13 of the most humongous fighters in MMA history

When envisaging a clash between two forces, we’ve been led to believe that bigger is better, right? In a war, the more massive an army, the better the odds of victory. Even the hardiest of men would think twice before getting into a street fight with a much larger foe, wouldn’t they?

That was the impression emitted by MMA in its origination; embellished underground brawling, with a very black-and-white categorization – those above 200 lbs, stand in this line, those below, get in the other one.

What’s the tagline of that old creature feature? Size does matter? Well, in one version of the multiverse, Godzilla meets its end at the hands of a scrawny, bespectacled biologist, a middle-aged French spy and a reporter(the F-16s were just a tune-up after the motley crew’s machinations).

The archives of MMA also house David vs Goliath battles in the flesh, and the inhabitants of the sport soon learnt that big tree falls hard. As the sport took on more and more contours, fighters became more prehensile and honed their savoir-faire. The price tags on skill soared, while size became a parergon.

Now, this isn’t a skinning of the place size has in MMA. On the ground, frame and weight are imbued by gravity to become a hunter’s net that mires opponents in quicksand. Reach is part of the current vogue of movement, and expect to see increasing numbers of fighters dance back and forth like phantasms fencing.

But, there comes a time when fans pine for the romance and nostalgia of the good ol’ days – they’re just itching to see a pair of Brobdingnagians collide and send shockwaves to the deepest reaches of space.

The Land of the Rising Sun was well known for being the stage for such Biblical encounters. The country that gave the world the lithium ion battery and the DSLR camera also birthed Pokemon and Karaoke. Make no mistake, the Japanese just love a Smorgasbord of entertainment; just look at Babymetal and Piko Taro. Let’s not even peek into the trippy sphere of their sexually bizarre game shows.

Stereotyping isn’t the intention here, but almost all the colossi on this list have set foot in a ring in Japan at some point in their careers, with mixed endings. Let’s count them down:

#13 Gabi Garcia

Height: 6’2”

Weight: 110 Kg

The only woman on this assortment, Garcia is a 2-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club gold medallist and has won nine Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world championships. She appeared as a guest coach for Wanderlei Silva’s team on The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil.

31-year-old Garcia made waves in the MMA world when she crumpled 50-year-old Yumiko Hotta in the final of the Rizin World Grand Prix 2016.

#12 Bob Sapp

Height: 6’5”

Weight: 149 Kg

The news that Bob Sapp is still competing in MMA is almost as dismally unsurprising as hearing that Roy Jones Jr. is still boxing; but at least Captain Hook had the option of quitting while he was ahead.

The NFL one-game wonder is like an asteroid that from afar, seems like a world-eater but is a shaved-down sozzle by the time it impacts. On paper, “The Beast’” won nine of his first twelve fights, but on closer inspection, all of the vanquished are more or less circus freaks like him.

Undeterred by an MMA record that’s more porous than Swiss cheese, Sapp set forth into the world of professional kickboxing. No prizes for guessing how the second stanza was scripted. But an MMA record of 11-19-1 and a Kickboxing run of 12-17 aside, Sapp is quite the renaissance man.

He’s made it to the silver screen many times and even released a music album. His most memorable role was in the Adam Sandler reboot of “The Longest Yard”.

#11 Alexandru Lungu

Auditioning for Game Of Thrones?

Height: 6’0

Weight: 165 Kg

The next member of this list shares his name with a famous poet from his home country of Romania. This Alexandru Lungu however, chose Judo as his canvas and he painted a watchable picture. Lungu has two world championships in Judo and was once the best Judoka in Europe as well.

“The Bihor Mountain” is nowhere as tranquil as the pretty-as-a-postcard country he hails from, earning all his ten wins by stoppage and being finished in four fights. He made an unsuccessful MMA debut in PRIDE 30 against another name on this list, James Thompson, but has a win against Bob Sapp in professional Kickboxing.

#10 James Thompson

Megapunk

Height: 6’5”

Weight: 118 Kg

It was love at first sight for Japanese fans and James Thompson. “Megapunk” was a serious fix for the screaming PRIDE fans – mountaineous, muscled and reckless without a speck of technique.

The Brit has faced a who’s who of MMA and even holds wins against UFC Hall Of Famers Dan Severn and Don Frye. His resume reads fights against Kimbo Slice, Bobby Lashley and Alastair Overeem, to name a few. Thompson is part of one of the most infamous tropes in MMA; in 2008, he faced the late, great Kimbo Slice in a fight under the EliteXC banner.

Come round three, both men were wheezing like grampus, but Thompson was ahead on the cards. Somehow, Kimbo found a second wind and strafed Thompson’s head with punches, one of which exploded his cauliflower ear. Have a watch.

#9 Mark Bentley

Height: 6'7"

Weight: 180 Kg

There isn’t much information available about Mark Bentley, except for the facts that he’s American and he lost to Alexandru Lungu in his lone documented MMA fight. The video is above. Judging by his performance in this fight, it wouldn’t be presumptuous to say that he decided to trade in the 6 ouncers for something less hazardous.

#8 Eric Esch

The nickname and he were meant to be

Height: 5’11”

Weight: 193 Kg

Pro-wrestling fans will remember Eric “Butterbean” Esch as Vince McMahon’s retribution against 1999 “Brawl For All” turncoat Bart Gunn. The comically rotund boxer, dressed in Old Glory trunks, wiped the bemused looks off everyone’s faces with a swift and violent KO of the tag team specialist.

Esch parlayed gory underground success on the Toughman scene and 4-rounders into a pro-boxing career. He possibly holds the record for the longest IBA Super Heavyweight title reign, with 51 defenses. Butterbean’s boxing matches were crowd-pullers and he soon went hunting for new lands to conquer.

Naturally, a kickboxing and MMA career followed.

Butterbean’s ease in front of the camera landed him a TV show which chronicled him on the job as a reserve deputy sheriff in his native Jasper, Alabama. He even knocked out Johnny Knoxville in “Jackass” and cameoed in many TV shows. Unironically, he got his nickname because he went on a diet of chicken and butterbeans to make the Toughman weight limit of 400 lbs.

#7 Alan Karaev

Height: 6’7”

Weight: 183 Kg

The only noteworthy thing about Alan Karaev’s MMA career is his trio of losses to Bob Sapp, Gary Goodridge and Jerome Le Banner. But long before he quaked MMA rings, he was torquing limbs off his opponents en route to seven arm wrestling world titles.

Karaev is also a multiple time Russian sumo champion and a 2013 world champion, which makes him one of the resented gaijin sumo who’ve eclipsed the Japanese in their native sport.

#6 Zuluzinho

Height: 6’7”

Weight: 185 Kg

Wagner Martins’ career never compared to the Arthurian legacy of his venerated father, Rei Zulu. Zuluzinho followed in his father’s footsteps and cut his teeth in Vale Tudo, but being a homegrown martial artist, most will never know if his claim of finishing all his 38 fights is true.

Rei Zulu, on the other hand, was like a mythical warrior from ancient Greece, roaming the land and daring anyone to face him in the unforgiving Vale Tudo pits. His 150-fight undefeated streak was shattered by the legendary Rickson Gracie.

In 2007, the 62-year-old Rei Zulu won three fights by knockout.

Zuluzinho is a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and has faced Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Butterbean and Fedor Emelianenko. He works as a security guard in reggae clubs in Brazil.

#5 Hong-man Choi

Height: 7’2”

Weight: 150 Kg

Fans who’ve watched Hong-man Choi fight would say that his fighting skills just about edge out his dancing skills. But that’s only because the “Techno Goliath” celebrates his wins by breaking out his moves and if you take a look at his record, you’ll have the answer.

The monstrous Korean gained roles playing the beast that had to be slain by the heroes of Japanese MMA folklore like Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko CroCop. The former fighter essayed a better record in kickboxing, beating aging superstars like Semmy Schilt and Gary Goodridge.

The biggest and most celebrated win of Choi’s career was against former baseball star and muckraker Jose Canseco. American fans’ hearts spiked with schadenfreude after seeing Canseco being pummeled by the Korean giant. After all, it was Canseco’s autobiography that dragged the national pastime’s through the mud after claiming that the sport was fetid from steroid use.

Choi was in the news last year after it was suspected that his wins in ROAD FC were fixed. This came on the heels of reports that he was wanted by Korean authorities for fraud beacuse of an unpaid debt.

#4 Mariusz Pudzianowski

Height: 6’1”

Weight: 145 Kg

Fans of Strongman events will recognise Mariusz Pudzianowkski instantly. The Polish powerhouse dominated the sport in the early noughts, winning five World’s Strongest Man golds in addition to a mound of medals from other major tournaments like the Arnold Classic, the World Super Series and Europe’s Strongest Man.

Pudzianowski says that he punches his fellow hulks in the face and drags buses and planes as a “hobby”; there’s too little money in MMA and strongman to make a comfortable living. But the savvy businessman has several projects that let him follow his passion – he runs an institute that trains bodyguards, owns a handful of property and a transport company.

The polymath is possibly the only member of this list with a Master’s in International Relations. His thesis was “Organizational culture in sports marketing around the world”. In 2006, Pudzianowski was a guest singer in his brother Krystian’s band, Pudzian, and they released a single. In 2008, he finished as runner-up in Poland’s version of Dancing With The Stars.

#3 Giant Silva

Height: 7’2”

Weight: 175 Kg

This Brazilian behemoth caught Vince’s McMahon’s roving eye in the late 90s and was a part of the Oddities, a stable that included Luna Vachon and Kurrgan. After a 2-year stint in the WWE. the former reserve centre for the Brazilian national basketball team travelled to Japan.

He teamed with fellow seven-footer The Great Khali to form Team-7, who were a side attraction in the tag team division.

It wasn’t too long before Giant Silva found himself in PRIDE where his only wins came against Henry Sentoryu and Akebono Taro.

#2 Akebono Taro

Akebono was a top Yokozuna for eight years

Height: 6’8”

Weight: 250 Kg

In 1993, Chadwick Haheo Rowan created an epoch by becoming the first sumo of non-Japanese ethnicity to gain the hallowed rank of Yokozuna. Akebono was trained by fellow Hawaiian sumo legend Takamiyama, who agreed to tutor Akebono despite his scepticism that he was too tall for the sport.

Student would make a believer of the master by compensating for his assumed top-heaviness with pure explosiveness – Akebono is still considered one of the most feral sumos in the history of the sport.

The monopoly of the highest echelons of sumo for close to a decade started taking its toll in the mid-90s. Akebono’s body was dogged by injuries and despite the best of therapy, he couldn’t ascend the peaks he once looked down from.

The new millennium rang in an inauspicious phase for Akebono, with him being forced to fight for K-1 to clear his debts. The sumo legend floundered in the kickboxing ring like a beached shark and fans dubbed him “Makebono”, “make” meaning loser in Japanese.

Showmanship followed, with several pro-wrestling houses throwing open their doors for Akebono. He gained infamy for his sumo match against the Big Show at WrestleMania 21, which will at least, be marked as a win.

#1 Emanuel Yarbrough

Height: 6’8”

Weight: 270 Kg

Emanuel Yarbrough is responsible for one of the two spots in the all-time MMA highlight reel involving Keith Hackney. The other party is Joe Son’s pulped crotch. A former sumo, Yarbrough participated in the devoid-of-rules UFC 3, where he thought pushing an opponent out of the ring equalled victory.

Imagine his indignation when the match was restarted and Hackney TKO’d him and was given the supremely undeserving nickname of “the Giant Killer”.

Unsurprisingly, Yarbrough would find a place in the Japanese MMA scene. At Shooto, he devised what is possibly the only submission win in history by smothering an opponent; Tatsuo Nakano, who was one-third Yarbrough’s weight. At PRIDE 3, Yarbrough tried to replicate that hack but was TKO’d by 170-lbs Daiju Takase.

Yarbrough acted in 1997 Akshay Kumar-starrer “Mr. and Mrs. Khiladi” and in a Motorola commercial. He played inmate Clarence Senoy on the TV show “Oz”.

The giant from Jersey died in 2015 from a heart attack, paying the ultimate price for a lifetime of food addiction. Yarbrough made a self-fulfilling prophecy when he said that he was a prisoner in his own body. At one point of time, he weighed more than 800 lbs.

Edited by Staff Editor