What, to you, has been the biggest, most anticipated fight throughout Mixed Martial Arts history?
Please realize, this is a matter of opinion; you can use any justification you want to back up your stance. Whether it's because the fight sold a lot of pay-per-views, or it was just something YOU had looked forward to seeing for a very long time. It doesn't matter... just tell me what to you has been the biggest fight in MMA, and whether or not it lived up to your expectations.
Also, remember... I'm asking which fight had the biggest build-up and expectations revolving around it, not which had the biggest impact on the sport. So a fight like Stephan Bonnar vs. Forrest Griffin shouldn't be anyone's choice, since no one cared about it at the time of the fight.
Anyway, the choices are limitless. Here are some of the rather obvious ones:
Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock - UFC 5
Tito Ortiz vs. Frank Shamrcok - UFC 22
Royce Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba - PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Finals
Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock - UFC 40
Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell 1-3 - UFC 43, UFC 52, & UFC 57
Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell 1-2 - UFC 47 & UFC 66
Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar - UFC 91
Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn 2 - UFC 94
Those are a few off the top of my head, but I left my choice out on purpose. Can you guess what it is? Probably not, so I'll just tell you...
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović from Pride Final Conflict 2005.
At the time, both were undoubtedly the two best Heavyweight Mixed Martial Artist in the World, and every MMA fan was DYING to finally see these two go at it. It took about 3/4 years for it to finally come to fruition, but when it did... no one could wait to see who was really the best Heavyweight fighter walking the face of the Earth.
Over 50,000 people jammed the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan to witness these two fight. The UFC has never had a show with HALF as many people in attendance. That's how big this fight was.
Fedor, of course, was basically undefeated (he still is) and was just killing everybody that stepped in the ring with him. What made him so special was that he would not just beat these guys, but he would do so at their very own game. If you put him in there with a World Class Jiu-Jitsu Artist, he didn't care whether or not it went to the ground. He would take it there himself sometimes and completely dominate the guy. Professional Boxers, Kickboxers? Pssh... Fedor didn't give a fuck, he'd still stand with you. This was Fedor, and he was still undefeated. It's pretty miraculous when you really think about it.
And as far as Cro Cop... man, the guy was just putting on knockout reel after knockout reel. His legs were like trees, and it seemed like every time he connected with one of those kicks, the lights went out for his opponent and the guy was dead. He was by far the most devastating striker in MMA at the time. He had two losses under his belt; one was to Big Nog where Cro Cop caught got in an Armbar, but that was very early on in his career. The second was one of the biggest flukes in MMA history, when Kevin Randleman knocked him out. However, a few months later Cro Cop would get a rematch against Randleman, and Cro Cop avenged his loss to him in only 40 seconds.
So you see, these were two powerhouses going at it, and no one could predict how it was going to go.
Now, did it live up to expectations? Surely it did, especially if you're a Fedor fan. As I said, Fedor beat people at their own game, and Cro Cop was no exception. He stood with Cro Cop and got the better of him on most exchanges (though Cro Cop did manage to bloody Fedor's nose and rock him with one kick to the head). The fight did make its way to the ground a few times, where Fedor completely dominated with his always absolutely beautiful ground and pound.
After the fight both men were busted up pretty badly. I think even with that, some were disappointed with the fight because there was no knock-out, and because it lasted a while on the ground, but for me... I didn't have a problem with it. It was just another example of why Fedor is, so far, the greatest fighter to walk this Earth, and to me... this was his greatest win so far in his glorious MMA career, even if Cro Cop would sort of fall off soon after the fight. That doesn't take away from who Cro Cop was at the time of the fight, and how Fedor was able to dominate him, both on the feet and on the ground.
Please realize, this is a matter of opinion; you can use any justification you want to back up your stance. Whether it's because the fight sold a lot of pay-per-views, or it was just something YOU had looked forward to seeing for a very long time. It doesn't matter... just tell me what to you has been the biggest fight in MMA, and whether or not it lived up to your expectations.
Also, remember... I'm asking which fight had the biggest build-up and expectations revolving around it, not which had the biggest impact on the sport. So a fight like Stephan Bonnar vs. Forrest Griffin shouldn't be anyone's choice, since no one cared about it at the time of the fight.
Anyway, the choices are limitless. Here are some of the rather obvious ones:
Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock - UFC 5
Tito Ortiz vs. Frank Shamrcok - UFC 22
Royce Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba - PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Finals
Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock - UFC 40
Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell 1-3 - UFC 43, UFC 52, & UFC 57
Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell 1-2 - UFC 47 & UFC 66
Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar - UFC 91
Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn 2 - UFC 94
Those are a few off the top of my head, but I left my choice out on purpose. Can you guess what it is? Probably not, so I'll just tell you...
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović from Pride Final Conflict 2005.
At the time, both were undoubtedly the two best Heavyweight Mixed Martial Artist in the World, and every MMA fan was DYING to finally see these two go at it. It took about 3/4 years for it to finally come to fruition, but when it did... no one could wait to see who was really the best Heavyweight fighter walking the face of the Earth.
Over 50,000 people jammed the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan to witness these two fight. The UFC has never had a show with HALF as many people in attendance. That's how big this fight was.
Fedor, of course, was basically undefeated (he still is) and was just killing everybody that stepped in the ring with him. What made him so special was that he would not just beat these guys, but he would do so at their very own game. If you put him in there with a World Class Jiu-Jitsu Artist, he didn't care whether or not it went to the ground. He would take it there himself sometimes and completely dominate the guy. Professional Boxers, Kickboxers? Pssh... Fedor didn't give a fuck, he'd still stand with you. This was Fedor, and he was still undefeated. It's pretty miraculous when you really think about it.
And as far as Cro Cop... man, the guy was just putting on knockout reel after knockout reel. His legs were like trees, and it seemed like every time he connected with one of those kicks, the lights went out for his opponent and the guy was dead. He was by far the most devastating striker in MMA at the time. He had two losses under his belt; one was to Big Nog where Cro Cop caught got in an Armbar, but that was very early on in his career. The second was one of the biggest flukes in MMA history, when Kevin Randleman knocked him out. However, a few months later Cro Cop would get a rematch against Randleman, and Cro Cop avenged his loss to him in only 40 seconds.
So you see, these were two powerhouses going at it, and no one could predict how it was going to go.
Now, did it live up to expectations? Surely it did, especially if you're a Fedor fan. As I said, Fedor beat people at their own game, and Cro Cop was no exception. He stood with Cro Cop and got the better of him on most exchanges (though Cro Cop did manage to bloody Fedor's nose and rock him with one kick to the head). The fight did make its way to the ground a few times, where Fedor completely dominated with his always absolutely beautiful ground and pound.
After the fight both men were busted up pretty badly. I think even with that, some were disappointed with the fight because there was no knock-out, and because it lasted a while on the ground, but for me... I didn't have a problem with it. It was just another example of why Fedor is, so far, the greatest fighter to walk this Earth, and to me... this was his greatest win so far in his glorious MMA career, even if Cro Cop would sort of fall off soon after the fight. That doesn't take away from who Cro Cop was at the time of the fight, and how Fedor was able to dominate him, both on the feet and on the ground.
