Issue 083
December 2011
The world’s most dangerous day job has produced some highly impressive mixed martial arts talent. Here are five of the best men to lace up their boots and their gloves…
1 RANDY COUTURE
Hall of Famer Randy Couture’s accomplishments in the cage are very well known; his military ties less so. Enlisting in the US Army shortly after his high-school graduation in 1982, he served until 1988, rising to the rank of Sergeant in the famed 101st Airborne division. Mostly stationed in Germany as an air traffic controller, Couture also wrestled on the army team (he’d been a state champion in high school and would wrestle in college after leaving the military) and boxed. More recently, Couture has visited serving troops in Iraq and set up the Xtreme Couture GI Foundation, a charity to support wounded veterans and their families, helping them re-adjust to civilian life.
2 BRIAN STANN
The author of Heart for the Fight, a compelling memoir on his uniformed exploits and early MMA career, Brian Stann was born on a US air base in Japan. Joining up at 19 and going on to earn one of America’s highest military honors, the Silver Star, for his leadership under fire in Iraq in 2005, he’s almost a comic book caricature of the upright, heroic US Marine. Serving from 1999 to 2008, Stann remained a Marine in his initial years as a fighter, during which he won the WEC light heavyweight title (before the division’s upgrade and absorption into the UFC). Once a robotic, sorely limited fighter, Stann has flourished with full-time training and, thanks to impressive stoppage wins over Chris Leben and Jorge Santiago, has been shortlisted for ‘Breakthrough Fighter of the Year’ in the 2011 World MMA Awards. He remains an enthusiastic spokesman and recruiter for the Marine Corps.
3 TIM KENNEDY
Outspoken Strikeforce middleweight contender Tim Kennedy is rarely shy of sharing his opinions. Whether discussing his dislike of Michael Bisping or ranting on MMA judges, Kennedy is a very vocal character. He’s also one of very few ‘name’ fighters who juggled his MMA career with ongoing military service and surrounds his camp with armed-forces veterans. Enlisting in 2004, Kennedy has served as a sniper, an instructor, an Army Ranger and has completed multiple tours of Iraq and Afghanistan. Inside the cage, Kennedy turned professional a decade ago but competed only sporadically until 2009, since then he’s amassed a 5-1 record in Strikeforce, including wins over Nick Thompson, Trevor Prangley, Melvin Manhoef and Robbie Lawler.
4 OLEG TAKTAROV
Plenty of fighters from the former Soviet Union have completed at least two years mandatory national service. Fedor Emelianenko, for example, served his two years from 1995 to 1997 as a Russian-army fire fighter. But before Oleg Taktarov, a gifted sambo and judo standout, moved to the United States in 1994, MMA’s original Russian star spent three years teaching hand-to-hand combat to Russian regular troops and special forces. Leaving home to pursue his Hollywood acting dreams (which he has since achieved to a degree), Taktarov made a detour into the Octagon, consistently thrilling fight fans and winning the unforgettable UFC 6 tournament by outlasting a ferocious Tank Abbott in an intense, dramatic final.
5 SERGEI KHARITONOV
With a much longer military association than most big-name MMA fighters who served for a while and then moved on, former Pride FC star Kharitonov remained a member of the Russian Airborne Troops (VDV) years into his fighting career. Enlisting in the Airborne Troops academy after high school, Kharitonov competed in military combat sambo tournaments and, aged 22, was recruited by Russian Top Team as a sparring partner for Fedor Emelianenko. A skilled boxer, Kharitonov qualified for the 2004 Olympics in the noble art but passed up the chance to fight for money in Japan, where, in his ring entrances he wore his military beret, looking remarkably like a Russian version of classic Street Fighter video-game character Guile.
