The greatest of all-time… it is a subjective accolade, but poll any group of MMA lovers from any era and the huge majority will provide up either Georges St Pierre or Anderson Silva as MMA’s theoretical”man to beat.” In late 2016, news of this French-Canadian’s return fueled whispers of UFC president Dana White’s”one who got away” — St Pierre vs Silva — the very best versus the cleverest. Regrettably, the chances of this occurring now are as slender as they were. “Rush” vs.”The Spider” is a fantasy; just one of many super fights we will probably never see.
Regrettably, it is not the only one. Here are a few additional MMA superfights we got to see…
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brock Lesnar
Partly due to the UFC’s monopolistic advertising power and partly due to his best years being a decade ago, Fedor Emelianenko does not always receive the respect he deserves from modern-day MMA fans. For people who watched his epic poem rampage through PRIDE’s heavyweight division though, he was the greatest heavyweight of his era… possibly the greatest ever.
While Fedor might have been the best fighter in his day, Brock Lesnar was easily the biggest box office attraction. An immediate celebrity, he polarized an audience who did not understand what they desired more; therefore watch him humbled in defeat, or glorified in success.
Physically, Lesnar was an animal. Walking around north of this 265-pound heavyweight limit, the NCAA standout transferred with all the speed and elegance of a guy half his size. Whether it was down to fame or notoriety he was a magnet for the paying public, headlining what was afterward the UFC’s largest card over the likes of GSP, in what was just his third tilt together with the advertising.
After years of deriding the Russian while he plied his trade for the contest, White announced that signing Stary Oskol’s favourite son was his”obsession.” Accounts of what happened next differ based on who you hear them from. Fedor was tied up with M-1; based on White, a bargain offering $2,000,000 per struggle, Pay-Per-View points and a direct title taken against Brock Lesnar was spurned; M-1 wanted to co-promote Fedor’s fights, and supposedly wanted Zuffa to finance the building of a stadium in Russia. M-1 refuted these claims, and talks broke down.
Fedor’s stock would fall considerably following three consecutive losses and Lesnar, while still a licence to print money, was exposed by better fighters and left the sport. It could have become the biggest-grossing MMA fight of all-time, but as is so frequently true, politics finally ruined it.
Ken Shamrock vs. Tank Abbott
Throwbacks to another age, arguably another sport, Ken Shamrock and Tank Abbott were the poster children of the UFC’s formative years. While the event was intended as a subversive info-mercial to get Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, you need to feel that the money men were quietly yanking a Shamrock success at UFC 1. He was 220 lbs of chiselled muscle, and the only fighter in the bracket using documented”free-fight” encounter, Shamrock had the expression of an action hero and the ability to back this up.
A few years after, David”Tank” Abbott hit the spectacle. Watch MMA live or at a bar even today, and you’ll find no lack of out-of-shape, beer-swilling loudmouths eager to share their opinion of how they would mop the floor with the guys on TV. Abbott was the guy, only he could mop the floor with a few of the guys on TV. Fat, cocky and wearing roughly the same amount of teeth as he had had karate lessons, Abbott was the manifestation of everything that a martial artist wasn’t supposed to be.
There is a bit of MMA folklore that states Tank was introduced in to lose, thus proving the concept that the British artist would always succeed over the thug. His (admittedly limited) wrestling background was played down and he was branded a’Pit Fighter’ in promotional material. When Tank began cracking heads in a number of the most visually violent UFC fights of the age, a star was born, to the stage that the company set him on a monthly wages; something not repeated since.
There was even legitimate bad blood between both parties, together with Shamrock and his”Lion’s Den” after hunting down Abbott backstage after he had caused trouble. Ken never caught up with him though, either at the parking lot or even the cage, with both eventually leaving the business for careers in pro-wrestling. Their surprise early-00′s returns once again sparked hope of a superfight from another creation, but for reasons unknown it was never supposed to be.
Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones
Before the controversy that shelved him for what would probably happen to be his fighting prime, few would argue that Jon Jones was not at the absolute pinnacle of mixed martial arts. A world-class athlete, not just skillful, but an expert in all aspects of the game, Jones looked insurmountable. In 2011, he finished what was arguably the greatest year’s work of any battle sports athlete, defeating Ryan Bader,”Shogun” Rua,”Rampage” Jackson and Lyoto Machida in the space of just 10 months.
While Jones was painting a picture of violence at the light-heavyweight division, Anderson Silva had been creating a masterpiece in middleweight. Nobody had previously cleared such a talent-rich branch and looked really untouchable in doing this. So absolute was Silva’s dominance, he’d twice moved up a weight class and demolished his opposition. His claim to the title of’best ever’ could be contested by a scant few.
White once cited his ability to make a Jones vs. Silva superfight occur as something that would define his own legacy as a promoter. Fate, as it is want to do, conspired against him. Silva’s standing plummeted following a set of reductions and a failed drug test. Jones’ image was tarnished even farther; while he did not falter from the cage, a series of self-inflicted’personal difficulties’ stripped”Bones” of his dignity, credibility and — most importantly — his ability to compete.
Silva is past his prime and threatening retirement. Jones is focused firmly on regaining the light heavyweight title he never lost in the cage. Problems beyond the cage have almost certainly deprived us of one of the best battles inside.
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