The Greatest Comeback in UFC History

[Turd Ferguson]

Last night, when Yushin Okami got dropped by Tim Boetsch in the third round of their fight, Joe Rogan immediately went nuts and proclaimed it to be the greatest comeback in UFC history.

While it was no doubt an insane ending to their fight that Okami was dominating, I'm not sure if you could call it the GREATEST. There were plenty of comebacks where fighters faced major adversity to come back out of nowhere and win a fight, that were even more epic and had greater ramifications for MMA History.

Personally, I still believe that Anderson Silva's comeback over Chael Sonnen was the greatest in MMA history. For four and a half rounds, Chael went out and did what he said what he going to do, and put Silva on his back and give him a beating. Silva threw up a Hail Mary Triangle, Sonnen's career Achilles Heel, and it worked, as he retained the UFC Middleweight Championship.

This is on a smaller scale, but Carlos Condit's comeback against Rory MacDonald was bigger than what Boetsch did. MacDonald was beating Condit up for two rounds, Greg Jackson lit a fire under Condit in between the second and third rounds, and Condit went on to win the fight with only seconds to spare. If it weren't for Condit's comeback in that fight, he wouldn't be the UFC Interim Welterweight Champion right now.

Thank god for Joe Rogan's hyperbole, this could be a really interesting thread.

 

[jmt225]

You have to give Anderson the nod because A) it was 5 rounds, and B) there was MUCH more at stake. Besides, you can always expect a hail mary punch to land, but a triangle in the last 2 minutes of a 25 minute fight after being as dominated as Anderson was? I mean, it was simply shocking, and know one could have saw it coming.

I will say, however, that if Mark Hominick could have finished off Aldo in their fight, then I would give him the edge over Anderson. Not only was that a 5 Round title fight as well, but Hominick took a much more severe beating than Anderson did. While Anderson was dominated, he didn't take much damage, but Hominick? He got his fucking ass handed to him for 4 rounds, had the biggest welt ever on his eye, and still somehow almost manage to win the fight in the 5th Round. Even though he came up short, it was still nothing short of remarkable.

And Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg also deserves a mention because while it only lasted one round, it looked to be as good as over just a couple of minutes into the fight, only for Matt to somehow escape the rear naked choke, slam Trigg half-way across the cage, and then secure an RNC of his own.

 

[JWGunslinger]

Surprised this one hasnt been mentioned but the first fight that comes to mind in terms of comebacks would be Pete Sell vs Scott Smith. Smith takes a bad blow to the ribs(which turned out to be broken) and staggers after the shot, Sell charges in to finish it and Smith hits him with the haymaker as he's on his way in, knocking out "Drago". Other fights where guys get dominated for a long period of time and then come back to win are equally impressive but I love it when youre positive the fights gonna end but then the guy on the receiving end turns up the heat and pulls off the win.

A few others that come to mind are Brock vs Shane Carwin, the stakes of that fight and the fact that Carwin wailed on Brock all of round one with some of the heaviest hands in the division and Brock was still able to come back and finish him in the second.

Also Martin Kampmann vs Drew McFedries was one that I've always been a fan of, McFedries throwing leather like he does best was destroying Kampmann but then somehow that tough ass dane came back and sunk a beautiful arm triangle for the win.

 

[Slyfox696]

I'll go old school and say Royce Gracie vs. Dan Severn at UFC 4. Back then, there were no weight classes, and there were no rounds or time limits. Soon after the start of the fight, Dan Severn, who was a heavyweight by today's standards, gets on top of Gracie (who last fought in the UFC at Welterweight) and basically rides him around the octagon for nearly 15 minutes. Severn never really tries to knock Gracie out, but rather just make him carry his weight and tries to suffocate him, which after 10+ minutes is going to wear anyone out, especially a much smaller guy in Gracie. At around the 15 minute mark, Severn finally makes a mistake and Gracie is able to lock in a Triangle choke and win his 3rd UFC championship, cementing his place in UFC history.

 

[BaconBits]

Cheik Kongo's comeback KO of Pat Barry was more of a spectacular comeback than Boesch. Kongo was dropped multiple times and still on wobbly legs when he dropped Pat with the 3-2. I mean, Kongo came close to being finished three times. And that was far from the best comeback ever.

And that was like 6 months ago.


Situations like this are why I'm getting so I really can't stand Joe Rogan. His short memory and dick-riding of certain fighters has become the most annoying thing about mixed martial arts.

 

[Fizzy]

He's a fucking commentator, it's his job to make every single moment in every single fight seem like it's the best thing ever. Every single person in the world gets caught up in certain moments be it in a sporting event, a concert, or any form of entertainment. Rogan was in the moment and said whatever came into his head. Would you like it better if he said "oh, that was a great comeback, but certainly not the best ever?" His excitement is what makes him the best commentator in MMA, he generally cares about the sport and it shines through in moments like the Okami fight. Commentators jobs are to make every moment feel special, and nobody does that better than Rogan. Yea, let's get bland ass fucking Kenny Florian on every show, he's so fucking interesting to listen to. How about Frank Shamrock? These guys cannot make a boring fight interesting hell, even an exciting fight is dogged down by their bland ass, no emotion type commentating style. Joe Rogan is the best commentator this sport has ever seen simply due to the passion and emotion that he portrays during each and every fight. Who gives a shit if he dick rides some fighters more than others, everybody in the entire world does that no matter what sport they follow. It shows he's truly a fan. It's not as if his bias takes away from him explaining the positions and the fights, he still does that as good as anybody. He's a fan with extensive knowledge of the sport offering his insight into the fights. Calling him the most annoying thing in MMA today is just fucking wrong when you have guys like Fitch trying to blanket their way to a title shot. Joe Rogan is one of the UFC's best features and I wouldn't have any person take his spot.

As for the best comeback ever, for me it's between Silva/Sonnen and Brock/Carwin. Both fights feature the champion getting absolutely destroyed and pulling off a miraculous comeback. Brock survived an entire round of having his face caved in by one of the hardest punchers in MMA and came out the next round smiling. That shit isn't human. I love Anderson Silva, and pulling that sub off was nothing short of spectacular, but Sonnen isn't known to hit very hard and Anderson was never in danger of being finished. That doesn't take anything away from the sub, it was one of the most amazing things i've ever witnessed, but Brock/Carwin wasn't human, it was fucking insane.

 

[BaconBits]

He's a fucking commentator, it's his job to make every single moment in every single fight seem like it's the best thing ever. Every single person in the world gets caught up in certain moments be it in a sporting event, a concert, or any form of entertainment. Rogan was in the moment and said whatever came into his head. Would you like it better if he said "oh, that was a great comeback, but certainly not the best ever?" His excitement is what makes him the best commentator in MMA, he generally cares about the sport and it shines through in moments like the Okami fight. Commentators jobs are to make every moment feel special, and nobody does that better than Rogan. Yea, let's get bland ass fucking Kenny Florian on every show, he's so fucking interesting to listen to. How about Frank Shamrock? These guys cannot make a boring fight interesting hell, even an exciting fight is dogged down by their bland ass, no emotion type commentating style. Joe Rogan is the best commentator this sport has ever seen simply due to the passion and emotion that he portrays during each and every fight. Who gives a shit if he dick rides some fighters more than others, everybody in the entire world does that no matter what sport they follow. It shows he's truly a fan. It's not as if his bias takes away from him explaining the positions and the fights, he still does that as good as anybody. He's a fan with extensive knowledge of the sport offering his insight into the fights. Calling him the most annoying thing in MMA today is just fucking wrong when you have guys like Fitch trying to blanket their way to a title shot. Joe Rogan is one of the UFC's best features and I wouldn't have any person take his spot.

For a color guy, Rogan also has a huge problem with the technical side of the sport, including his beloved jiu jitsu. Much of what he says is, well, wrong.
The fact that you think he really knows what he's talking about is one of the biggest problems with him. For as long as he's been doing the color commentary and supposedly training in it, he should really be better at it.

Remember, the color guy is supposed to be the one in the know. When he's having a problem with the actual technicalities, he's not doing his job all that well.

The best color guy in the sport is Pat Miletich. By far. You want to really know the sport, listen to him.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

All solid picks. I'd probably give my vote to Anderson. I'll throw a new one out though to stimulate conversation.

Mike Russow vs. Todd Duffee. Duffee was coming off that record KO of Tim Hague and the hype surrounding him was pretty big. Dude had an incredible physique as well.

Duffee beat on Russow for about 12 solid minutes, even breaking a bone in Russow's head, when Russow came back with that crazy one punch KO. I remember Rogan saying something along the lines of "If you saw that in a movie you would call BS and say no way could that happen"

Another one I like, even though it was in Pride and wasn't a one sided beating, was Fedor vs. Randleman. When Kevin suplexed Fedor onto his head, Fedor shook it off like it was nothing, reversed position and locked in a kimura

 

[Khalifa]

I watched the Anderson fight and you can't even compare anything else to it. At the start of every single round I was like "okay Silva is gonna start making a comeback on the feet now, no way he will go back to the ground", yet every single time I was wrong. Sonnen didn't dominate the fight, he was the fight. It honestly look like practice for Sonnen and you could tell Silva was getting worried. With 2 minutes left you just see Silva go for a triangle and you would of thought Sonnen could of easily gotten out of it because it came out of no where and Silva was extremely tired and beat, but thankfully not!

 

[Ryman]

I should probably say Silvas comeback against Sonnen was the greatest due to the hype and how the fight went but i cant, i have to agree with Yazloz and say that Russows comeback is the greatest. With Sonnen you know that he can be submitted and Anderson was looking for the triangle for like a minute but Russows comeback was not even realistic, he had seriously landed 5 punches before the ko.

Brock against Carwin is another good one.

 

[Rayne]

Edgar v. Maynard 2. Gray Maynard figuratively ran over Frankie Edgar with a truck in the first round. It was the single ugliest round I have ever seen anyone survive in a championship fight, Lesnar v. Carwin included. For five minutes Gray Maynard threw everything he had at Frankie Edgar, and hit with most of it.

One minute later, the bell rings for the second round, and Edgar looks like he went for a light warmup jog instead of five minutes of fists and elbows. He went on to draw in a full five round fight (and of course won the rematch), but the fact that he came back so casually from such an ugly beating makes this my greatest comeback.