Issue 091

August 2012

As former UFC champ Tito Ortiz prepares for his final fight we remember other fan favorites who announced their departures and often suffered the consequences

1 Nobuhiko Takada

For all the abuse heaped on him, Japanese pro wrestling superstar Nobuhiko Takada is pivotal in Japanese MMA history. If not for public interest in him fighting Rickson Gracie, Pride would never have existed. Though underskilled, his fame and importance more than earned him a Tokyo Dome retirement fight before some 50,000 fans against his former pro wrestling protégé Kiyoshi Tamura. Little known outside Japan since the fight was edited off the American pay-per-view, this has given rise to a ludicrous conspiracy theory that Takada was supposed to win a ‘fixed fight’ and that by starching him with a brutal knockout early in the second, Tamura had ruined the ending. In reality, Tamura won because he was an infinitely better fighter.

2 Hidehiko Yoshida

Drawing roughly 10,000 fans to Tokyo’s Budokan Hall (well short of a sellout and a far cry from his days as one of Japan’s native fighting heroes), 1992 Olympic gold winning judoka Yoshida ended his eight-year MMA career in April 2010 with a clear decision loss to longtime student Kazuhiro Nakamura. Headlining the first and last Astra event, a show clearly promoted as a one-off in the weeks leading up to the fight, an overweight Yoshida joked at the weigh-ins that: “I’ve been stuffing my belly all the way up to this fight.” And he clearly had, since the 40-year-old, whose best MMA performances were at 205lb, tipped the scales at 249lb. The fight itself was a fun one, both men swinging wildly and doing their best to finish, and entertain the crowd. Not quite how a fighter of Yoshida’s stature should have finished his career, but, close enough.

3 Randy Couture

Certainly the biggest swansong in North American MMA history, Randy Couture’s retirement fight against Lyoto Machida was third-from-top of the historic, record-shattering UFC 129 at Toronto’s cavernous Rogers Centre in front of 55,724 fans in 2011. The majority of the enormous crowd may actually have been drawn by top-of-the-card Georges St Pierre despite Couture (who had announced retirement before) assuring everyone that win or lose, this was his final match. The UFC also didn’t promote this as his final fight and the previous day Dana White was publicly scoffing at the idea. But, after being unable to do anything in almost six minutes against Lyoto Machida, and being knocked out with a stunning front kick Randy stuck to his word. A somewhat sad, utterly decisive end to his legendary career – but a huge, adoring crowd gave him a rapturous ovation in one of the most memorable scenes in the sport’s history.

4 Chris Lytle 

Firefighter, father of four and an aspiring politician (he recently came second, scoring a fairly respectable 30% of the vote, in his run at the Indiana Senate), it’s a wonder Chris Lytle ever actually had time for an MMA career. A former boxer, he made his UFC debut in late 2003 and went on to fight 20 times inside the Octagon. Finishing with a 10-10 UFC record, perhaps the most important statistic of his career is the 10, yes, 10 official performance bonuses (for ‘Fight...’ , ‘Submission...’ and ‘Knockout of the Night’) he amassed. Talented, hardworking and insistent on putting on the most entertaining fight possible (for the benefit of the fans and, of course, his own bank balance), ‘Lights Out’ should be an inspiration for all aspiring fighters. After publicly announcing at the weigh-in for his August 2011 main event with Dan Hardy, Lytle’s swansong saw him bag checks for ‘Fight of the Night’ with a ‘Submission of the Night’ guillotine late in a typically great scrap.

5 Mirko ‘Cro Cop’

He may not have publicly announced it beforehand but legendary Pride wrecking machine Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ admitted after he’d been knocked out by Roy Nelson at UFC 137 (his third such defeat in a row), that win or lose, this was going to be his last MMA fight. Before the opening bell, it was widely rumored he couldn’t possibly go on much longer whatever the result, and the Las Vegas crowd figured it out fairly quickly afterwards, giving him a standing ovation even before his announcement. At 37, and having never being able to capture his Japanese form inside the Octagon, Cro Cop at least showed flashes of his old, destructive ways, punishing the tubby hardman in the second round. His overall performance was certainly more satisfying than in his knockout defeats to Brendan Schaub and, in one of the worst fights of his entire life, to Frank Mir at UFC 119.