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Top 25 Fights to Show a New MMA Fan!! Finally :D

40K views 167 replies 90 participants last post by  Davisty69 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Top 25 Fights to Show a New MMA Fan!!

The voting is in. Here is the top 25 fights to show to a new MMA fan. The fights are ranked according to those that received the highest percentage of votes in their respective rounds.

1) Kevin Randleman vs. Fedor Emelianenko - 68.57%
http://www.clipjunkie.com/Randleman-vs-Fedor-vid130.html

2) Stephan Bonnar vs. Forrest Griffin - 64%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Forrest_Griffin_vs_Stephan_Bonnar_TUF_1_Finale?vid=10001572&tid=100

3) Takanori Gomi vs. Nick Diaz - 63%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Takanori_Gomi_vs_Nick_Diaz_PRIDE_33_Second_Coming?vid=10003332&tid=100

4) Clay Guida vs. Roger Huerta - 54%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Roger_Huerta_vs_Clay_Guida_TUF_6_Finale?vid=10001224&tid=100

5) Diego Sanchez vs. Karo Parisyan - 50%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Diego_Sanchez_vs_Karo_Parisyan_UFN_6?vid=10003461&tid=100

6) Rampage jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva #2 - 50%
http://fightgameblog.com/2008/11/video-vault-rampage-vs-silva-ii/

7) Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Wanderlei Silva - 50%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Wanderlei_Silva_vs_Mirko_Cro_Cop_Filipovic_II_PRI?vid=10002609&tid=100

8) Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell - 49%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Chuck_Liddell_vs_Wanderlei_Silva_UFC_79?vid=10001215&tid=100

9) Diego Sanchez vs. Clay Guida - 47%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Diego_Sanchez_vs_Clay_Guida_TUF_9_Finale?vid=10005354&tid=100

10) Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic - 46%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Fedor_Emelianenko_vs_Mirko_Cro_Cop_Filipovic_PRIDE?vid=10000813&tid=100

11) Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira - 46%
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6bc74_cro-cop-vs-nogueira-final-conflict_sport

12) BJ Penn vs. Joe Stevenson - 46%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_B_J_Penn_vs_Joe_Stevenson_UFC_80?vid=10001194&tid=100

13) Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg II - 44%
http://mmavideolinks.to/fighter-videos/167/1675-frank-trigg-vs-matt-hughes-2.html

14) Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Fedor Emelianenko - 42%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Fed...io_Rodrigo_Nogueira_III_?vid=10000811&tid=100

15) Lyoto Machida vs. Rashad Evans - 41%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Lyoto_Machida_vs_Rashad_Evans_UFC_98_HD?vid=10005327&tid=100

16) Brett Rogers vs. Fedor Emelianenko - 41%
http://www.arkhilario.com/2009/11/07/fedor-vs-rogers-video/

17) Diego Sanchez vs. Nick Diaz - 41%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Diego_Sanchez_vs_Nick_Diaz_TUF_2_Finale?vid=10001596&tid=100

18) Forrest Griffin vs. Rampage Jackson - 39%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Quinton_Rampage_Jackson_vs_Forrest_Griffin_UFC_86?vid=10000725&tid=100

19) Georges St. Pierre vs. John Fitch - 37%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Georges_St_Pierre_vs_Jon_Fitch_UFC_87?vid=10001033

20) Don Frye vs. Yoshihiro Takayama - 36%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Don_Frye_VS_Yoshihiro_Takayama_at_PRIDE_21_Demo?vid=10007774&tid=100

21) Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuira - 36%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Randy_Couture_vs_Antonio_Rodrigo_Nogueira_UFC_102?vid=10006226&tid=100

22) Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Bob Sapp - 36%
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ydfs_bob-sapp-vs-antonio-rodrigo-nogueir_sport

23) Randy Couture vs. Tito Ortiz - 34%
http://mmavideolinks.to/fighter-videos/36/290-randy-couture-vs-tito-ortiz.html

24) Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson - 31%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Anderson_Silva_vs_Dan_Henderson_UFC_82_Pride_of_a_?vid=10000870&tid=100

25) Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell #1 - 26%
http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Chuck_Liddell_vs_Randy_Couture_1_UFC_43?vid=10001205&tid=100

Honorably Mentions: Rampage vs. Wanderlei, Shogun vs. Rampage, BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk, Faber vs. Brown 2

If any of the links don't work, or if they don't have the whole fights, PM me and I'll fix it.
 
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#84 ·
I am probably the odd man out but I wasn't into tha fight as much as most people. Don't get me wrong I liked watching them brawl. But the standup was flat out awful. Garcia looks like some guy brawling in the street. He just kinda flailed his arms around and ducked while doing it.

Good brawl but not a great fight in my opinion.
 
#87 ·
I want to thank the OP and whoever assisted in putting this together for us to view. I got into MMA around 2006, and there are a few in here that I hadn't seen, just heard about.

Thanks a lot for your work. It's much appreciated. Watching that Gogoplata one more time just now was precious. Haha, Gomi's cardio was weak in that one, but what a fight!
 
#93 ·
I think ya gotta show em david and goliath stuff like gracie v severn, mir vs. lesnar, etc where a martial arts technique wins against a bigger stronger opponent, emphasizing technique...figths like guida brawls, while entertaining, might reaffirm to some newbs that mma is no more than a backyard brawl.
 
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#104 ·
There's a new #1. This needs to be updated.

Fan or not, rematch or not. Best fight ever.

2nd most strikes landed by one fighter of any match in UFC history.

The MW championship implications, pre-fight hype, UFC's greatest fighter gets anhilated for 23 minutes and comes back ... all that.

Silva getting rocked so many times, Sonnen getting bloodied up with a big gash....Silva getting taken off his feet with strikes to the chin and solid takedowns, Sonnen in full guard landing strikes clean strikes, Silva with shots from the bottom, both constantly exchanging.

The fight had no losers in the eyes of fans of either fighter, cause wherever you were, you probably had to get off your feet and say holy f-in $hit 10 times.

The stand-up, wrestling, the BJJ, the non-stop action - Even if (rather when) there's the rematch, I don't see that fight being this great.
 
#106 ·
I'm sure we will re-do this list sometime in the future, but we're not just going to add fights here and there... so stop bringing up fights that happened after this list was created. knubbes
 
#107 ·
cool list

the biggest thing i noticed, and it was pretty much unavoidable, is that established fans understand who guys like fedor, cro cop, nog, wandy, chuck, randy, etc, etc, are, and that makes their fights more important to them

a newer fan wouldn't know those guys, so a fight like fedor/cro cop, which had huge importance to any longtime mma fan, wouldn't mean much to a new fan, especially since the fight itself is merely good, nothing spectacular.

i could name a bunch of fights that could have made the list, but as its already been said a thousand times, the list is only 25 fights long and mma has hundreds of amazing fights. penn/stevenson, couture/ortiz and anderson/hendo do seem like the odd fights out in the list though. none were anything special in my eyes
 
#109 ·
To be fair part of showing fights to a new fan is also EDUCATING them on the greats as well. If it can be a good/exciting fight WHILE helping them learn about the legends of the sport its called "Killing two birds with one stone."

I'm not interested in creating a bunch of new "fans" who are only interested in the fighters of today, and would have ZERO respect for the guys of yesteryears. Too many of those "fans" already.

Excite and Educate, thats the goal my man.
 
#108 ·
This is only off the top of my head.I have all the UFC's on dvd and there are some other good posts on here.A few fights that stick out to me.

Belcher vs Akiyama
Akiyama vs Leben
Foster vs Story
Stout vs Fisher{1st or 2nd}
Penn vs St Pierre 1
Quarry vs Credeur

Realize some of these selections are more brawls, but my list is more just to highlight the toughness of a UFC fighter.It is good to get new fans aquainted with the UFC through fights with good standup.Then slowly introduce them to the finer, equally important, points of MMA such as jiu jitsu, grappling, and more importantly octagon control.
 
#110 ·
take them through the development

I think what I would like to do is sit them down and take them the story - show them half a dozen fights from UFC 1-4 - culminating in Royce vs Sevren! and then try and represent the different influences of wresting / take down defense and re-establishment of the importance of striking - the recognition of boxing as one of the most effective striking disciplines - culminating in the importance of a genuine cross-discipline mix of martial arts

that's what I would do anyway...
 
#123 ·
I think what I would like to do is sit them down and take them the story - show them half a dozen fights from UFC 1-4 - culminating in Royce vs Sevren! and then try and represent the different influences of wresting / take down defense and re-establishment of the importance of striking - the recognition of boxing as one of the most effective striking disciplines - culminating in the importance of a genuine cross-discipline mix of martial arts

that's what I would do anyway...

I actually did exactly that with my girlfriend, and it was great trip down memory lane for me as well. For a new MMA fan they have to see the beginning to appreciate where things are now. And to see Royce at 170 dominating those big guys, before big tough guys figured out they needed a ground game.

Spike came out with a Gracie tribute not too long ago that did a great job of giving the history of UFC. That's a highly recommend for a new fan as well. Great job on this list of fights!
 
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