As MMA athletes develop an ever-increasing arsenal of explosivity, the fighters who won’t just knock you to the floor of the Octagon; they’ll slam you straight through it.
Few things are as guaranteed to get a crowd on their feet as a well-executed and powerful takedown.
Fans love it when a fighter wraps his arms around his opponent, hoists him into the air and sends him crashing back down to the canvas with a thud.
Wrestling is as much about power as it is finesse. Whereas jiu-jitsu relies predominantly on efficiency of technique and striking arts promote economy of movement, wrestlers prefer to combine their moves with plenty of horsepower.
The bigger the takedown, the more damage done and the longer it stays in our memory. Here are six of the most spectacular and powerful takedowns in MMA history.
Dan Severn vs Anthony Macias, UFC 4, 1994
When Dan Severn first stepped into the UFC Octagon, wrestlers weren’t even on the radar. Those early days of MMA were dominated by Gracie jiu-jitsu while various martial artists were repeatedly shown to lack any real fighting ability bar wind milling.
Severn’s moustache, burly physique and huge black trunks made him look like a cartoon version of a carnival wrestler.
Almost living up to this stereotype, Severn picked up kickboxer Anthony Macias and repeatedly slammed him into the canvas like something out of the Looney Tunes. A hulking 250lb-plus when he made his debut in the UFC, Severn came to the cage with many years of amateur wrestling under his belt.
At 36 years of age, he had traveled the world competing in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, and used a classic belly-to-back suplex on Macias – the first in the UFC’s short history of the move.
Grabbing Macias around the waist, Severn hoisted the kickboxer off his feet. By arching his back, he used the power of his hips and the crushing grip around Macias’s waist to send his opponent flying in a huge arc. Macias was dumped unceremoniously on his head with a move that, until now, most people had only seen in professional wrestling.
Severn wasn’t finished though he rolled to his knees and repeated the move, this time leaving Macias dazed and disorientated.
Shortly after Severn closed the deal with a choke. As takedowns go, it was fast, brutal, highly effective, and it showed the world that wrestling had a place in the Octagon.
Kevin Randleman vs Fedor Emelianenko, PRIDE Critical Countdown 2004
Possibly the most famous suplex in MMA, this takedown was the ideal combination of perfect timing, impeccable technique and raw, unbridled power. A decorated freestyle wrestler, Randleman was known as a powerhouse with limited (yet dangerous) technique.
His usual M.O. was to shoot a double-leg, lie on top of his opponents and grind out a win – not exactly Mr Highlight Reel.
Always an emotional fighter, Randleman had extra fire in him when he faced off against then-Pride heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko. Randleman had lost his father shortly before the contest and he seemed to channel this turmoil into a blistering opening 60 seconds.
Randleman, himself a former UFC heavyweight champion, took hold of the Russian’s waist and began to lift him off the floor, much like Severn had with Macias a decade before.
But this was no ordinary suplex – whereas Severn had dropped back and let Macias fly over him into the mat, Randleman simply lifted Fedor up and up, and up, and up.
At the apex of the lift, Randleman twisted instead of arching back, turning Fedor upside down and on a vertical trajectory with the ground. As if this wasn’t enough, Randleman jumped – yes, jumped – his feet off the floor so that their combined weight was focused on one spot: Fedor’s skull.
Amazingly, Fedor not only survived the landing, but moments later performed one of the greatest ever comebacks and submitted Randleman with an armlock.
His response to how he managed to ride out the takedown was that he had spent many years practising judo, and had simply learned how to safely fall on his head. Amazing.
The Technicians
Jon Jones vs Matt Hamill, TUF Heavyweight Finale, 2009
Before he became UFC light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones was an up-and-coming prospect working his way through the ranks of the 205lb division. A stand-out wrestler in high school and college, Jones had brought an unusual style to the Octagon.
His fusion of martial arts movies-inspired striking and dynamic wrestling impressed everyone from the fans to the UFC’s top brass, but Jones needed a test to prove he was the real deal.
His fourth fight in the UFC was a match against tough-as-teak wrestler Matt Hamill. If anyone had the credentials to test Jones’ grappling it was Hamill. But Jones’ ability proved too much for the hard-of-hearing grappler to handle.
In previous fights Jones had used everything from suplexes to arm throws, but he brought a new weapon to the table when he fought Hamill. As soon as they clinched, Jones used a basic leg reap known in judo as an osoto-gari to take away Hamill’s base.
What makes this takedown spectacular wasn’t just the way Jones’ sent one of the 205lb division’s toughest wrestlers to the ground like a lion toying with a baby zebra. What really stood out was the speed at which Hamill hit the canvas and the way Jones drove his weight behind the throw.
Jones mounted Hamill and pummelled him with a series of elbows that eventually led to a disqualification, handing the win that night to Hamill. Of course, Jones would prove his worth by rocketing to the very top of one of the sport’s most competitive weight classes.
Kazuyuki Miyata vs Genki Sudo, K-1 Hero’s 3, 2005
Japanese MMA icon Genki Sudo is a man of many talents: a singer, dancer, author, TV personality, director and all-around awesome chap, he was one of the most entertaining and inspiring fighters of his generation. Prior to his career as a professional fighter, Sudo wrestled in high school and even won the national junior championships in his native land.
Sudo only lost a handful of bouts in his career and it was usually his prodigious grappling ability that carried him to victory.
But in 2005, he had one of the toughest fights of his career, a match with former Olympic wrestler Kazuyuki Miyata.
Miyata had represented Japan at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and, though still a 1-2-0 rookie when he met Sudo in the ring, had already proved he was a handful for anybody.
He backed this up by spending the first round wilfully taking Sudo down and using his grappling skills to dominate position. Sudo seemed to have little answer for Miyata’s relentless pressure.
Though Miyata went on to lose the fight by armbar, he did have one particular moment of glory. He landed an extremely rare front-headlock suplex, a move that looks more like a pro wrestling trick than a legitimate fighting attack.
With his arms clasped around a bent-over Sudo’s head and neck, Miyata used his incredible strength to lift the superstar off his feet and throw him in a backward arc.
Sudo landed on his neck but later managed to untangle himself from the hold and pull out an audacious submission. It’s no coincidence that Sudo retired just over a year later with a chronic neck injury.
Diego Sanchez vs Paulo Thiago, UFC 121, 2010
Eccentric welterweight Diego Sanchez is known as one of the most intense athletes currently fighting for the UFC.
With his ‘YES!’ war cry and his often-bizarre behavior, Sanchez is an enigmatic figure, but always entertaining.
His scrap with Paulo Thiago was almost guaranteed to be an event to remember. Thiago is a member of a SWAT-style police unit in his native Brazil, and had an explosive series of wins on his resume going into the fight.
Sanchez had a lot to prove. He stumbled in his return to 170lb when he dropped a decision to John Hathaway, so a big win was in order.
Thiago and Sanchez scrapped away for the full 15 minutes and it was a close affair.
As soon as one fighter seemed to tip the balance in his favor, the other would snag the judges attention with something and there was no clear winner in sight.
That was until Sanchez pulled off one of the defining moments of his career. As the two jockeyed for position on the mat, Sanchez grabbed hold of Thiago’s legs.
He lifted him completely off the ground and with a primal scream bellowing from his mouth literally ran from one side of the Octagon to the other. He dumped Thiago in his corner, and his act probably won him the fight on the scorecards. It wasn’t a pretty takedown, but it was effective.
Rampage Jackson vs The World, 1999-Present
Movie star, former UFC champion, one-time Pride favorite, avid video gamer, slam-master extraordinaire: Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson is a man of many talents, although few people would disagree that his key skills lie in the fine art of beating people up.
Rampage’s career is a veritable highlight reel of spectacular takedowns. A wrestler throughout high school and college, Jackson was never the most technical of grapplers, but made up for his lack of finesse with serious strength and explosiveness.
Witness his early career fighting in King of the Cage, where he bounced people off the yellow canvas for fun. He was thrown to the wolves in his Pride debut by being matched with a prime Kazushi Sakuraba, but Rampage gained fame by repeatedly slamming the skilled submission grappler into the ring floor.
Jackson sent Russian veteran Igor Vovchanchyn flying, flung ‘Ninja’ Rua through space and manhandled Olympic silver medallist Matt Lindland, but the moment everybody remembers him for is his brutal KO of Ricardo Arona not technically a takedown, but still the most spectacular slam you’re likely ever to see.
Arona, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, attacked with a triangle choke from his guard. Rampage responded by picking him off the floor and lifting him directly above his head. T
he fear on Arona’s eyes was evident even before Rampage started the descent, and the result was a brutal slam that knocked his opponent out cold. There are better wrestlers with more tricks up their sleeve, but Rampage is the king of the slam for good reason.
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