25 Interesting Facts You May Not Know About MMA

25. Tank Abbott was knocked out exactly 43 seconds in his fight against both Kimbo Slice and Paul Buentello.

24. UFC Light Heavyweight contender Forrest Griffin's very first MMA bout was against Dan "The Beast" Severn.

23. Evan Tanner has more triangle choke submission victories than anyone in MMA ever.

22. Karo Parisyan's last 8 of 11 fights have went to a unanimous decision, Karo going 6 and 2(GSP and Diego Sanchez).

21. The first publicized spectacle of MMA last century wasn't UFC 1 or even Vale Tudo it was a fight between Hercules O'Brien (a British Boxer) and Huo Yuan Jia (a Chinese Wushu fighter) in Shanghai in 1909.

20. Rickson Gracie (claims to have won over 400 fights without a loss) the supposedly undefeated in all competitions has at least one loss from the 1993 U.S. Sambo Championships in Norman, Oklahoma, where he was defeated by American Ron Tripp by Total Victory via uchi-mata in 45 seconds. Rickson disputed this loss, claiming he was misinformed of the rules of the event.(props cavar)

19. Anderson Silva allowed Travis Lutter to take him down in their fight at UFC 67 so that he could beat him on the ground to avenge Jose "Pele" Landi-Jons, Anderson's training partner who lost to Lutter via armbar.

18. Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira doesn't lose fights he just runs out of time, 4 losses in 36 fights all decisions.(props to jrb655)

17. Chuck Liddell was in a 1981 movie with Jack Nicholson called "The Postman Always Rings Twice". Here is the video below.


16. UFC 14 was the first event where the "baby gloves" were made mandatory(props Bullitt68).

15. The UFC 28 fight between Josh Barnett and Gan McGee was the first and only Superheavyweight fight in UFC history.(props Bullitt68)

14. Fedor Emelianenko and Randy Couture both fought in the Rings King of Kings tournament in 2000. They would have fought but Fedor was cut by TK and Couture was submitted by Valentijn Overeem.

13. The much discussed Fedor loss due to a cut against Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, was actually a cut reopened. Fedor suffered the cut in his fight with Ricardo Arona prior to fighting TK. Fedor still claims that TK used an illegal strike.

12. Brad Imes is the only fighter in MMA history to have 2 wins via gogoplata submission.

11. UFC Ring announcer Bruce Buffer has a Jiu Jitsu black belt and fought as a kick boxer.

10. Matt Serra was in Japan ready to fight in Pride 9. Unfortunately his opponent got injured by a pyrotechnic and he could not fight. He was never invited back to Pride.(props Deviant Icon)

9. Japanese Superstar Genki Sudo was a contestant on the show "Ninja Warrior" here is the video below.
Genki Sudo on Sasuke

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8. Aaron Brink who has fought fighters like Andrei Arlovski, Rich Franklin, Alistair Overeem and Jeremy Horn is also an ex porn star.

7. Travis Fulton has an MMA record of 185-45-9 and of those fights only 20 went to decision, his nickname of "Ironman" is fitting.

6. The 2000 PRIDE Grand Prix was the first to feature live American commentary. Bas and Quadros added commentary to the earlier events after they already happened. This is evident by the fact that Bas commentates on fights while at the same time cornering Mark Kerr.(props bullitt68)

5. PRIDE 12 was where the term Lay and Pray was coined. Quadros coined the term while calling the fight between Kazuyuki Fujita and Gilbert Yvel.(props bullitt68)

4. At the pre-fight staredown between Quinton Jackson and Igor Vovchanchyn at PRIDE 22, Rampage gave Igor a note allegedly from his mother that said, "Please don't hurt my son."(props bullitt68)

3. In the pre-fight staredown between Josh Barnett and Mark Hunt, while the referee was issuing the rules, Barnett added, "No flying ass drops."(props bullitt68)

2. Shooto is the oldest MMA organization on the planet. It started in 1985.(props cavar)

1. Japanese and Pride MMA Legend Kazushi Sakuraba actually won one of the very first UFC tournaments- UFC Japan: Ultimate Japan 1.

DREAM Video:Crocop, Royce Gracie, JZ and Others Speak at DREAM Press Conference

DREAM is the new organization that Crocop will be fighting in and from the looks of it many other former Pride fighters and popular fighters in Japan. Former pride owners and K-1 are the ones behind this new promotion. Is this the new Pride?

Props to Pancrase.org for the Video

Top 10 MMA Dream Matches- No Sequels Allowed

Many MMA fans have their own personal fights that they would like to see, but might never happen. Hopefully the list I'm about write with come true and these fights will take place at some point in time. Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva is on for UFC 79, so that dream match has finally come true. Obviously there are many rematches that we would like to see, but I'll save that for another post.

10. Forrest Griffin vs Quinton Rampage Jackson- Dana White is dreaming of the day this fight takes place, both hardcore and reletively new fans would pay to see this fight. Griffin is coming off an amazing victory over Mauricio Rua, a fighter that Jackson lost too badly. Rampage has been on a roll and is getting more and more popular because of his charisma and personality.

9. BJ Penn vs Sean Sherk- This fight was planned and I was really excited about it, but unfortunately Sherk tested positive for steroids and now the lightweight belt is in limbo. Penn was recently quoted as telling Sherk to "grow some balls", this fight should happen down the road.

8. Wanderlei Silva vs Mauricio Shogun Rua- Wanderlei has stated many times that he will not fight his longtime friend and training partner, but what a fight it would be. They know each others styles in and out, it would be a true chess match. One stipulation, the fight has to be in a ring and soccer kicks and stomps are allowed.

7. Fedor Emelianenko vs Josh Barnett- This fight should've already happen but it never materialized. Barnett has long been considered the biggest threat to dethrone the Russian king, Emelianenko. For fans who have followed both of the fighter's careers this would be the ultimate test for Fedor.

6. Takanori Gomi vs Gilbert Melendez- This fight would be a war and both fighters have common opponents. Both fighters like to slug it out and it could be very similar to Gomi vs Nick Diaz which is one of the best fights Ive ever seen.

5. Anderson Silva vs Paulo Filho- Both of these fighters have tremendous Jiu-Jitsu skills, obviously Silva would have the advantage standing, but whatever the strategy would be this would be a dream matchup. Filho is undefeated and Silva looks like he could beat anyone on the planet right now. Dana White if your listening "Sign Paulo Filho!!!!".

4. Wanderlei Silva vs Fedor Emelianenko- Wanderlei has fought heavyweights like Crocop twice and Mark Hunt, why not the Fedor. This fight could've happened if Pride was still around, with their open-weight grand prix tournaments. Both fighters are warriors who give it everything they have in every fight. This fight is unfortunately probably never gonna happen.

3. Dan Henderson vs Anderson Silva- If Henderson were to drop back to middleweight, the hype for this fight would be enormous. Both fighters are so well-versed in every aspect of the game. Would Hendo's wrestling be too much for Silva? Could Hendo avoid the nasty clinch of Silva? Many more questions would be answered if this superfight were to take place.

2. Fedor Emelianenko vs Randy Couture- Whether you hate Fedor or you love him, all 3 fights with him in it that are on this list, you would pay to see. This fight was close to happening, if the UFC could've signed Fedor it would've probably been his first fight. Now that Fedor has signed with M-1 global and Couture has quit the UFC, its only a matter of months left on Couture's UFC contract that we could see this fight. Could Couture press the greco roman clinch and dirty box Fedor to death or would it be just another day at the office for the Russian experiment?

1. Kazushi Sakuraba vs Rickson Gracie- The "Gracie Hunter" against the legendary champion of the Gracie family, who claims to have won over 300 fights without a loss. This fight will probably never happen, but we can dream. This fight would be so huge in Japan you would probably have to kill 3 people just to get a nose bleed seat.