The 10 Fighters Who Changed The Game

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Sho's favorite fighter list inspired me to do a list, I’m not really a favorite fighter guy, I enjoy breaking down fights based on style and skill level, with that being said I wanted to make a list of the most influential fighters who had a major impact on NHB/MMA over the years, fighters who changed the game

10 is a nice number to use (maybe), I’m sure there will be some omissions, also this isn’t who just did do something first, or maybe the best, but they started the trend or just had a major impact on the overall game of NHB/MMA through the years I have been watching the sport

So here we go…

sidenote: Sorry to Shogun for the blatant rip off of your presentation, but its pretty and effective

 

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Royce Gracie: The Chosen One​

Royce will never be considered the greatest Gracie, but Royce was the one chosen to fight in the first UFC and represent Gracie Jiu Jitsu

A couple theories on why it was Royce and not Rickson (who was the family champion at the time), Rorian helped create the UFC and it was basically the way to sell Gracie Jiu Jitsu to the masses. Rorian says he chose Royce over Rickson because Royce had a more ‘gentle’ style, Rorian believed Rickson would just get on top and smash everyone and make it look to easy, also if Royce lost, they can always put Rickson in there next who was way better than Royce anyways

More than likely it was all those reasons combined with Royce not being physically imposing like Rickson and if Royce beat all these ‘tough guys’ Rorian would have an easier time selling GJJ to the public which is what ultimately what happened, Royce became the poster boy for GJJ, he was a skinny kid who subbed all the big guys and started the Gracie Jiu Jitsu phenomena

Not much to describe about Royce’s style, he was classic GJJ/BJJ and relied on technique over strength and power, when UFC 1 happened the majority of fighters had no idea what to expect besides pretty much the Gracie’s who have been fighting No Holds Barred for a long long time compared to the other competitors, the only other fighter who had some idea was Ken Shamrock, a shoot wrestler with some grappling experience, Ken made the mistake of shooting in on Gracie going for one of his leg locks and letting Royce get on top, Royce than proceeded to choke out Ken and use his Gi sleeve in the process which Ken had no idea to defend, from that point Ken started to train and learn BJJ, even train in the Gi to learn how to defend, after UFC 1 all of the fighters were put on notice and had to figure out how to stop Gracie and BJJ in general, Gracie went 11-0 (The Harold Howard loss didn’t really count) in his first 4 UFC’s than a went to a 36 minute draw with Ken Shamrock in UFC 5 which was a huge accomplishment at the time because it was the first time Royce did not finish his opponent

With the help of Royce and Gracie Jiu Jitsu and his early dominance in the UFC he completely changed at how the world see’s a fight, the Kung Fu and Karate movie myths were shattered and made ever martial artist think twice about what they were learning and if it was still useful

Royce in a old school style challenge match

 

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Don Frye: Boxing and Wrestling​

Don Frye was/is the prototype for the American based NHB/MMA fighter, Frye used boxing and wrestling to beat up his opponents, up to this point in NHB BJJ was king, Marco Ruas and Oleg Taktarov won the events right before Frye, but Marco also had stellar BJJ skills and Oleg used his Sambo/Judo subs to win, Frye brought his solid wrestling and boxing base to just smash people

Frye won the UFC 8 tournament when he entered NHB but probably the most significant win in terms of early NHB was his win over Amaury Bitetti in UFC 9, Bitetti was BJJ champ and highly touted, the fight even went to the ground where the thinking was Bitetti should have been able to sub Frye, instead Frye said inside of Bitetti’s guard used his wrestling, strength and boxing to punish the BJJ champ with relentless strikes to the head and ribs, Frye won the fight via TKO

Frye used his combination of boxing and wrestling to go 11-1 with a UFC 8 and Ultimate Ultimate title before leaving NHB and going into Professional Wrestling for more money, his only loss to that point was to Mark Coleman, Frye would come back and have a great battle with Ken Shamrock where he used his strength and boxing the clinch to work Ken over and survived a couple busted ankles at the hands of Ken’s heel hooks, Frye’s most famous fight is probably with pro Wrestler Takayama where the 2 started in the head and arm clinch and blasted each other until Frye finally finished Takayama

Frye’s style of fighting has stood the test of time, you can see it in so many fighters, boxing and wrestling combined with some sub defense is a proven strategy even in today’s game

Frye vs Takayama

 

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Rumina Sato: The High Flying Submission Machine​

Rumina Sato is probably my all time favorite fighter to watch, Sato brought a unbelievable submission style to NHB, Sato started in the Shooto organization which the longest running NHB/MMA of all time

Sato gets on the list for a couple things, he was the first fighter non BJJ black belt to sub a BJJ black belt in competition, up until that point the common thinking that the best submission artist were BJJ players, Sato was a shoot wrestler, or a catch wrestler whatever you prefer to call it, Sato’s style was not of a classic position before submission approach, Sato went for subs from anywhere at any time which was seen as ‘wild’ and undisciplined in the BJJ community, but Sato proved that wrong with victory after victory

Rumina Sato had the ability to go for a submission from any position and chain his sub attempts together seamlessly, his transition game was second to none. You were never safe when fighting Sato, he was a submission waiting to happen, a whirling dervish of armbars, triangles, heel hooks, toe holds and any other sub you can name

Sato to this day, in my opinion of course has the greatest sub of all time, as soon the fight started Sato went up to Charles Taylor and hit a flying armbar and 6 seconds later was the winner, people try, but no one has duplicated the beauty of Sato’s flying armbar. Sato was not just all flash; Sato was considered one of the top fighters in the world at 155 early in his career

Out of his 26 wins, 18 of them came the way of submission; Sato is the pioneer of the exciting go for broke sub style in NHB/MMA you have seen through the years

Sato's flying armbar on Charles Taylor

 

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Mark Coleman: The Godfather of Ground and Pound​

Mark Coleman, the former Olympic wrestler burst on to the NHB scene and won back to back UFC’s (10 and 11), Coleman is not the first fighter use the ‘ground and pound’ tactic to win fights, but he lead the charge which earned him the moniker ‘The Godfather of Ground and Pound’ for a reason

Coleman is one of the best wrestlers to ever enter NHB/MMA, Coleman had a simple plan when he fought, he will take you down, smash you into the cage, rough you up and just be the more physical fighter than you, he wasn’t there to ‘stand and bang’, he wanted to dominate you with wrestling, fists, elbows, knees etc…while staying on top of you, Coleman went the majority of his career never being put on his back, he made you fight his fight

Coleman won his first 6 fights in the UFC all by dominate fashion, Don Frye gave him his toughest fight but Coleman was too much for Frye and his relentless GnP, but like all good things it came to an end when he ran into Maurice Smith, Maurice learned enough to defend himself on the ground and once he got back the fight back to his feet Coleman was clearly gassed from all the pressure he put on Maurice and he was picked a part, Coleman went on a skid losing to guys who employed a similar strategy to Smith and they weathered the storm until Coleman had nothing left to defend himself, Coleman rejuvenated himself in Pride by winning the first Grand Prix in 2000, taking out Igor Vovchanchyn in the finals

‘Ground and Pound’ is pretty much a generic term now a days for fighters inflicting damage from the top position once the fight is on the ground, Coleman wasn’t the first, but he was the best at it in the beginning

Coleman takes out Igor to win the Pride GP followed by the greatest post fight celebration ever

 

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Maurice Smith: The Strikers Revenge​

During the early days of NHB and the UFC pure strikers did not do well, grappling was so dominate that when you matched up a ‘striker’ and a ‘grappler’ it was almost a foregone conclusion the grappling would win, but that all changed with Maurice Smith. Mo was a great kick boxer before entering NHB/MMA, winning the WKC, WKA and IKSA belts and than not losing for 10 years, he also competed in K-1 and kept kick boxing during his MMA years

Smith entered mixed fighting in the Pancrase and Rings organizations, his weakness was sniffed out early and often and he went 4-7 with most of his losses by sub, but during that time Maurice hooked up with the Shamrock’s and Tsuyoshi ‘TK’ Kosaka, Maurice needed to learn what it would take to survive on the ground, his pure striking style was not going to get it done

Smith, Frank Shamrock and TK formed ‘The Alliance’, one of the first cross training groups in those days, Maurice taught Frank and TK the finer points of striking and Frank and TK showed Maurice how to grapple and survive, after Smith left the Pancrase and Rings organization he signed on to fight Marcus ‘Conan’ Silveira for the Extreme Fighting HW title, Maurice was a huge underdog as Conan was a BJJ champ and 3-0 at that point in his career, Maurice was able to fend off Conan’s takedowns and survive on the ground when he was there, in the 3rd round Mo KO’d Conan with a head kick and claimed the HW title, Smith would than defend his title at EF 4 and KO another grappler standing

Extreme fighting went under and Maurice went to the UFC to fight the current champ Mark Coleman, even with Smith’s wins over Conan and Murakami, he was a bigger underdog than the Conan fight and not many people gave him a chance to beat Coleman, this bout would be the first real unification bout in NHB with Smith being the Extreme Fighting champ and Coleman the UFC champ. The bout started off as planned as Coleman would keep taking down Smith and trying to ground and pound him, Maurice kept his composure on his back and avoided taking damage and let Coleman eventually tire himself out, after the majority of the fight being on the ground Smith got it back to his feet and with Coleman visible gassed he picked a part Coleman and won the decision to become the first pure striker with no grappling background to win the UFC title, Smith would than beat Tank Abbot and than drop the title losing a close decision to Randy Couture

Maurice had didn’t have a great MMA career when it was all said and done, he entered to late to really make a long lasting impact for himself, but with his wins over far more advanced grapplers he showed what a little bit of grappling can do to make striker more effective in MMA

Maurice Smith vs Mark Coleman

 

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Randy Couture: The Dirty Boxer​

Randy Couture entered NHB after en extensive amateur wrestling career, he would be a 3 time Olympic alternate in Greco for the US, Randy won a 4 man heavyweight tournament at UFC 13 taking out 2 opponents if pretty quick fashion mostly by going to the ground right from the start and finishing from there

At UFC 12 the event before, there was a young Brazilian named Vitor Belfort who burst onto the scene, Vitor was known as ‘The Phenom’ at the time, the young Brazilian blasted through Tra Telligman and Scott Ferrozo with hand speed that was not seen at this point in NHB, he was dubbed the next big thing in NHB because of his BJJ and Boxing skills

So the UFC set up a number 1 contender fight between Couture and Belfort to face than current champion Maurice Smith, Randy was a huge underdog because just before that we seen Maurice Smith take out Mark Coleman who was bigger and had a better wrestling pedigree than Randy, plus Vitor had ground skills that Maurice didn’t possess plus was younger and faster

The fight started with Randy trying to get takedowns but Vitor was able to stay on his feet, Randy finally got Vitor down and begin to GnP Vitor, Belfort was able to get back to his feet where he everyone thought Vitor had the advantage and be able to KO Couture, but Randy used his Greco clinch standing and started to work Vitor over with punches from the clinch, ‘dirty boxing’ was born, Randy gave Vitor no space in the clinch to find his range and use his classic boxing technique and speed, Randy made it ugly, mauling and cracking Belfort repeatedly in the clinch to finally getting the takedown and finishing off the Phenom who was exhausted and had no fight left in him

Randy would go on to win the UFC HW title by beating Maurice Smith by decision the next fight, his career would be defined by his dirty boxing and cage techniques defeating fighters like Pedro Rizzo, Kevin Randleman, Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz and more

Tough to find a good Couture HL, this one will do

 

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Igor Vovchanchyn: Sprawl and Brawl​

During the early days of NHB the majority of fans were watching the UFC, Extreme Fighting, Pancrase, Rings, Vale Tudo events from Japan and Brazil, etc…but in the Russian/Ukrainian fighting scene there was a small stout heavyweight, no not Fedor, his name was Igor Vovchanchyn

Igor was originally a kick boxer, he than decided to enter into NHB/Vale Tudo/Mixed Fighting or whatever the term used back than was in Russia, the majority of Igor’s fights were same day tournaments were he routinely had to fight 3 or 4 times in a night and they were usually bare knuckled contests, before being signed to fight in Pride 4 Vovchanchyn already had a record of 25-2-1 with almost all of his wins being by finish

Igor was not a big HW, only standing about 5’ 8" usually weighing around 235 lbs, what made him so successful was his fighting style, Igor was one of the first successful sprawl and brawl fighters to defeat far superior grapplers, Maurice Smith had success also, but he was more of a technical fighter and didn’t have the sprawl and scrambling abilities of Igor, Mo tended to pick people a part standing and when it hit the ground just avoid taking damage until he was able to get it back standing

Igor was aggressive, his style would be more considered brawl, sprawl, brawl, scramble, brawl and so on, he really led the charge on a new way to dominate grapplers in a grappler dominated sport at that point, he made fighters pay for missed opportunities and having to keep up with his pace, his stand up technique was not technical, but it was effective and he was able to inflict major amounts of damage very quickly

After Igor joined Pride he eventually fought Mark Kerr, this would be considered the fight to determine the number 1 HW in the world, after a long battle with Igor, Kerr was completely gassed trying to keep up with Igor would eventually create a scramble from the bottom, stuff a Kerr takedown with a knee and sprawl and KO'd Kerr with knees to the head, first he was declared the winner, but knees to the head of downed opponent were made illegal prior to the event, so it was changed to a no contest, but message had been sent

Like the saying goes ‘Before there was Fedor, there was Igor’

Igor blasting people from bare knuckle no rules to Pride days

 

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Kazushi Sakuraba: Myth Buster​

I don’t know if we will see another fighter who had a greater overall impact on MMA like Kazushi Sakuraba, from his creativity, technique, skill, showmanship, fearlessness and so on, Saku was/is one of the all time greats in the sport

In his prime years Sakuraba was around 185 lbs, by today’s standards he probably would be a WW, but Saku didn’t really care about weight classes, he fought who they put in front of him, that attitude would make him a legend, but it probably took years off his career. After losing his first pro fight, Sakuraba went on an incredible run and become the main star of Japanese MMA, but what made Sakuraba’s career would be his battle with the Gracie family

The Gracie’s had an aura about them, even though BJJ had not been as dominate like in the early times of NHB, the Gracie name was still the pinnacle in fans eyes of Jiu Jitsu and fighting, Sakuraba’s first fight with the Gracie’s came against Royler Gracie, Sakuraba would keep the fight standing peppering Royler with shots standing and while Royler was on his back, eventually Saku secured the top position and caught Royler in a kimura, the ref stopped the fight as Royler’s arm was bent way back and Royler had no means of escape Royler never tapped but it was right call for the fighters safety

After that fight the fans/Gracie faithful claimed Saku won because of the weight advantage, so Sakuraba agreed to fight the legendary Royce Gracie who was about Sakuraba’s weight, Royce did not like time limits on fights and insisted on 15 minute and unlimited rounds because he wanted time to work and not lose by decision, also the ref could not stop the fight like with Royler, Sakuraba agreed, at the press conference Saku even mocked the rules by showing up in a diaper to show how long he will be fighting, this fight was probably the most anticipated fight in NHB/MMA history at the time, Sakuraba would control the action for the majority of the fight, he blasted Royce with leg kicks, GnP from the top, at one point trying to take Royce’s Gi off, after 90 minutes of fighting Royce’s corner threw in the towel, Royce was battered and could barely stand anymore, the ‘Gracie Hunter’ was born

Sakuraba showed his willingness and heart to fight anyone that night by coming back in the 2nd round of the Pride Grand Prix and taking on HW Igor Vovchanchyn, Saku put up a good fight after fighting for 90 minutes the fight before, but eventually Igor would win when Sakuraba’s corner stopped the fight after the first round

Sakuraba would go on to beat Renzo Gracie with a kimura that dislocated Renzo’s elbow and a decision win over Ryan Gracie with the highlight of the fight being Sakuraba grabbing Ryan by the legs and dragging him around the ring, I think there was some spanking thrown in there too, Saku cemented his legacy win many great wins, but his fearlessness would get the better of him with some brutal losses to Wanderlei Silva X 3, Ricardo Arona, Mirko Cro Cop and Melvin Manhoef

Sakuraba would be a great innovator in the sport over the years, from his high flying stomping/punching and cartwheel guard passes, to giving his back to BJJ champs to escape, kicking the legs of butt scooters, and having one of the best low single leg takedowns ever, Sakuraba is easily one the greatest fighters of all time

One of my favorite highlight video's ever

 

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Frank Shamrock: The Modern Fighter​

Frank Shamrock is considered by many the first complete mixed martial artist, the prototype for the modern day fighter

Frank first started fighting professionally in for the Pancrase organization with no previous martial arts training, he was thrown right into the fire and in his first fight defeated eventual KOP champion and UFC HW champion Bas Rutten, Bas and Frank would have 2 more matches during there time in the Pancrase organization with Bas winning the next two, Frank had a good career in Pancrase winning the KOP interim championship by defeating Minoru Suzuki by knee bar, but Frank would end his Pancrase stint with 2 losses in a row, his adopted brother Ken Shamrock would leave Pancrase and Frank was fired from the organization.

Franks next fight would be against John Lober in Super Brawl, this would be the turning point in Franks career, Frank dominated early but begin to tire, Lober would than take control of the fight and win the decision after a 30 minute fight, at this point Frank begin to start working on his conditioning and overall fighting skill set, Frank would team up with kick boxer Maurice Smith and work his stand up game to compliment his submission fighting style, Frank would eventually leave the Lion’s Den and focus on his way of fighting and researching different ways to train and develop his skill set

After the Lober fight Frank would go on an amazing run, he would TKO Enson Inoue (ruled a DQ) in the Japan Vale Tudo and eventually fight for the newly created UFC Middleweight title (199 and under), Frank was an underdog against former Olympic Wrestler Kevin Jackson, Frank arm barred Jackson in 16 seconds, Frank would defend his title with a knock out slam against Igor Zinoviev, subbing Jeremy Horn with a knee bar and than taking out John Lober in the first round avenging that previous loss and showing how much he improved his game, next up was Tito Ortiz, Tito was coming off two straight wins over former Frank Lion’s Den teammates in Guy Mezger and Jerry Bohlander, Ortiz was dominate in those 2 wins and a huge middleweight, for there fight Frank weighed in at 196 with his clothes on, Tito made the 199 lb limit after cutting

This fight was Frank’s peak, Frank would strike from his feet, from the bottom, make Ortiz work and work after every Ortiz takedown, Tito would do damage to Frank from the top position but Franks conditioning was just at another level, in the 4th round Frank would reverse Ortiz, create a scramble, blasts Tito standing until Tito took Frank down again, but Frank would eventually make Ortiz tap to strikes after Tito turtled on all fours and had no energy left, at this point this was considered the greatest fight in UFC history and cement Frank’s place in MMA

After this fight Tito would come to Frank’s gym and learn better ways to train and work on his conditioning, Tito would win Frank’s vacated belt in the newly created Light Heavyweight division (205 lbs)

Frank Shamrock highlights from Pancrase to the Tito fight

 

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Tito Ortiz: Bigger is better​

What? Let me explain, Tito is a skilled fighter, has serviceable stand up, solid wrestling, very good ground and pound and submission defense, but what separated Tito in the early days was his skill combined with his size and strength by ‘taking advantage’ of weight classes, Tito ushered in the era of weight cutting which is a huge part of the sport now, now a days when guys are cutting 20 plus lbs no one blinks and eye, it’s just a normal part of the sport, but in the early day guys usually fought at just what they weighed naturally, it still had an open weight feel to it

Tito isn’t the first guy to cut weight, but looking at his career you can see the effect it had on his game and the rest of the MMA world, he probably caught the most flack for it, also when the UFC middleweight class was created it was at 199 and under, after Tito lost to Frank Shamrock who weighed in at around 196 lbs with his clothes on and change in his pocket the weight class was changed to 205 and under (Light Heavyweight) when Tito would win the belt against Wanderlei Silva after Shamrock ‘retired’ his next fight. The theory is the UFC changed the weight class from 199 to 205 for Ortiz, getting to 199 was a tough cut for Tito and those extra 6 lbs made it much easier for him to make weight and didn’t weaken him as much

After losing to Frank, Tito won 6 in a row, but looking at who he beat now and you can see the difference in size, Wanderlei Silva, Yuki Kondo, Evan Tanner, Elvis Sinosic would be considered natural MW’s and they all would eventually compete at 185, Ken Shamrock and Vladimir Matyushenko are 205ers but when you watch those fights the size difference sticks right out, Matyushenko would have the much better wrestling credentials compared to Ortiz, but Ortiz muscled and bullied Matyushenko for the entire fight, Ortiz would eventually lose his title when he fought Randy Couture, Randy dropped down to LHW after fighting at HW for years, Ortiz would not be able to use his game plan against Randy who beat Ortiz up for 5 rounds like Tito did to his previous undersized opponents, Tito would lose his next fight to Chuck Liddell who would be another fighter he couldn’t impose his size on and cuts a significant amount of weight

Tito would get back on track with wins over Patrick Cote and Vitor Belfort, two more future MW’s, Tito would get a win against Forrest Griffin and 2 more against Ken Shamrock, but by then the LHW division caught up and Tito being the biggest and baddest of the division was over as weight cutting became more prevalent than when Ortiz was ruling the UFC LHW division

Tito Ortiz highlights

 

[Liquidrob]

Well, those are my 10, it was very hard to have it just 10, a couple guys were left off that could have easily been on the list like Marco Ruas for being one of the first well rounded fighters and use of leg kicks, Murilo Bustamante for really working his boxing/BJJ game and BTT training, also Wand and the Chute Boxe guys for the aggressive Muay Thai and attacking head stomp/ soccer kick style which wrecked havoc for years, Mark Kerr for his wrestling GnP combined with a great sub game which wrestlers lacked and also a couple others, but I tried to pick different aspects of the overall game

So the 10 were

Royce Gracie
Don Frye
Rumina Sato
Mark Coleman
Maurice Smith
Randy Couture
Igor Vovchanchyn
Kazushi Sakuraba
Frank Shamrock
Tito Ortiz

 

[Rush]

I just skimmed the list but will give it a more thorough read when I get home from paying some bills.

Awesome read it looks like.

 

[Liquidrob]

I would like to bump this, I am very disappointed in you guys for no comments or nothing, I am starting to feel like I am not appreciated like I should be

 

[Rush]

Are we talking contract extension Rob? What kind of guaranteed $ you looking for? How many years?

 

[Liquidrob]

Are we talking contract extension Rob? What kind of guaranteed $ you looking for? How many years?

now you're talking

I will sign an extension but I want VSN to co-promote with the Strikeforce forum on all Liquidrob related posts, plus a would like ZuffaKiller and ufcSUCKS to be appointed moderators at VSN

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I read all of these you queer. Great thread.

The problem, was it was done during Site Drama '10, and got lost in the shuffle.

Should be stickied.

 

[Bigpapa42]

Yeah, I just plain missed this Rob. Sorry. Good write-ups. Can't really disagree with them, either. Interesting one on Ortiz and the weight issue, which I think is an underrated factor.

 

[SHOGUN]

I watched some old Frank Shamrock fights today and thought of this thread. A shame he isn't as talked about as he should be. Frank was great. I need to find more of his fights.

 

[Liquidrob]

My recent posting style has been questioned, but can you blame me when I put a bunch of effort into threads like this and get nothing?

You made me this way