I’m a little biased toward Don Frye, since he’s my old drinking buddy.
On that note, I think 90s Ken would make the list.
His fighting style in MMA wasn’t that of a brawler – but if you know even a little bit about him – he was about as tough as they came back in his heyday.
Royce with or without steroids??
I’ve never been a giant Royce fan but I don’t think he was on roids when he won his first few UFCs. At least a few of the guys he beat definitely were though.
Minowa love him or hate him took on all comers, often much bigger than himself. I mean, Phil Baroni threatened to slap the mullet off his ass, no fucks given. Not an all time great but he didn’t give a shit and went in there. Same can be said for Kondo and Sakura a. They weren’t choosy beggars and just went in there everytime
Didn’t Ken fight Frank Lobman? Frank knocked out Bas Rutten in kickboxing.
The look on Royce’s face, and his body language in those first UFCs…
He had a chip on his shoulder.
People tend to chalk it up to technique that his opponents didn’t fully understand – and of course that’s part of it.
But Royce was game as hell.
Guys like Pat Smith, Keith Hackney, and Ken Shamrock were punching him in the face.
Severn is a bear of a man, and had him in top position , and Kimo basically tried to maul him…
Yet Royce submitted everyone in his path, with the exception of the second Shamrock fight.
Then, in part of his comeback, he put Yoshida in the hospital!
Royce Gracie changed my life.
No exaggeration.
When it’s all said and done, no, he’s not my favorite fighter.
But he was my original favorite in NHB – and I’ll be damned if what he accomplished doesn’t put him on the Mt. Rushmore of MMA.
Rickson was the “family champion”, and apparently with good reason.
But Royce is the one who put it all out there in the pioneer years – when he was undersized and seemingly at a disadvantage.
That dude had balls of steel.
I’ll never entertain anyone trying to take that away from him.
Definitely deserves a BMF trophy!
Yes, in a kickboxing fight.
He did it to test himself.
You could see Ken wanting to give in to his instincts and get the takedown, but he didn’t.
Got stopped via leg kicks IIRC.
That fight isn’t really a knock on Ken IMO.
When and where?
No it’s not a knock on Ken at all. In fact I’m using it to show the balls Ken had in the 90s, fighting a kickboxer under kickboxing rules.
Bas fought him in February 1991 and was knocked out in the first round. Bas has talked about it in interviews. Sort of a crazy fight, Bas looks like he is gassed 2 minutes into the fight, Frank is coming after him like a mad man, Bas tries to get aggressive and gets knocked out on the way in.
I don’t know much about Frank but I don’t think he fought outside of Europe much, and I think he has something like 80 or 90 knockouts.
Edit: I checked Wikipedia, and the fight was in Rotterdam.
They used to fight every week in the Netherlands
Still Hendo. 6 years older, a MW and just drank water all day to reach the HW limit for this fight. Nothing more bmf.
Igor, Fedor, Wand, Henderson, BJ Penn, Saku
Kazushi Sakuraba, with a special mention for Enson Inoue.
Straight brawling. Lol
Ruthless Robbie Lawler
Cat Smasher Chris Leben
Melvin Manhoef
I think it’s in the proper hands.
For that fight he was definitely baddest motherfucker of the night for sure
Because gaithjeeeee is also a BMF
He’s another one I forgot to mention. Doesn’t wrestle like he should sometimes, but always puts on a banger and doesn’t want it to be boring ever
