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This thread is for people to post about cool fighters who have fallen by the wayside. Feel free to talk about guys who are retired/inactive, or just guys who have been out of the UFC for a long time and might be unknown to newer MMA fans. I'm going to start by talking about a guy who was one of my favorites from when I first started intensely following MMA. Please be aware that I am pathologically compelled to root for underdogs. See my avatar. Jason "The Athlete" McDonald Jason was one of the first Canadians to have some success in the UFC. Primarily a grappler and loving cardio machine (at least for the time), nearly 90% of his wins were by submission. I loved him for his aggressive and high-paced grappling style. He was not a dude who was satisfied with positional dominance, and he was always looking to create submission opportunities. Also, let's be honest, he speaks to the inner dweeb in all of us:  His early career was spent in Canadian promotions like MFC (yes, the same MFC where GSP made his MMA debut against an Ivan Menjivar who was for some reason a welterweight at that time. Yay b-leagues). His first UFC fight and win was a fast RNC victory over Ed Herman. Fight Pass: Short Fuse has a Short Night. He followed this up with a nifty triangle on the cat smasher: http://www.ufc.tv/video/jason-macdonald-vs-chris-leben-ufc-66. He followed that up by alternating wins and losses, getting beat up by Rich Franklin and Yushin Okami, but taking wins over Rory "Who?" Singer and Joe Doerksen, the man born without a chin. That win was one of his small number of knockout victories, which tells you more about Joe's chin than Jason's striking. After that win, Jason had what I would considered his most exciting and signature fight. A submission loss to Demian Maia. What crack am I smoking? If you click no other links in this post, WATCH THIS loving FIGHT (managed to find a non-fightpass link for this one). This fight was hard fought and back-and-forth the whole way. While it was apparent that Demian had a slight advantage in technical superiority, Jason's tenacity, BJJ skill, and great conditioning had him escaping sub after sub and attempting a few of his own. Just watch the way he escapes a deep triangle at the very beginning of round one and manages to take Demian's back and transition to mount momentarily. Going into this fight a lot of folks had Demian grabbing victory easily, but Jason made him earn the W. Between the two of them they only threw 74 strikes in the whole fight. This fight was the Sakuraba vs Newton of the UFC. Afteward, Jason bounced back with a win against fellow Jason and garbage bag-shaped man Jason Lambert, but went on a 2-fight skid that would see him lose his gatekeeper status and his job in the UFC. He then lost another fight to the Michael Jordan of BJJ in MFC, but turned things around with a 3-fight win streak that found him back in the UFC. Unfortunately, he was never able to really put it together again and retired after losing to Tom Lawlor on a UFC on Fuel TV card. Unfortunately, the sport had just evolved past him by then and cardio + rudimentary striking wasn't enough to hang around against he more well-rounded guys starting to appear. These days he passes his time running his own gym and fight promotion in Canada. His career stands as a reminder both of the things we've lost and the things we've gained in MMA. He had few boring fights, owing partially to the less well-rounded nature of fighters of the time. I'm a little sad that we don't have guys with 80% sub rates any more, but we now have a sport where a decent number of guys in the UFC are well-rounded enough to show good technique at all aspects of the sport. Unless you like heavyweights. Anyway, post about your favorite fighters of days past.
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Nov 26, 2014 04:57
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Misaki was cool and won a fight against Decision Dan and despite a bunch of setbacks like failing to kill Jorge Santiago twice, or getting wrestlefucked by Frank Trigg, managed to close out his career by clowning the poo poo out of Paul Daley. Also he kicked Akiyama in the head.
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Nov 26, 2014 05:11
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1st AD posted:Misaki was cool and won a fight against Decision Dan and despite a bunch of setbacks like failing to kill Jorge Santiago twice, or getting wrestlefucked by Frank Trigg, managed to close out his career by clowning the poo poo out of Paul Daley. Also he kicked Akiyama in the head. Don't forget the stern lecture he gave Akiyama for disappointing the children afterward.
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Nov 26, 2014 05:20
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LeftistMuslimObama posted:WATCH THIS loving FIGHT (managed to find a non-fightpass link for this one). Surprise celebrity appearance in the second round break
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Nov 26, 2014 06:34
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LeftistMuslimObama posted:These days he passes his time running his own gym and fight promotion in Canada. His career stands as a reminder both of the things we've lost and the things we've gained in MMA. He had few boring fights, owing partially to the less well-rounded nature of fighters of the time. I'm a little sad that we don't have guys with 80% sub rates any more, but we now have a sport where a decent number of guys in the UFC are well-rounded enough to show good technique at all aspects of the sport. Unless you like heavyweights.
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Nov 26, 2014 06:56
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1st AD posted:Misaki was cool and won a fight against Decision Dan and despite a bunch of setbacks like failing to kill Jorge Santiago twice, or getting wrestlefucked by Frank Trigg, managed to close out his career by clowning the poo poo out of Paul Daley. Also he kicked Akiyama in the head. I can't find the first Misaki/Santiago fight (and it definitely deserves to be seen) but Misaki/Santiago II was the literal best fight of all time and you should watch it to get an idea of why Misaki is the best. Kicking notorious villain Akiyama in the head, legally, was also a great moment. Misaki deserves a way longer post but I didn't start watching MMA until 2008 and Triticum Guzzler is the most qualified to make it.
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Nov 26, 2014 13:06
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I was randomly reminded of this guy today: Jean "The White Bear" Silva An early lightweight whose star slowly fell after losing a decision to Gomi in Pride. His next biggest fights were in Cage Rage against the likes of Shaolin, Paul Daley, and Imanari (who of course got him in a sickening heelhook). He also beat two TUF Brazil fighters in a one-night tournament, losing in the final. Even though he was a completely middling fighter, I appreciated his bringing a bit of capoeira flair into his fights. For which I can find no high-quality evidence on Youtube, apparently. Here's him getting his attack reversed by Imanari: 
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Nov 27, 2014 04:31
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Why would you do that against Imanari? Why?
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Nov 27, 2014 04:39
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He expended too much energy and got tired
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I remember watching this video and the look of sheer agony on his face is still imprinted in my brain.
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Nov 27, 2014 06:20
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Dangersim posted:Why would you do that against Imanari? Why? Sometimes I think about putting my hand in the fire. This dude actually did it.
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Nov 27, 2014 06:56
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BlindSite posted:Sometimes I think about putting my hand in the fire. This dude actually did it. Jorge Gurgel leapt into that fire. Like...literally...jumped right in
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Nov 27, 2014 07:02
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Since we're talking Imanari...        
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Nov 27, 2014 07:26
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Ikuhisa Minowa is always fun to talk about. He basically tried to base a career off the assumption that both pro wrestling and anime were real. Also notable for: -training by standing infront of a pitching machine and catching fastballs with his bare hands. -training by racing planes landing at an airport -nearly landing a rolling thunder on mirko cro cop. and much more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8uPFnlYRuY Also, a philosopher: http://www.pridefc.com/pride2005/index.php?mainpage=news&news_id=901 Minowa posted:When the lecture moved to question-and-answers, Minowa gave even deeper insight into Minowa's World. "There are more heavens in Heaven than just Ultra Heaven and Super Heaven. There's Mini Heaven, Splash Heaven and Max Heaven." He continued, "I'd like to have an honest fight with an alien. If it had 6 arms, it would be difficult to strike with them but if it has legs like a human, I could submit it with leg-locks." Less crazy but still fun is Mamoru Yamaguchi, the coolest flyweight before flyweight was A Thing.  Unfortunately by the time the UFC made it a division, Yamaguchi was pretty much too old to capitalize on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4NlhtVHVcU Some of the smoothest punch-kick combinations you'll ever see.
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Nov 27, 2014 07:53
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Someone post Minowaman killing Sokoudjou and winning the Super Hluk belt
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Nov 27, 2014 07:59
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This is still the greatest walk-off KO of all time. What's Hansen doing now?
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Nov 27, 2014 11:09
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1st AD posted:Misaki was cool and won a fight against Decision Dan and despite a bunch of setbacks like failing to kill Jorge Santiago twice, or getting wrestlefucked by Frank Trigg, managed to close out his career by clowning the poo poo out of Paul Daley. Also he kicked Akiyama in the head. I think my favorite Misaki moment is against Nate Marquardt in Pancrase. Marquardt takes Misaki down, Misaki falls awkwardly and breaks his elbow, the ref steps in and is going to stop the fight, and Misaki, as he's getting up, tries to kick Marquardt's head off because god drat it Misaki isn't going to let a pussy injury like a broken elbow stop him from fighting
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Nov 27, 2014 11:37
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I don't know if Bustamante counts because he won and retained a belt, but he was rad.
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Nov 27, 2014 12:19
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colonel_korn posted:Since we're talking Imanari... One thing about Imanari is that people focus on the leglocks and don't realize that he has one of the best closed guards in mma. He almost never takes punishment from there, and he's constantly off-balancing and attacking. TheRationalRedditor posted:This is still the greatest walk-off KO of all time. What's Hansen doing now? http://www.reverbnation.com/adamantiumavatar
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Nov 27, 2014 14:39
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colonel_korn posted:Since we're talking Imanari... This man has a vendetta against ankles.
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Nov 27, 2014 17:47
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Trast posted:This man has a vendetta against ankles. His main beef is with your knee ligaments, actually.
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Nov 27, 2014 18:07
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colonel_korn posted:Since we're talking Imanari... I'm literally afraid to watch this guy fight. I just can't do it.
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Nov 27, 2014 18:18
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It's easier to watch Imanari fight now because he gets beaten up a lot, but I watched the Jean Silva fight live and it was absolutely excruciating to watch because as soon as you saw him doing capoeira near Imanari's guard it was like some dumb loving horror movie about knees. Nooo, don't go in there! Yeah, roll away! Oh no, the cage is in the way, aaaaAAAA and then he had to be helped out of the cage because he couldn't walk
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Nov 27, 2014 18:40
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There is little I want to see more than imanari vs palhares at metamoris to see who hates functioning legs more
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Nov 27, 2014 18:43
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Yuriy posted:There is little I want to see more than imanari vs palhares at metamoris to see who hates functioning legs more Not unless they take Metamoris on the road; last time I checked Imanari can't get a US Visa
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Nov 27, 2014 18:48
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also he's a tiny man who can fight at flyweight whereas palhares is literally a farm animal
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Nov 27, 2014 18:54
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fatherdog posted:Not unless they take Metamoris on the road; last time I checked Imanari can't get a US Visa When asked about this Imanari's manager said "That boy's not right" or something close. Didn't Imanari also enjoy training naked as well?
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Nov 27, 2014 19:02
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maffew buildings posted:[quote="fatherdog" post="438224933"] Imanari does and says a lot of weird poo poo but the visa story is my fave because he spent less than 10 minutes with the guy interviewing him and ended up barred from the country
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Nov 27, 2014 19:03
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I'm lazy and on my phone but just pretend this post contains the pictures of Imanari and Aoki(?) dressed like schoolgirls.
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Nov 27, 2014 19:12
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I can't find it now but my favourite Imanari thing was how he hosed up his friend's instructional DVD shooting by throwing enormous medicine balls at him when he was trying to demonstrate moves
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Nov 27, 2014 19:13
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Adlan Amagov is cool, but then he decided to fight for Chechnya instead of money, or something. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4e2P17FzCQ  Also: wasn't there a video of Imanari and some bros in a steam room and he starts nakedly triangling dudes? LobsterMobster fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Nov 27, 2014 |
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Nov 27, 2014 19:23
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LobsterMobster posted:Also: wasn't there a video of Imanari and some bros in a steam room and he starts nakedly triangling dudes? thank you for bringing it up first because this is exactly what comes to my mind above all else when it comes to Imanari. not sure what that says about me, but here we are.
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Nov 27, 2014 19:52
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Imanari/Brown is really gross
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Nov 27, 2014 20:09
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IGOR IGOR  IGOR  IGOR  igor... 
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Nov 27, 2014 20:35
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The Francisco Bueno KO is the best because his initial combo knocks him completely unconscious and then he uppercuts him like two or three times while he's in the process of faceplanting.
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Nov 27, 2014 20:55
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You missed Igor's giant Austin Powers judo chop finish
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Nov 27, 2014 21:20
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Hayato "Mach" Sakurai Shooto and Pride standard. At the time, he had some of the nastiest leg kicks in the business. For me, the guy just reeked of cool. He was relaxed and impassive and walked around the ring like it was his living room. He had one chance to make it big in America, but the UFC decided to put him in with Matt "the spousal rapist" Hughes, and he was predictably wrestlefucked into obscurity. In Pride though, he was a god and things were good. He won some, lost some, but his fights were always interesting and entertaining.   
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Nov 27, 2014 22:01
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Bell the Cat posted:Hayato "Mach" Sakurai Don't forget his finest moment: 
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Nov 27, 2014 22:22
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colonel_korn posted:Don't forget his finest moment:  Thank you for sharing that. He really was my favorite fighter for a long time. God I miss Pride.
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Nov 27, 2014 22:29
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Bell the Cat posted:He had one chance to make it big in America, but the UFC decided to put him in with Matt "the spousal rapist" Hughes, and he was predictably wrestlefucked into obscurity. In Pride though, he was a god and things were good. He won some, lost some, but his fights were always interesting and entertaining. This was after Sakurai lost to Anderson Silva in Shooto - Anderson was supposed to fight Hughes, but he signed with Pride instead and Mach got slotted in his place. Shame that he had to debut against the best welterweight of that era, but I have doubts that any of those Pride era Japanese guys would've ever made a real splash in the United States
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Nov 27, 2014 22:43
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He was also recovering from a back injury sustained in a car accident when he fought Hughes iirc
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Nov 27, 2014 22:46
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