Issue 040

August 2008

In keeping with this month’s heavyweight special, we look at five of the most entertaining ‘big man’ showdowns in MMA history.

01 Oleg Taktarov vs. Tank Abbott (UFC 6, July 14th 1995)

The town of Casper, Wyoming can be proud of something other than being the childhood home of George W. Bush’s henchman Dick Cheney. Thirteen years ago it was the site of one of MMA’s most epic battles. In that era, any fight edging beyond five minutes was either a sloppy mess or a ‘war’ of action-less attrition and utter boredom. Not so for Tank and Oleg’s epic of 17 minutes and 45 seconds. The smaller Taktarov was testing his Sambo skills against the huge, brutal Abbott in the tournament final after both easily dispatched their previous opponents. Fought at high altitude, they dug deep in a fight where Abbott punished Taktarov without mercy but ran out of steam and fell victim to a desperate and dramatic rear naked choke. An incredible spectacle, this laid the foundation for Abbott’s entire career and Oleg’s enduring legend.

02 Fedor Emelianenko vs. Heath Herring (Pride, November 24th 2002)

Fedor’s second Pride appearance served as a warning to the sport’s heavyweights that someone truly special had emerged. For a torturous ten minutes, Emelianenko punched, out-wrestled, out-grappled and generally laid waste to the bloodied and utterly outclassed Herring. Stopped at the end of the first round due to facial damage that suggested Herring had gone through some kind of industrial machinery, one sided arse-kickings don’t come much more entertaining than this.

03 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Sergei Kharitonov (Pride, August 15th 2004)

A criminally underrated classic, this heavyweight Grand Prix semi-final was one of those fights that had a little of everything and left both participants with reputations enhanced. With crisp boxing and submission attempts from both, an almost impossibly fast pace and buckets of Kharitonov’s blood, this was a superb fight that Nogueira took by a close but unanimous decision. Oddly enough, this defeat probably did more for Kharitonov’s career than any of his wins. Sadly, the Russian has never quite lived up to it since, while Nogueira has gone on to cement his status as one of the sport’s true legends.

04 Rashad Evans vs. Brad Imes (TUF2 Finale, November 5th 2005)

Imagine a recklessly choreographed bar-fight scene in a classic Western. Imagine one of the chief protagonists is a cowboy hat-sporting ‘Hillbilly Heartthrob’ who stands 6’7” and weighs around 260 pounds. Imagine his opponent is a 5’11”, 200lb-ish man widely known for doing very little in his fights. Now imagine this actually happened in a UFC event and ended up as one of the most entertaining fights of 2005. Undersized even at his new weight of 205 pounds, Evans looked tiny compared to Imes, but he battered the giant to defeat in a fantastic brawl that had the live crowd, and UFC president Dana White, jumping up and down like excited kids at Christmas. Evans walked away with the split decision having floored the big man twice in a slugfest that proved the best fights aren’t always those between the best fighters.

05 Josh Barnett vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pride, September 10th 2006 & December 31st 2006)

With honours even and the first fight segueing perfectly into the rematch, this is a pair of fights that need to be seen in tandem. Barnett took the first by split decision while ‘Minotauro’ got the judge’s nod the second time around. Both matches could have gone either way, and both thrilled overflow crowds at Tokyo’s Saitama Super Arena. The first fight began with Barnett flooring the iron-chinned Brazilian and ended with Nogueira screaming in pain from a tight kneebar as time ran out. The second fight featured plenty more fast-paced action and saw Nogueira on top form in eking out the win. In total they spent 35 minutes in what remains one of the sport’s most entertaining pair of fights.