The greatest of all-time… it is a subjective accolade, but poll any group of MMA fans from any age and the vast majority will provide up either Georges St Pierre or Anderson Silva as MMA’s theoretical”person to beat.” In late 2016, news of the French-Canadian’s return fueled whispers of UFC president Dana White’s”one that got away” — St Pierre vs Silva — the best versus the cleverest. Sadly, the odds of it happening now are as slim as they were. “Hurry” vs.”The Spider” is a myth; one of several super fights we’ll probably never see.
Regrettably, it’s not the only one. Here are some additional MMA superfights we got to see…
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brock Lesnar
Partly due to the UFC’s monopolistic marketing power and partly due to his very best years being a decade past, Fedor Emelianenko doesn’t always get the respect he deserves from modern-day MMA fans. For those who watched his epic rampage through PRIDE’s heavyweight division thoughhe was the best heavyweight of his age… perhaps the biggest ever.
While Fedor could have been the best fighter in his day, Brock Lesnar was easily the largest box office attraction. An instant celebrity, he polarized an audience who didn’t know what they desired more; so watch him humbled in defeat, or glorified in victory.
Physically, Lesnar was a creature. Walking around north of this 265-pound heavyweight limit, the NCAA standout transferred with the speed and elegance of a man half his size. Whether it was down to popularity or notoriety he was a magnet for the paying public, headlining what was then the UFC’s largest card over the likes of GSP, in what was his third tilt together with the advertising.
After years of deriding that the Russian while he plied his trade for the competition, White declared that signing Stary Oskol’s favourite son was his”obsession.” Accounts of what happened following differ based on who you hear them from. Fedor was tied up with M-1; based on White, a bargain offering $2,000,000 per struggle, Pay-Per-View points along with a direct title shot against Brock Lesnar was spurned; M-1 wanted to co-promote Fedor’s fights, also supposedly wanted Zuffa to finance the building of a stadium in Russia. M-1 refuted those claims, and talks broke down.
Fedor’s inventory would fall considerably following three straight losses and Lesnar, while still a licence to print money, was exposed by greater fighters and abandoned the game. It might have been the biggest-grossing MMA struggle of all-time, but as is so often the case, politics ultimately ruined it.
Ken Shamrock vs. Tank Abbott
Throwbacks into a different age, arguably another sport, Ken Shamrock and Tank Abbott were the poster children of this UFC’s formative years. Even though the event was thought to be a subversive info-mercial for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, you need to believe that the cash guys were quietly pulling for a Shamrock success at UFC 1. He was 220 lbs of chiselled muscle, and the only fighter in the mount using recorded”free-fight” experience, Shamrock had the expression of an action hero and the capacity to back this up.
A few years after, David”Tank” Abbott hit the scene. Watch MMA reside or at a bar even today, and you’ll find no shortage of out-of-shape, beer-swilling loudmouths eager to talk about their opinion of how they’d mop the floor with the men on TV. Abbott was the guy, only he can mop the floor with a few of the men on TV. Fat, cocky and wearing about the same amount of teeth as he had had karate course, Abbott was the manifestation of all a British artist wasn’t supposed to be.
There is a bit of MMA folklore that states Tank was introduced into shed, thus proving the theory that the British artist would always succeed over the thug. His (admittedly limited) wrestling foundation was played down and he was branded a’Pit Fighter’ in promotional stuff. When Tank started breaking heads in a number of the very violent UFC fights of the age, a star was born, to the point that the company put him on a monthly wages; something not repeated since.
There was legitimate bad blood between the two parties, together with Shamrock and also his”Lion’s Den” once hunting down Abbott backstage after he’d caused difficulty. Ken never caught up with him either in the parking lot or even the cage, together with both eventually leaving the business for professions in pro-wrestling. Their surprise early-00’s returns once again sparked hope of a superfight from another creation, but for reasons unknown it was not meant to be.
Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones
Ahead of the controversy that shelved him for what could likely have been his fighting prime, few could argue that Jon Jones wasn’t at the absolute pinnacle of mixed martial arts. A world-class athlete, not just adept, but an expert in all facets of the game, Jones looked insurmountable. In 2011he completed that which was arguably the best year’s work of any combat sports athlete, beating Ryan Bader,”Shogun” Rua,”Rampage” Jackson and Lyoto Machida in the space of just 10 weeks.
Even though Jones was painting an image of violence in the light-heavyweight division, Anderson Silva was creating a masterpiece at middleweight. Nobody had cleared out such a talent-rich division and looked really untouchable in doing so. So complete was Silva’s dominance, he had twice moved up a weight class and demolished his resistance. His claim to the title of’best ever’ could be contested by a scant couple.
White once mentioned his capacity to make a Jones vs. Silva superfight occur as something that could define his own legacy as a promoter. Fate, as it is want to do, conspired against him. Silva’s standing plummeted following a set of losses and a failed drug test. Jones’ picture was tarnished even further; while he did not falter from the cage, a run of self-inflicted’personal issues’ stripped”Bones” of his dignity, credibility and — most importantly — his own ability to compete.
Silva is past his prime and threatening retirement. Jones is focused firmly on regaining the light heavyweight title he never dropped in the cage. Problems outside the cage have almost certainly deprived us of one of the best battles within it.
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