I’m so glad ONE FC has started up and filled the void left when Zuffa shut Pride FC down. One particular type of fight that Pride was famous for was the freak show fight. These matches blurred the line between combat sport and spectacle. Well now ONE FC is here to give us some much needed old school pride action.
Like Pride knees to the head and soccer kicks to downed opponents are allowed.
The 350lb Bob “The Beast” Sapp took on Former UFC fighter and third degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Rolles Gracie in a super-heavyweight fight.
Here are the pre-fight interviews with both fighters.
And now the actual fight itself. I feel quite sure Bob may have over promised what he was going to deliver.
Rolles Gracie vs Bob Sapp
This was a classic striker vs grappler matchup. It was a nice single leg that Gracie took Sapp down with, though he should have thrown a jab to disguise it. He almost got kneed full on in the face.
I was really surprised Gracie went for some ground and pound instead of trying an armbar. Looks like he has decided to start rounding himself out as a fighter. Was this the first time a Gracie has knocked out an opponent since Renzo Gracie upkicked Oleg Taktarov? Let me know in the comments. Note I am aware Sapp tapped out but the ref was about to pull Gracie off him anyway so I am counting it as a TKO victory.
And finally my god how hot are the ONE FC ring girls compared the The UFC (except Brittany Palmer of course).
I hope you enjoyed this article. If you have any suggestions about how I can improve these articles let me know in the comments.
Thank you for reading. Cheers!
Happy New Year! I will soon be getting back to regular posts here on My MMA Training but we still have a few best of 2011 posts left, up next is Comeback of the Year. Comebacks are what makes the sport of Mixed Martial Arts so fantastic. Watching a fighter snatch victory from the jaws of defeat creates an excitement in fans that is unrivalled in other forms of entertainment.
My comeback of the year award goes to Diego Brandao for his The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale match against Dennis Bermudez. Featherweights really know how to put on an exciting fights and this match was no exception.
Diego Brandao was in control of the fight until Bermudez landed a short right hand that changed proceedings completely. In the blink of an eye Brandao was dazed, flat on his back and desperately trying to survive. Suddenly just when it looked like Bermudez had taken the round and quite possible the fight the Brazilian slapped on a fantastic armbar from guard that won him the fight.
Bermudez left his left arm open and extended, Brandao grabbed on and the rest is history as they say. At 4:51 of the first round, Brandao submitted Bermudez with an armbar to become the Season 14 featherweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter – in arguably the greatest single round in TUF Finale history.
Brandao reportedly wanted to win The Ultimate Fighter to provide a better life for his family in Brazil. The $80,000 in bonus money alone should give him a great head start (not to mention the legions of new fans he will now have after demonstrating how much heart he has).
Who got your pick for comeback of the year? Leave me a comment and let me know in the replies. As always thanks for reading.
Firstly Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to all of you, I hope you got everything you wanted and spent some quality time with friends and loved one’s while eating far too much food and watching a lot of TV. I certainly did, I should probably go for a run but first I need to give you my Knockout of the Year.
Mixed Martial Arts has had some amazing knockouts this year. Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida’s Steven Seagal inspired front kicks that KO’d Vitor Belfort and Randy Couture respectively. We also had Cheick Kongo coming back from the brink of being knocked out himself to flash KO Pat Barry. We even had a rolling front somersault kick courtesy of Marius Zaromskis but this knockout was better than them all.
My award for Knockout of the Year goes to exciting Middleweight prospect Cairo “Lightning” Rocha who left a lasting impression on me after watching the below MMA fight during a Challenge of the Immortals PPV held by Brazilian Fighting Championship.
After watching the video you’ll be able to see why the 6’3″ Brazilian speed demon is nicknamed Lightning. The only thing you need to know is Rocha is in the white shorts and Neves is in the black shorts.
Cairo Rocha Vs Francisco Neves
Rocha landed a superb spinning back kick right out of the martial art Capoeira. Beautiful and absolutely brutal at the same time. Neves is out cold before he even hits the floor.
Boom Headshot! I don’t care how good your chin is that kick would knock anyone out.
With more experience there’s no telling where this guy could end up. After all he is part of the fastest growing sport in the world!
Who got your pick for knockout of the year? Leave me a comment and let me know in the replies.
Thanks for reading cheers!
We have been treated to a lot of amazing submissions in 2011 but this one really stood out for me. No before you ask it wasn’t a submission in the UFC, or Strikeforce, Dream, even Bellator. It happened in BAMMA right here in the United Kingdom.
Danny Mitchell’s flying triangle on Dean Amasinger is my choice for submission of the year 2011.
For most MMA fighters a Triangle is a move used solely for when they are on their backs with an opponent in their guard. Not so for the Cheesecake Assassin, he likes to throw them while standing up. You may recognise the man he taps out, Dean Amasinger. Dean was on Season 9 of The Ultimate Fighter if you watch the UF (I don’t because I hate the ‘fakeness’ of reality TV – especially X-Factor).
I liked this submission so much because we hardly ever get to see this move pulled off successfully in BJJ let alone in an MMA fight. In fact I don’t recall ever seeing it in any MMA match I’ve ever watched (that isn’t to say it hasn’t been done before!).
With Amasinger holding Mitchell up against the cage after a brief exchange of strikes. Then all of the sudden Mitchell throws his shoulders forward to create some space for his hips to move and uses the space to throw his legs up over and around Amasinger and then locks his feet together. He then falls to the mat and puts the move on fully to get the tap.
No one could have predicted that finish, let alone Amasinger who was caught completely off guard and had no idea what was happening until it was too late.
Danny Mitchell Vs Dean Amasinger
The submission happens at around the 11:45 mark in the video.
Does anyone else want some cheesecake right about now?
I hope you enjoyed this post. Please let me know what you thought in the comments.
Thanks for reading. Cheers!