw. These fights are often hilarious, fun, and short, but they’ll probably leave you wondering why some professional fighters seem to be so willing to trade brain cells for a little bit more money.

Don Frye vs. Yoshihiro Takyama: http://tinyurl.com/zyabr5d

Chuck Liddell vs. Jose “Pele” Landi-Johns: http://tinyurl.com/gojoh6b

Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz 1: http://tinyurl.com/zzwy7tc

Wanderlei Silva vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson 2: http://tinyurl.com/h82vy4m

Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva: http://tinyurl.com/zo7x77m

Diego Sanchez vs. Clay Guida: http://tinyurl.com/jfmnfrs

Nick Diaz vs. Paul Daley: http://tinyurl.com/j4o2kyf

Cheick Kongo vs. Pat Barry: http://tinyurl.com/zefclod

Chang Sung Jung vs. Dustin Poirier: http://tinyurl.com/hrms5hy

Demetrious Johnson vs. Ian McCall 1: http://tinyurl.com/hn3r5km

Diego Sanchez vs. Gilbert Melendez: http://tinyurl.com/gtm4abp

Wanderlei Silva vs. Brian Stann: http://tinyurl.com/zo9r7dj

Matt Brown vs. Erick Silva: http://tinyurl.com/zjnkowd

Andrei Arlovski vs. Travis Browne: http://tinyurl.com/jhldvjt

Chess Matches

Most of these fights aren’t brutally quick haymaker KOs, but they’re every bit as competitive and tough as any of those brawls above. These fights showcase the highest level of professional fighting while remaining technical and intelligent; a single poorly-calculated move can easily cause immediate defeat and advantages scored early on end up drastically impacting how the rest of the fight will play out.

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mirko “Crocop” Filipovic: http://tinyurl.com/zbodrbd Fedor and Crocop were the two best heavyweights on the planet when this fight took place; Crocop was knocking out every human being that ever existed with his left high kick while being impossible to take down or keep down, and Fedor was bombing people with ludicrously crisp punches, taking them down before they could blink, and immediately armlocking them at the same time. Fedor’s plan going into this fight was to keep Mirko walking backwards so he couldn’t get any serious power into his kicks and out-punch him, but he was prepared to take him down if needed to as well.

BJ Penn vs. Matt Hughes 2: http://tinyurl.com/hfhwgum BJ was the best lightweight in the world the best welterweight in the world, whom he had already beaten before. He had unbelieveable boxing, impeccable takedown defense, and wonderful submission skills off his back just in case he did. Matt Hughes was simply a freakishly athletic wrestler out of Illinois with great drive to win; he was gonna take Penn down and wear him out even if it killed him.

Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua 2: http://tinyurl.com/zax6dbr I mentioned the first one earlier, it’s a great fight. After losing a controversial decision in their first fight, Shogun spent a lot of time thinking about Lyoto’s style until he finally chanced upon his best opportunity to strike: The blitz. A common feature a lot of karate stylists like to use involves waiting for someone to lower their defenses, then running at them and overwhelming them with multiple strikes before they have a chance to respond, and Lyoto’d finished several fighters with it before. If he mis-timed Machida while stepping in, he’d probably get knocked out. If he timed him correctly, he’d either be able to neutralize that weapon or actually knock him out.

Junior Dos Santos vs. Mark Hunt: http://tinyurl.com/ju2txdo Heavyweight fights are often reckless brawls with little thought behind them. This fight isn’t one of them. JDS want to work his jab and keep the shorter Hunt away? Hunt throws a hook over the jab. JDS deals with the hooks by moving his head with them to mitigate damage and throwing an overhand right over that hook and drops him. Hunt recovers, and tries to back Junior into the fence and put his weight on him. It was an unending game of counters and answers to answers to answers to attacks, that builds toward an explosive finish you’ll see coming just as much as the loser did.

Robbie Lawler vs. Matt Brown: http://tinyurl.com/jqnhcos Robbie Lawler has some otherworldly power and a titanium chin - he’s only gotten knocked out once, and that was 11 years ago. Matt Brown, as the Erick Silva fight showed, likes to swarm his opponents and punch them while they’re exhausted for having to fight back as hard as they can every second of the fight. Lawler decided he didn’t wanna fight like that. Pay close attention to the very first five seconds of the fight: Brown runs in as quickly as he can to start throwing punches but eats a hook or two. These scare him off, and he eats another punch every time he tries to get in that close for the rest of the fight. It turns the fight into something resembling a kickboxing match, where he has to deal with a stinging jab and dangerous combinations.

Dominick Cruz vs. TJ Dillashaw: http://tinyurl.com/jsg58nz The way Dominick Cruz fights is downright beautiful. Unfortunately, a series of knee injuries made him vacate the UFC bantamweight championship and sit on the shelf for 4 years, while in the meanwhile, TJ Dillashaw evolved from a mediocre wrestler to an amazing striker who had developed a style very similar to Cruzes’ - but unlike Cruz, he had serious KO power in his hands and feet. Cruz spent years getting smarter and learning more about how to fight effectively while taking as little damage as possible. He finally got his shot to reclaim the championship he never lost, and he did everything he could to take it back.

Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida: http://tinyurl.com/hh2l9bw

-Chris Weidman was an undefeated, young, strong, and terminator-esque pressure fighter that could take down anybody he wanted to and had just beaten Anderson Silva (the best middleweight to ever fight) twice. Lyoto Machida liked to stay at about kicking range and intercept people with hard left straight punches when they tried to run in with their own attacks to get past his kicks. The first three rounds go well for Chris - he uses the threat of his takedowns to stop Lyoto from kicking him a lot, he does a fantastic job of cutting off the cage and not giving Lyoto room to escape (sure enough, the one or two times he tries to run straight at him while walking him down he gets tagged and Lyoto immediately slips out), and he outboxes him.

Then he gets tired.

This fight, more than any other, demonstrates the vital importance of having a strong gas tank and being able to fight at a solid pace for 25 minutes. MMA is a marathon, not a sprint, and if you’re not prepared (or at least tough enough to handle your body failing on you), you will suffer.

Chris Weidman vs. Luke Rockhold: http://tinyurl.com/z2ph2ev Coming up to it, this fight was considered by many to be, on paper, the best fight in the history of the middleweight division. Luke Rockhold was similarly huge and strong for the middleweight division as Chris is, they were both in their physical primes, and they had both been dominating similar opposition before they fought. More than any other, this fight demonstrates how high the stakes are at the highest level of professional martial arts - one fighter mistimes a single attack, and things just spiral further and further out of control for him. You’ll know it when you see it.