Best one and done MMA fighter? Rulon Gardner!

UltimateGround
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He never threw a punch in a fight before his fight with Yoshida and fucked him up.

He would beat Karelin in a fight too I think

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He also made more in that fight than Travis Fulton made in his 100 fights

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10 years ago, that fact may have upset people. Today? Not so much


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great doc on him.

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IIRC Karelin’s dad had some boxing experience.

I don’t think the idea of throwing and taking punches would be alien to him.

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Shannon the Cannon too! Why are accomplished athletes being paid more than journeyman D listers?!

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And wasn’t arrested for kiddie porn

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Travis had 400 fights.

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Became a decent motivational speaker for a while after that too. I met him at a conference and bought his book. Some good stories about perseverance. Definitely the most physically powerful person I’ve ever felt grab me.

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Mark Schultz has gotta be up there too

Technically he is 1-0 and I know he did have another fight in Brazil but I think that was a set up/work and he got it removed from his record

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Rulon trained with Team Quest 
 lot of hammers came through there, including Uncle Chael.

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He admit he really didn’t like getting punched and beat Karelin on a rule change for that olympics and his giant barrel chest posing a problem in that standing bear hug start position for sudden-death.

I think Karelin would have disfigured him in mma.

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He didn’t “fuck him up”.

As mentioned by chaos overkill, he only beat Karelin on a broken grip. Nothing that would indicate he would beat him in MMA (maybe he would, but I don’t think so, and their wrestling match certainly is no indication that he would).

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I saw Karelin in mma. He didn’t look great against another judoka. I know people say work which makes it even more embarrassing

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Karam Ibrahim. Sure, he got KOed by Fujita, but before that, the way he was ragdolling a 240lbs Pride veteran around the ring was something to behold. Not bad for someone who didn’t train MMA and just did one fight for a paycheck.

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That was Akira Maeda’s retirement match ie. a pro-wrestling exhibition made to look a bit more realistic than the shit you see in WWE.

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