If a pic is worth 1,000 words, then a four-second animated gif at 15 FPS is worth Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth put together.
Ten GIFs is a library, basically.
It begins with ….
10) The Atomic Butt Drop
Legendary fighter Wanderlei Silva faced Mark Hunt at PRIDE Shockwave 2004 on New Year’s Eve 2004. Hunt won the fight via Split Decision. The deciding factor is believe by many to be this Atomic Butt Drop.
Wand was an extraordinary 16-0-1-1 before that happened.
His record since then? 8-8.
Wand did come back for some epic wins, including this guillotine attempt on Michael Bisping, one the way to a unanimous decision at UFC 110.
9) MMA goes airborne
Or tries to.
In 2000, UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman won the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix, and celebrated by defying gravity, briefly.
At ONE Championship 28, Ze Wu leapt high, cartwheeled over Jianbing Yang’s guard, and landed square on the stones.
8) The Funny Face
When a fighter wins, the usual response is to roar and throw the arms overhead. A couple of guys do back flips. Josh Barnett popularized the throat slit.
There are a few others.
However, when Japanese flyweight Takuya Eizumi took a unanimous decision over Yusei Shimokawa at Pancrase 259 on June 29, 2014, we, well, he did this …
Fabricio Werdum, it turns out, is only #2 in Funny Face.
7) Frank Shamrock tries to get punched in the face
The third time Bas Rutten and Frank Shamrock fought in Pancrase, Bas cut up Shamrock pretty good, and Shamrock went for a leg lock. Pancrase forbids closed fist strikes. So Shamrock had the devious idea of goading El Guapo into hitting him with a close fist, and drawing a red card.
It worked, sort of.
Bas punched Frank, drawing a red card, which caused a stand up. Bas then beat Shamrock into a doctor stoppage, defending and unifying the King of Pancrase title.
Bas also showed a highly unusual spinning open hand strike
6) Justice delivered by a ninja
Murilo Ninja Rua faced Tony Bonello EliteXC: Return of the King June 14, 2008 in Hawai’i. Bonello snarled and spit and got well into Rua’s face, while the Brazilian smiled gently.
Ninja’s face during the stare down with Rua just smiling at him. Rua schooled Bonello on the mat. Then he ignominiously clutched him by the throat, and punched him into bolivian.
5) Fedor Emelianenko
Fedor Emelianenko is “The Last Emperor” and the greatest heavyweight in MMA history. He had countless world-beating skills, including a near eerily cool head.
Fedor won via submission not many seconds later. And perhaps above all, Fedor Emelianenko possessed a fearsome right hand, as Brett Rogers will attest.
4) Revenge
Former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is an avid hunter. A really, really, really avid hunter. It nearly killed him.
He only ate what he shot, which is noble, but not necessarily healthy. it lead to Diverticulitis, which Lesnar accurately described as a feeling like a shotgun to the stomach.
To make matters worse, in his debilitated state, a deer sought and achieved revenge.
3) SEX IN MMA
Our definition of violence is any unwanted physical intrusion. If two athletes willingly engage in a sport that involves strikes, slams, kicks, chokes, and joint locks, it isn’t violent, it’s exciting. However, if you touch someone, however lightly, against their will, that’s violence.
So MMA isn’t violent.
However, for balance, a little burlesque and kissing is in order.
2) Best Submission Ever
Jorge Masvidal spent two rounds battering Toby Imada in the semi-finals of Bellator’s first lightweight tournament, and Imada needed a miracle. And then, one appeared.
While defending a takedown, Imada locks onto Masvidal’s body and threads his legs around Masvidal’s head and arm. By the time Masvidal realized he’s caught in a triangle choke — while standing, by the guy who’s hanging upside-down off his back — he’s already heading to dreamland.
1) THE MOTHER OF ALL H-BOMBS
Several years ZUFFA CEO Lorenzo Fertitta famously explained that you can sum up the attraction of MMA in three words – “HOLY F@$%NG S#!*.”
“It happens at every fight,” said Fertitta. “At least one or two times in every UFC show, whether you say it out loud or you say it to yourself, you go, ‘holy f—ing s— did that just happen?’ I mean, you might see somebody do a flip, get kicked in the head, get knocked out with a punch. At some point, you’re going ‘whoah, did that just happen? Did I really just see that?’ That’s the nucleus of what our product is.”
There are a number of attacks that can make an audience collectively curse in disbelief.
Joe Lauzon’s submissions do it.
Lyoto Machida’s kicks do it.
But of everything that can happen to you in the Octagon, nothing is worse than the H-Bomb. And Dan Henderson’s greatest H-Bomb happened at UFC 100, the greatest event in league history.
Hendo got the KO, kissed his fist, and launched Air Hendo.
