Without cheating .... who do you really remember?

Writing on another topic stirred my old juices again..... (that sounds disturbing)... about the good old days and the fighters that drew me into my current love of this silly sport. I started going down memory lane (as old folks do) and just wondered if anyone else remembered the old guys.... Taktarov? Abbott?

We all know the Gracies, Shamrocks, Colemans etc ... but what about the other guys? Names on the poll are just off the top of my head.... no cheating now....

Heh ... I can tell a story about each of these guys and there fights.... love em or hate em they were there in the beginning.

The fight that really got me into mma was seeing little Don Frye absolutely destroyed some big guy in about 12 seconds at UFC 8. I was probably 12 years old and me and my buddy rewound and rewatched that ko about 15 times. Ahh memories...

Oleg Taktarov was a straight up bad ass.

In UFC 2 I remember this big... whiter than white... dutch judoko named Remco Pardoel (we pronounced it Parduu) vs Orlando Wiet. Remco was wearing a gi. Remco was scared going in you could see it. He was using the Judo stance which looks kinda stiff and awkward. They wrestled around a bit and Remco got Wiet down on his back with Remco laying with his back on Wiet's chest holding onto an arm.

Remco scootches up so all his weight is on Wiets chest and starts dropping these right elbows on Wiets head. He musta hit him with six elbows each harder than the next with Wiets head bouncing higher and higher (he was out on the third). Finally, I think it was Big Johns first tourny, jumped in and stopped it.

The interview after the fight was great cause Remco was asked if he was nervous about the fight. He says in this thick Dutch accent. "I sot he vas a tuff guy, but I guezz not." My son and I still use that line today.... "I sot he vas a tuff guy..."

Remco lost the tourny to Gracie... heh

I didnt' remember the name, but I totally remember that fight. That was brutal.
He was just trapped under his weight (like a polar bear was on top of him), and just started dropping those sludge hammer elbows.

I remember most of em, I still have Kimo getting KTFO by Shamrock on DVD some where.

This is another of my favorite (and first) mma memories

and of course who can forget this

Chrom wrote:

and of course who can forget this

I remember that, watched it live. That's why I was surprised to not see Keith Hackney on the poll. If you remember Joe Son, you HAVE to remember Hackney the dick puncher. I remember Tank getting plowed by Vitor (which I was sorta bummed about, I liked Tank) and a completely roided Coleman getting kicked in the face by a no namer. They were hyping Coleman as like the greatest thing to hit the trailer park all night too, then he got his teeth loosened up quick lol. Oh and I remember Tank knocking out that big Hawiian guy and making fun of him having a seizure on the mat too. Different "sport" back then.

GOod list, kinda happy I remembered most of them

Yeah, I didn't see that one live... I actually can't remember what the first fight I saw was... it was in my senior year so 98/99.... but it was a tape that had recently came out...

My first live was ufc 3.... but damn I was one of the few guys in the room cheering as Hackney pounded on Jo Sons nuts... heh and then to add insult to injury he choked him out with a thumb choke!..... Ahhhh the good old days! I think I shall go spank my monkey. .... .... No really .... I have a monkey and .... she's being bad.

Krieger wrote:

In UFC 2 I remember this big... whiter than white... dutch judoko named Remco Pardoel (we pronounced it Parduu) vs Orlando Wiet. Remco was wearing a gi. Remco was scared going in you could see it. He was using the Judo stance which looks kinda stiff and awkward. They wrestled around a bit and Remco got Wiet down on his back with Remco laying with his back on Wiet's chest holding onto an arm.

Remco scootches up so all his weight is on Wiets chest and starts dropping these right elbows on Wiets head. He musta hit him with six elbows each harder than the next with Wiets head bouncing higher and higher (he was out on the third). Finally, I think it was Big Johns first tourny, jumped in and stopped it.

The interview after the fight was great cause Remco was asked if he was nervous about the fight. He says in this thick Dutch accent. "I sot he vas a tuff guy, but I guezz not." My son and I still use that line today.... "I sot he vas a tuff guy..."

Remco lost the tourny to Gracie... heh

Yeah that's one of the ones I remember more than most. I think UFC 2 was the early DVD I watched the most.
Remco just put his weight on him and blasted him with reverse elbows to the face. Then after he KO'd him, he just kind of looked at Wiet funny, then held his arms down and looked at the ref like "Am I supposed to keep hitting him?"
But Remco didn't fight Gracie in the finals of that tournament- they fought in the semifinal. The final was Gracie vs Pat Smith.
The other really memorable fight from that night was Pat Smith vs Scott Morris. Morris goes charging across the cage with his mullet flapping in the breeze, then Smith just side-steps him and gets the takedown. From there, Smith proceeds to just pound the living christ out of Morris' head and face for about 12 seconds and then just gets up and starts celebrating; the ref never even stepped in. But there was no controversy after you saw Morris try and get up. He looked like every bone in his face was broken and he couldn't do anything that even resembled walking.

Yeah you could see the dents forming in Morris's face as the bones smashed. That was cool.
UFC 3 was my first ppv with the "boys". I almost got in a fight cause I kept bugging an Irishman who was a Shamrock nuthugger. Finally I kept saying Worf could kick Shamrocks asss and that seemed to simmer the Paddy down. ... heh We still laugh about it today.

Worf the Klingon? Well yeah, I'd hope so.

Anyone remember Mark Kerr? I forgot what event it was but he was fighting some ex military special forces wanna be. Remember how they would do those little intro videos before the fights? The GI Joe guy was talking about his awesome Green Beret fighting system and how he was going to introduce it to the world of cage fighting and how it would dominate for years to come. Mark Kerr the All American wrestler just gorilla'd the guy's head inside out in like 14 seconds or something lol. Kerr was a horse.

I could only put 10 on the list but Kerr for sure.

Moti Horinstein... a Krav Maga guy. Ex Israeli army guy. He was awfully optimistic going in and the "What the fuck? I wasnt supposed to lose!" look on his face coming out.

Krav Maga ... good self defense system but didn't translate too well to MMA cause of the whole eye gouging, throat striking, finger breaking techniques. Oh yeah ... after you debilitate your assailant? You run him over with a Mirkava... they wouldn't let Moti bring his Mirkava into the ring.

Oh yeah ... Mirkava

In case anyone hasn't seen it, here's a link to the Pat Smith vs Scott Morris fight. I can't embed because I can't read Japanese.

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/YNKp-HxpZ44/

I remember all those guys on the list except Ferrozo the name sound familiar ,but I just can't place him.

One you didn't put on the list was Marco Ruas he was the first true mixed martial artist who could strike, wrestle, and submit you and is one of my favorite fighters of all time.

I wish every now and then they'd have an openweight match and wish that headbutts, kicks, and knees on the ground would be brought back. The Ruas-Varleans fight is why I'm so glad they have the no holding the cage rule Ruas kept trying to suplex the Polar Bear ,but he held on causing a stalemate otherwise there'd of been a spectacular suplex I still love that fight though.

Mark Kerr was awesome such a beast he was a GnP innovator and had some good submission wresting ability. I'll always remember the chin in the eye choke.

My uncle was really into the UFC early on, I was only like 8 when it started but he was a decent amateur boxer and was into all the combat sports stuff. He told me it was no holds barred and specifically told me about the Son fight.

He took me to my first event when I was 15 which was UFC 28, Arlovski, Barnett, Babalu, Pulver, and Randy v Randleman for the HW title. Pretty awesome.

Ferrozzo was Tank Abbott's nemesis. He was as big as and as mean as Tank Abbott and always seemed jealous of Tanks popularity. He didn't have Tank's sparkling personality either. He hung around for a bit but never made it big. When these two guys fought it was like watching two big old hawgs going at it. Both throwing bombs from their feet, Tank lost the nasty affair through decision, that did not set well with anyone.

Rua... number 12 on my list... I remember him defending a standing guillotine. His neck was caught in an impossible angle, we thought it was going to snap. Somehow he got out and kicked the shit out of who ever he was fighting. I think he was older and subject to injury...

ChokingVictim wrote:

My uncle was really into the UFC early on, I was only like 8 when it started but he was a decent amateur boxer and was into all the combat sports stuff. He told me it was no holds barred and specifically told me about the Son fight.

He took me to my first event when I was 15 which was UFC 28, Arlovski, Barnett, Babalu, Pulver, and Randy v Randleman for the HW title. Pretty awesome.

That would have been a cool card to be at.

Krieger that was his fight against Varleans he just straight up lifted him into the air with a guillotine choke ,but Ruas knew he'd fall to leg kicks. I think Ruas might be better remembered if the UFC had come around just a little earlier he was fighting in Vale Tudo fights for years before.

^^ agree Its funny that the Polar Bear has the same number of votes as Remco