Early fights that made you think a fighter would be great / were you right or wrong

UltimateGround
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What are some fights that made you think a fighter would be great or not?

Early MMA
UFC 1 - Royce Gracie winning all his matches to become the first champion.

UFC 2 Remco Pardoel vs Royce Gracie
I thought at the time a Judo player would be able to neutralize Royce’s jujitsu. Pardoel was 260 pounds and a junior national champion in Judo. We already knew Royce was a special talent, but giving up that much weight and beating the Pardoel erased any doubts.

UFC 3 Kimo Leopoldo vs Royce Gracie
At the time no one had given Royce a challenge (already won UFC 1 & 2). Even though Kimo lost, he did enough damage Royce couldn’t continue the tournament. Plus, Royce had a very intimidating entourage. Kimo came in with Joe Son and didn’t have any fear. Thought Kimo was going to go on to do great things.

UFC 12 Vitor Belfort vs Tra Telligman & Scott Ferrozzo
Nineteen-year-old stopped Tra Telligman (30 pounds heavier) and Scott “Pitbull” Ferrozzo (323 pounds). Thought no one would have an answer for him. Plus, he came from a family with money. Also beat Tank Abbott at UFC 13

UFC 15 Randy Couture vs Vitor Belfort
Randy beating Vitor Belfort via ground and pound. Randy had already won the UFC 14 tournament, but the Belfort victory is the fight that made me think Randy was going on to do great things. Randy was moving forward throughout the fight and was the first time Belfort had gone past two minutes (IIRC).

UFC 18 Tito Ortiz vs Jerry Bohlander
It wasn’t the actual fight. It was Tito having zero respect for Ken Shamrock, the Lions Den posse and wearing the shirt that had, “I just fucked your ass” on it during the post-fight announcements.

UFC 22 Tito Ortiz vs Frank Shamrock
I thought Tito would make easy work of Frank and was huge for the weight class at that time. IIRC: Was the first time Tito to fought without wrestling shoes.

UFC 65 Brandon Vera vs Frank Mir
I bought into the hype. I know it was after Mir’s motorcycle crash, but was thinking Vera was going to be the first double champ. A

UFC 94 Stephen Bonner vs Jon Jones
After I saw how easy and creative Jones beat Bonner I never bet against him. I have made some good cash on betting on Jones post Bonner fight.

OGers: What fights made you take notice of a fighter and were you wrong or right? Reference any organization or era of MMA.

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What was the name of that black dude with the shaved head that caveman rag dolled his opponent into the cage during his first fight?

Dude looked like a beast but had a mediocre career after that.

Also, that Italian fighter that got booted in the nuts like four times and they stopped the fight. It was a UFC at Mohegan Sun as I was there live. I think Gannon fought on that card as well. In any case, that Italian dude seemed like a world wrecker but then he just had a ho-hum type of fighter.

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The first time i watched GSP fight i had a feeling he could be great. Think it was against Karo.

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100%

Shame, Karo couldn’t shake those demons.

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Alessio Sakara is the Italian guy I think you are referring to…
Mine would be David Terrell after his destruction of Matt Lindland.

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Both Randleman and Kerr.

And I’m not saying they didn’t do great things – but I envisioned dominant runs and it didn’t really play out that way.

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For kickboxing…

Carter Williams.

His K-1 USA tournament win was very impressive. I figured he’d be a contender for a good amount of time.
Couple of pretty bad KO losses derailed that.

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When Chuck knocked out Randleman was a good one.

Also agree on Kerr.

Wasn’t there a movie coming out about Kerr?

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I think I may have had rose tinted glasses because he’s such a quality bloke but I really had high hopes for Dan HArdy. I didn’t think he was going to beat GSP and thought it was a bit weird him getting that fight but I really thought he was going to be a great contender in the future.

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Didn’t have big hopes for Hardy. But did for one of his opponents, Carlos Conduit. He did great things but thought there would be more.

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Ive heard the name, but never seen him fight; youre the second person to mention him recently.

Gonna have to go do some homework lol.

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Condit’s another quality guy. I was a gigantic Breaking Bad fan and he’s an ABQ guy so liked him heaps. I get too emotionally attached to fighters, haha. When I first started watching MMA in the UK in 2007 they were doing reruns of the Tito v Shamrock TUF and I was all over Tito like a rash so assumed he was going to demolish everyone.

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In some ways, Ben Henderson. I mean, he was absolutely the best for a while there, but he fell off quicker than I thought he would.

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Went to a Bellator in San Jose when he was fighting and I actually fell asleep on my other half’s shoulder.

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For a little while Bob Sapp looked dangerous.

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Sokoudjou

Mariusz Zaromskis

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I fell asleep at a Whitney Houston concert with my ex. Had front row seats and they sent security over as it wouldn’t look good on the video they were shooting.

Ex was pissed that I brought attention to us. But Whitney did stop and ask if I was fine. Whitney was very nice and young at the time. Pre Bobby Brown I think.

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I fell asleep near front row opening week of The Lion King on Broadway in NYC

It was the hottest ticketofthe year and had a very lively interactive show with cast members dancing and performing up and down thr aisles

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That’s gold! I fell asleep at a Machine Head concert in Oakland a few years ago, it was their home town and an anniversary gig of theirs so I was super excited. One of the loudest concerts you can imagine. I was up jigging about one minute, sat down for a few seconds and was out like a light.

I fall asleep at the movies constantly too and yet I’m a really light sleeper when I’m trying to actually sleep normally.

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Check out the K-1 USA tournament 2003.

Solid event if you watch it all, but could also just watch his fights to see what he looked like.

Unfortunately he didn’t pan out like I thought he would.

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