It is difficult to pinpoint the exact juncture when the feud between MMA loyalists and pro-wrestling fans germinated. But what’s more curious is why, not when. I say this with certainty – every single MMA fan was at some point, a fan of pro-wrestling.
The waves of fans who outgrow “fake wrestling” and flock to MMA will just as quickly be replaced with hordes who will spend their lunch breaks talking about the latest curve in a storyline or hum a wrestler’s theme song as they’re walking down the street.
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Now, it’s easy to see why – they’re both spectator features which involve dizzying amounts of physicality. Regardless of the ignorance of a considerable populace, including adulated Oscar winners who choose to call it an updated form of prizefighting, MMA holds beauty for those who endeavour to peer at it.
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Pro-wrestling, the favorite whipping boy of the “educated”, is far from a joke though. Many will remember the infamous interview where Vader grabbed the host by the collar when asked if wrestling is fake. Not a minute later, in the very same interview, The Undertaker swore that no one could do what he and his peers do, what with the in-ring punishment and the 250+ calendar days on the road.
Labels and criticism aside, they are both different hues in the spectrum of entertainment. A Scot might not enjoy authentic Thai street eats, just as an Indian will pine for a pot of Hyderabadi Dum Biriyani after nights and days of burgers and steaks.
Now, the numbers paint a different picture. For a sport that filled out only a couple of decades ago, MMA is growing like a celluloid virus that turns people into zombies. For a demonstration, let’s put both the industry leaders side-by-side, with figures according to Forbes magazine.
The UFC’s price tag of a little over $4 billion overshadows the WWE’s net worth of $1.5 billion almost three times over. The WWE’s revenue stream originated around two decades before the UFC’s, but the sheer immensity of the latter’s sale dwarfs that trait of the former’s almost sevenfold.
But we’re not here to pick sides, but to drink in those moments when the drama quotient of both pro-wrestling and MMA were soaring, neck-and-neck. Ready? Here we go:
#10 Shawn Jordan tunes up the band for Derrick Lewis
Shawn Jordan’s nickname, “The Savage”, doesn’t really do him justice. He should be called “Nuclear Warhead” or “Killer Asteroid” or something along those lines. A two-time national championship winner with football powerhouse Louisiana State University, the former Tiger stands 6 feet tall, 265 lbs, with a 75 inch reach.
Most would consider him, physically, to be at the foot of the slope, looking up.
His record evinces otherwise, though: 10 UFC contests, with 8 ending in violence. And of those eight, six men met their downfall at his fists. Up-and-comer Derrick Lewis had an opportunity to avenge an earlier loss to Jordan, in a fight that witnessed some drama in itself.
Jordan and Lewis squared off in 2010 for a smaller promotion, with Jordan using a cocktail of takedowns and strikes to control his bigger opponent. At the end of one of the rounds, a frustrated Lewis struck Jordan after the bell, which stoked the latter’s coach who jumped over the cage and started towards Lewis.
There would be no colourful incidents this time around, with Jordan using his trump card, explosiveness, to Superkick(hook kick) Lewis to sleep. He pocketed a Performance of the Night bonus and treated his fans to his ever-watchable standing backflip after the fight.
That’s right, he’s a Heavyweight and he can do a standing backflip.
#9 Gavin Kelly Powerslams Luke O’Neill
MMA purists know that while the UFC has the biggest treasure horde in the realm, there are nuggets, scattered not-so-sparsely. This one, for instance, comes from the land of UFC kingpin Conor McGregor.
In 2014, Gavin Kelly stepped into the cage against Luke O’Neill for UXC’s Fight Night at The Elk in Antrim, Northern Ireland. Seconds into the fight, Kelly shoots for a takedown and decides, well, since I’ve got hooks in one arm and one leg, might as well make the most of it.
Technique takes a backseat for “The Fighting Irish” and Kelly actually Powerslams O’Neill into that good night. Both Kelly and UXC were obscure up to that point, but that Hulk Hogan-esque frame probably had the MMA community glued to the screen.
#8 Edson Barboza spins right round, baby, right round
Edson Barboza. Where do I start? With the fact that he was born 8 weeks premature and survived despite doctors giving him bleak odds of survival? Or the near-perfect professional kickboxing record with 22 KOs?
Perhaps the 6 Fight of the Night awards he’s commanded in the UFC? Even with academics out of the picture, Barboza is undeniably one of the best strikers in MMA.
Barboza won his first three UFC tilts, collecting FOTN honours in two of them. As tradition dictates, the matchmakers pitted him against versatile and battle-tested Englishman Terry Etim.
The Brazilian didn’t miss a beat in his ballet of violence, flogging Etim’s legs with his trademark leg kicks and picking off shots that would’ve made Anderson Silva proud. Come third round, Etim looked all but defeated. Barboza sensed the Brit draining and after landing another low kick, whipped around with light speed and crashed his heel into his jaw.
Unsurprisingly, it was deemed the “Knockout of the Year” by several publications.
#7 Rustam Khabilov takes Vinc Pichel to Suplex City
Pro-wrestling fans, indubitably, are vibrating like junkies for their next fix of Brock Lesnar, which will come at the Royal Rumble. Out of the milk of human kindness, we’ve scrounged something that’ll tide you over until then.
Any fighter who goes up against a Russian opponent will have their feelers out for trips, throws and leg locks, but even if Khabilov had given Pichel his modus operandi in writing, the latter would’ve been helpless.
The classic knockout artist versus grappler extraordinaire match-up was a scale-toppler from the get go. Khabilov looked like Nurmagomedov’s twin, attaching himself to Pichel and ravaging him like a demon possessing a child.
Khabilov hit three German Suplexes in succession and mercifully ended Pichel’s night with strikes on the ground. Benoit would have been proud.
#6 Tito Ortiz puts Evan Tanner in the Belly of the Beast
It’s hard to believe that Tito Ortiz has hung up the 6 ouncers at age 40. One of the first true superstars of MMA, Tito was cut from the same cloth as legends like Muhammad Ali, Larry Bird and John McEnroe. He talked the talk and walked the walk. Every fight promoter’s dream, it’s no surprise that Tito made crossovers, albeit brief, into pro-wrestling and acting.
Turning back the clock a few times, Tito put his Light Heavyweight title on the line against future UFC Middleweight Champion Evan Tanner. Both were excellent wrestlers, but Tito’s trademark 0-100 in 6 seconds start was too much for Tanner. Tito drove Tanner into the fence and used his size and strength to scoop him up before slathering him onto the floor.
#5 Sarah Kaufman put’s a woman’s touch on Roxanne Modafferi
Combat sports have historically been men’s territory, but the women aren’t as far behind as most would assume. It is unfortunate that they get less of the spotlight, but when it comes to skills, it’s an even playing field.
Sarah Kaufman was a red-hot prospect in the early days of women’s MMA, mowing through all eleven of her opponents and seizing the Strikeforce Bantamweight crown. Her first defence came against zany but wily Roxanne Modafferi, who some would remember from season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter.
In the third round, a persistent Modafferi tried to cinch an armbar on Kaufman, but the champ had other ideas. With beastly power that would put a smile on Rampage Jackson’s face, Kaufman lifted the clawing Modafferi and slammed her on the floor for an instant KO.
#4 Travis Fulton’s slam to Jeremy Bullock leaves sickening aftershocks
When a Heavyweight with over 30 fights gets pitted against a Welterweight(barely), with no experience in the cage, the creation is one of the moments that make the most hardcore MMA fans grateful for a concrete set of rules and regulations.
This fight, which took place when the MMA timeline was just centimeters long, was just that – a fight. Not a match, not a contest; a scrap. Jeremy Bullock, a Taekwondo instructor, evidently had no inkling of what could befall him in the cage, against a bruiser like Fuller.
Forty-four seconds later, he knew and remembered it for the rest of his life. Bullock retreated to teaching martial arts and never fought again. Fulton, on the other hand, holds the record for entering the most number of sanctioned MMA fights, with over 315 under his belt.
#3 Reynaldo Trujilo shows you don’t have to be Superman to punch like him
The general impression of the lighter weight classes is that they express speed and agility more often than power and explosiveness. Which is a little puzzling, because mass combined with acceleration produces force. And while they may not break the scales at the weigh-ins, they recover a significant amount of mass come fight time.
In 2012, the audience at Legacy Fighting Championships 10 screamed themselves hoarse when hometown boy Reynaldo “The Warrior” Trujilo, lunged his fist into Munil Adriano’s face, putting the Brazilian to sleep.
The now-defunct promotion once harbored in its ranks future UFC stars Holly Holm, Thomas Almeida and Sage Northcutt.
#2 Anthony Pettis breaks out the moves when it’s showtime
There are a few superlatives that could top Stephan Bonnar and Todd Harris’s description of Anthony Pettis’ off-the-cage kick that Benson Henderson miraculously survived. Gravity-defying is one of the few worthy ones.
WEC 53 was a fitting curtain call for the promotion, the last under its own title before it took the UFC’s name.
A bevy of spectacular fights was crowned by the Lightweight title tie between the incumbent – the dignified, traditional Benson Henderson and the swaggering, neo-fighter Anthony Pettis. The audience’s eyes were trained on the “Showtime” tattoo on Pettis’ back as he walked to the centre of the cage for his coronation.
His clinical fluidity would be on full display again, when he broke Henderson’s arm in the UFC and became the Lightweight Champion.
#1 Quinton Jackson’s rampage ends with a Powerbomb
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is one of those greats, in collusion with names like Wanderlei Silva, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Shogun Rua, that put the spotlight on MMA and became the wind beneath its wings.
And I say MMA because not only did he bring in boatloads of greenbacks for the UFC, but PRIDE as well. His savage wars with Wanderlei Silva are enshrined in MMA lore. But the cynosure of his PRIDE days is without a doubt, his Powerbomb KO of Ricardo Arona.
Unfortunately, this brain-melter would be a treacherous bridge that would lead to the Middleweight belt, but he would not get past the Howitzer knees of Wanderlei Silva.
