Israel Adesanya's Debut

Here is Israel Adesanya fighting James Griffiths at SFC 9 which took place on 3/24/12 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Adesanya fights Yoel Romero at UFC 248 this Saturday.

Rampage Jackson Power Bomb and Finish

Here is Quentin "Rampage" Jackson in his second official pro MMA fight which took place on 5/13/00 at the Huntington Beach Underground Pancrase Organization against Marco Bermudez.

While Bermudez never fought again, he sure does have a cool story. After the fight Rampage would lose a decision to Marvin Eastman before rattling off 8 straight and establish himself as the explosive power phenom he was at the peak of his powers.

Kron Gracie versus Otavio Sousa

Here is Kron Gracie in a gi submission only grappling match against Otavio Sousa at Metamoris 1, which took place on 10/14/12 in Los Angeles, California.

Kron (5-1 MMA) lost his last MMA bout to Cub Swanson last October.
Finish:

Full Bout:

Ronda Rousey Grappling

Here is a clip of Ronda Rousey grappling without a gi.

Mackenzie Dern To Remain At 115

Mackenzie Dern (7-0, 2-0 UFC) came to UFC 224, weighing in 7 pounds over the 116 pound limit. Dern was able to submit Amanda Bobby Cooper in that bout, but several critics voiced their displeasure with Dern missing weight.

The UFC has not yet asked her to move up to the 125 pound flyweight division as of yet, but you can imagine that another miss will result in her moving up permanently.

Dern's submission game is arguably the best at straweight. Her striking is improving, though her striking defense is still lacking.

Here is an example of her skills.

Igor Vovchanchyn MMA Legend

Igor "Ice Cold" Vovchanchyn (47-9) is one of the most devastating strikers in hand to hand combat history. His record more likely has another 20 or so NHB, no holds barred, and MMA fights in bouts that weren't sanctioned or reported. Prior to and during his MMA career, Igor also kickboxed in Russia, becoming Russia's kickboxing champion. Most databases have Igor's kickboxing record listed at (58-2).

The 5'8" spark plug threw heavy leather and never backed down from heavyweights who often towered over him. Sherdog has him listed as having the most KO victories in 95' and 96' during a time when many fights had few rules, long time limits, no gloves and meager paydays.

Igor debuted in mma in 1995, winning 4 fights in one day at the IAFC 1, in Moscow, Russia. It is unclear if he won that event, as another heavyweight had 4 wins on the 28 bout fight card. Igor won other tournaments including MSG 96', DNRF, IFC 1, IAFC 3, and World Vale Tudo Championship 5.

In WVTC 5, Igor KO'd all three opponents, and in the finale, KO'd Nick Nutter with a knee in 14 seconds, Nutter's last fight of his career. At this point, Igor was (23-1-1) and began his epic Pride Fighting career, becoming known for his knockout power.

Igor started off with a bang in Pride, knocking out Gary Goodridge with some nasty punches. Goodridge was a crowd favorite in that fight, making the victory at Pride 4 even sweeter. Igor spent the rest of his mma career fighting primarily in Japan, notably winning over Mark Kerr, Kazushi Sakuraba, Yuki Kondo, Gilbert Yvel, Valentijn Overeem, Enson Inoue, and Dan Bobish. He holds one of the nastiest KO wins in mma history over Francisco Bueno at Pride 8.

Kazushi Sakuraba - MMA Legend

Kazushi Sakuraba - By the MMA Blaster

The extremely entertaining Kazushi Sakuraba (26-17) appears to have retired from MMA for good, after dropping his last five bouts which were well after his prime.  Sakuraba was the face of Pride during its early days, eventually handing off the reigns to Fedor and Wanderlei Silva. Sakuraba will return for a grappling match against Dan Henderson at Rizen FF 7 in Japan.

Sakuraba's skills inside the ring were legendary, improvising kicks, punches, submissions, and passes that had never been seen before. Watching Sakuraba put his body on the line time and time again was something of beauty. Weighing 183 pounds, and sometimes less, he usually faced opponents with a considerable size, reach and strength advantage.

Sakuraba started as an amateur wrestler, wrestling in college and eventually placing fourth in the Japan championship. After graduating, Sakuraba started his career in professional wrestling and began to get schooled in catch wrestling.

Sakuraba was placed in the UFC Japan tournament only after another Japanese pro wrestler was injured. In his first bout with Marcus Silveira (6-4) John McCarthy incorrectly stopped the bout and reversed his call. The match was repeated for the championship and Sakuraba won via arm bar to be one of the last UFC tournament champs.

Sakuraba entered Pride and posted an armbar victory over Vernon White in his first fight. His second Pride fight was one of the best grappling displays ever in an MMA match against Carlos Newton (UFC WW champ) which Sakuraba eventually won via kneebar.

After a draw with Allen Goes , Sakuraba dominated Vitor Belfort (UFC LHW champ) with leg kick after leg kick and crazy guard passes for an innovative decision victory. He beat Royce Gracie (3X UFC Tournament Champ) in an unlimited time match in the 6th round. That fight single handedly erased much of the Royce Gracie hype and may have been the best he ever looked.


Sakuraba holds other notable victories over Ebenezer Fontes Braga , Anthony Macias, Royler Gracie , Guy Mezger (UFC 13 LW Champ), Renzo Gracie , Ryan Gracie , Quentin Jackson (UFC LHW Champ), Kevin Randleman (UFC HW Champ), Ken Shamrock (UFC Superfight Champ), Ikuhisa Minowa, and Masakatsu Funaki (2X King of Pancrase).  Sakuraba's last wins were over Zelg Galesic and former boxer Rubin Williams.

Strikeforce Slap Game - Daniel Cormier, Mayhem Miller, King Mo

Here's Daniel Cormier, Jason "Mayhem" Miller and Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal playing a slap game before a Strikeforce event.

Frank Shamrock v. Dan Henderson

Here is Dan Henderson in a submission grappling match against Frank Shamrock which took place in Sioux City, Iowa on 10/11/97. The event was billed as wrestling versus martial arts.

Frank Shamrock last took part in a submission grappling match against Kazushi Sakuraba at Rizen MMA which resulted in a draw.

Sage Northcutt Forms

UFC uber prospect Sage Northcutt (11-2, 6-2 UFC) has finished out his current UFC contract and will soon be a free agent. Despite not having the most developed ground game, Sage has looked much improved over his recent three fight win streak.

Ronda Rousey

Here is UFC women's bantamweight champ in a behind the scenes look at her cameo in the coming Entourage movie. After dispatching Miesha Tate and crushing Sara McMann, the UFC star will get some acting work in.


Why are they making an Entourage movie? Your guess is as good as mine. I thought the show had a couple great seasons, a couple mediocre seasons, then got very stale. The Chuck Liddell appearance in the series was one of the better cameo's. Drama got, got.

Wow, video already pulled, I'll guess I'll put a video up of her discussing it. If I were producing an Entourage movie, I'd want as much publicity as possible.

Andy Hug in Full Contact Karate

Most people know the warrior that was Andreas Hug from his epic K-1 kickboxing bouts. Here is an earlier bout from full contact karate. His famous axe kick makes an appearance.

Tony Ferguson Tire Kicks

UFC's top contender at 155 pounds, Tony "El Cucuy" Ferguson (22-3, 12-1 UFC) has won 9 straight UFC bouts since a decision loss to Michael Johnson in 2012. Ferguson was to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 209, but Khabib had to go to the hospital with difficulty cutting weight. Ferguson has some unique training methods, as seen below.

Ferguson will fight Kevin Lee (16-2, 9-2 UFC) at UFC 216.

Marco Ruas – MMA Legend

By new MMA Blaster Contributor Scott Salem


Bad management is why he’s not a household name in the world of mixed martial arts. Bad management is why he never really sold a lot of UFC tickets.

Of course, he could have done both of those things if he had a manager who believed in him.

The mixed martial artist in question is the great Marco Ruas. He had just 15 professional fights and all but one occurred after his 30th birthday.

“I feel mad for that. I wanted to fight more fights.”

His professional record is 9-4-2. His was 4-2 in six UFC bouts.

His shining moment occurred in 1995 when he won the tournament competed at UFC 7: The Brawl in Buffalo. He did so by defeating Larry Cureton, Remco Pardoel, and Paul Varelans.
Ruas made Cureton and Pardoel tap out. He then captured the tournament title with a TKO of Varelans. Varelans is seven inches taller than the 6’1” Ruas and outweighed him by more than a hundred pounds.

In December, at Ultimate Ultimate 1995, Ruas defeated Keith Hackney. At the same event, he lost to Oleg Taktarov via a controversial decision. The two fought nearly a year later but the match ended in a draw.

From there, Ruas had six more pro fights. He won half of them. Two of his three losses occurred to Maurice Smith, once at UFC 21 in July of 1999 and then again at an IFL event in 2007. During the last fight, Ruas was 46.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Ruas is the founder of Ruas Vale Tudo, a mix of kickboxing and Brazilian submission fighting. While he was admired for his awesome kicking skills, Ruas brought a well-rounded style to MMA during an era when everyone was concentrating on jiu-jitsu.

“I trained everything, a long time before everybody. I trained judo, I trained karate, I trained capoeira, luta livre, jiu-jitsu. I trained everything.”

His professional record may not be as robust as others, but if you include his street fights, estimated to be somewhere between 300 and 1,000 contests, his resume easily enters legendary status.

Regardless of the number, he didn’t just fight on the streets of Rio. He won.

“In the streets, I’m undefeated. Nobody beat me.”

That leads us to his nickname, “King of the Streets.” It’s a clever play on words as Ruas means “streets” in Portuguese, the official language of Brazil.

Quotes taken from MMA Junkie article: “Pioneer Marco Ruas looks back on contribution to MMA, wishes he'd had more UFC fights.” published 12/26/16

Photo Credit: Doug Churchill on location at Emily studio on the Street Scene set. Courtesy of Flickr. Believed to be in the public domain.

Video of the Day - Gracie v. Taktarov

Here is Renzo Gracie v. Oleg Taktarov fighting in MARS, Martial Arts Reality Superfighting, in Birmingham, Alabama, which took place on 11/22/1996.

Flying Armbar - Diaz v. Sato

Here is Rumina "Moon Wolf" Sato fighting Charles Diaz at Shooto - Devilock Fighters which took place on 1/15/99 in Tokyo, Japan.

Sato, a submission legend, has career submission wins over Yves Edwards, Ryan Ackerman and Rafael Cordeiro.

Jacare's Pro Debut Against Jorge Patino

Here is Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza fighting Jorge Patino at Jungle Fight 1 which took place in Manaus, Brazil on 9/13/03.

Souza (23-4) is fresh off a TKO win over Vitor Belfort at UFC 198. The former ADCC and Strikeforce champion has career victories over Robbie Lawler, Tim Kennedy, Gegard Mousasi and Yushin Okami.

Patino (38-18) is a heavy hitter who has wins over Pete Spratt, Efrain Escudero and Beau Baker in his career while fighting in WSOF, Bellator, LFC and once in the UFC.

Jeremy Horn versus Forrest Griffin

Here is Jeremy Horn fighting Forrest Griffin at IFC Global Domination which took place on 9/6/03 in Denver, Colorado.

In that event, Forrest (19-7) had submitted Chael Sonnen in his previous bout. Horn (91-22) had submitted Mikhail Avetisyan. Forrest would go on to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame following his epic TUF 1 match-up against Stephen Bonnar and career victories over Shogun Rua, Rampage Jackson and Rich Franklin. He retired after a 2012 win over Tito Ortiz and has been working for the UFC ever since.

Horn probably has officially retired from competition after tapping due to strikes against Egidijus Valavicius in 2015. Horn had a 19 year career which included wins over Chuck Liddell, Gilbert Yvel, Josh Burkman, Chael Sonnen and Dean Lister.

Michael "Venom" Page v. Ben Dishman

Here is the pro debut of Michael "Venom" Page, who fought Ben Dishman at UCMMA 26 which took place on 2/4/12 in London, England.

Page (12-0, 7-0 BFC) next fights Derek Anderson at Bellator 179 which takes place on May 19, 2017 at Wembley Arena in London, England. Page puts his karate on full display during the finish.

Finish:

Full Bout:

Masakazu Imanari versus Mun Hwan Yang

Here is leg lock specialist Masakazu "Ashikan Judan" Imanari fighting Mun Hwan Yang at Deep Cage Impact 2015 which took place on 8/29/15 in Tokyo, Japan.

Imanari (35-16) has submission wins over Jorge Gurgel, Mike Thomas Brown, Yoshihiro Maeda and Nam Phan. He next fights against Juri Ohara (20-11) at Deep 78 Impact on 3/18/17.