The greatest of all-time… It’s a subjective accolade, but poll any group of MMA lovers from any era and the vast majority will provide up Georges St Pierre or Anderson Silva as MMA’s theoretical”man to beat.” In late 2016, news of this French-Canadian’s return fueled whispers of UFC president Dana White’s”one that got away” — St Pierre vs Silva — the very best versus the cleverest. Regrettably, the odds of this happening now are as slender as they were. “Rush” vs.”The Spider” is a myth; just one of many super fights we’ll probably never see.
Sadly, it is not the only one. Below are a few other MMA superfights we got to see…
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brock Lesnar
Partly as a result of UFC’s monopolistic marketing power and partly because of his very best years being a decade past, Fedor Emelianenko doesn’t always receive the respect he deserves from modern-day MMA fans. For people who watched his epic rampage through PRIDE’s heavyweight division though, he was the best heavyweight of his era… perhaps the biggest ever.
While Fedor might have been the best fighter in his day, Brock Lesnar was easily the biggest box office attraction. An instant celebrity, he polarized an audience that did not understand what they desired more; so see him humbled in defeat, or glorified in victory.
Physically, Lesnar was an animal. Walking round north of the 265-pound heavyweight limit, the NCAA standout transferred with the speed and elegance of a guy half his size. Whether it was right down to popularity or notoriety he had been a magnet to the paying public, headlining what was then the UFC’s largest card above the likes of GSP, in what was his third tilt with the advertising.
After years of deriding the Russian while he plied his trade for the contest, White announced that registering Stary Oskol’s favorite 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 deal offering $2,000,000 per struggle, Pay-Per-View points and an immediate title shot against Brock Lesnar was spurned; M-1 wanted to co-promote Fedor’s fights, also supposedly wanted Zuffa to finance the construction of a stadium in Russia. M-1 refuted these claims, and talks broke down.
Fedor’s stock would drop considerably following three consecutive losses and Lesnar, while still a licence to print money, was exposed by better fighters and left the sport. It could have become the biggest-grossing MMA fight of all-time, but as is so often the case, politics ultimately ruined it.
Ken Shamrock vs. Tank Abbott
Throwbacks to another age, arguably another sport, Ken Shamrock and Tank Abbott were the poster children of this UFC’s formative years. While the event was intended as a subversive info-mercial to get Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, you need to feel that the cash men were quietly yanking a Shamrock success at UFC 1. He was 220 pounds of chiselled muscle, and the only fighter in the bracket using documented”free-fight” experience, Shamrock had the look of an action hero and the capacity to back this up.
A couple of years after, David”Tank” Abbott hit the spectacle. Watch MMA live or in a bar even today, and you’ll find no lack of out-of-shape, beer-swilling loudmouths eager to share their opinion of how they would mop the floor with the men on TV. Abbott was that man, just he can mop the floor with a few of the men on TV. Fat, cocky and sporting roughly the exact same number of teeth since he had had karate lessons, Abbott was the manifestation of all a British artist wasn’t assumed to be.
There is a bit of MMA folklore that states Tank was introduced into lose, thus proving the concept that the martial artist would always triumph over the thug. His (admittedly limited) wrestling background was played down and he was branded a’Pit Fighter’ in promotional material. When Tank started breaking heads in a number of the most visually abusive UFC struggles of the age, a star was born, to the point that the company put him on a monthly salary; something not repeated since.
There was legitimate bad blood between both parties, together with Shamrock and his”Lion’s Den” after hunting down Abbott backstage after he’d caused trouble. Ken never caught him up either at the parking lot or the cage, with both eventually leaving the company for careers in pro-wrestling. Their surprise early-00’s returns once again sparked hope of a superfight from the other generation, but for reasons unknown it was not meant to be.
Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones
Before the controversy that shelved him for what could likely happen to be his fighting prime, few could argue that Jon Jones was not at the absolute pinnacle of mixed martial arts. A world-class athlete, not just skillful, but an expert in all facets of the match, Jones looked insurmountable. In 2011he completed that which was arguably the greatest year’s work of any battle sports athlete, beating Ryan Bader,”Shogun” Rua,”Rampage” Jackson and Lyoto Machida in the area of just 10 months.
While Jones was painting a picture of violence at the light-heavyweight branch, Anderson Silva was making a masterpiece in middleweight. Nobody had cleared such a talent-rich branch and seemed so untouchable in doing so. So absolute was Silva’s dominance, he’d double moved up a weight class and demolished his resistance. His claim to the name of’best ever’ might be contested by a scant couple.
White once mentioned his ability to generate a Jones vs. Silva superfight occur as a tool which would 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 reductions and a failed drug test. Jones’ image was tarnished even farther; while he didn’t 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 lost in the cage. Problems outside the cage have almost certainly deprived us of one of the greatest struggles within it.
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