Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a sport that comprises the exhibition of fights between martial artists of different sizes and physical statures. Now although we have weight classes, particularly since the turn of the century, size mismatches are not uncommon even in modern day MMA. However, our beloved sport has time-and-again taught us that in a fight, skill and will matter just as much, if not more, than size.
Top MMA organizations such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Bellator, RIZIN FF, One FC, WSOF and several others often feature fights between two combatants who might appear to the casual fan as blatant size mismatches.
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Several elite fighters such as Daniel Cormier, Mark Hunt, Valentina Shevchenko and many more put on memorable performances in their respective weight classes despite being undersized against their opposition.
Our sport has witnessed several such David-Goliath matchups, characterized by the smaller fighter using his/her skill and will to slay the giants. Today we look back at a few such memorable fights-
5 DC vs Bigfoot
DC lands a huge right hand on Bigfoot. (* Credits- ZUFFA LLC).
In September of 2011, a former Olympic wrestler made a name for himself by knocking out one of the Heavyweight (HW) division’s most notorious giants of that era, Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva. The Olympian’s name is Daniel ‘DC’ Cormier and he is the reigning UFC Light-heavyweight (LHW) champion and second best LHW consensus LHW fighter after arch-rival Jon Jones.
Bigfoot was riding high on his TKO victory over legendary HW Fedor Emelianenko, and entered the fight against Cormier as a huge favorite. On the other hand, DC came into the bout as a short-notice replacement, stepping in for Alistair Overeem on just 5-weeks notice.
Despite giving up a height, weight, reach and experience advantage to the Brazilian giant, DC shocked the world by knocking Silva out cold.
The fight started with DC dropping Silva with a huge right hand, which was followed by some brief ground-work with DC securing top-position on the Brazilian. They resume on the feet and DC tags him with a jab and then a left hook which is followed by a sweet sweep by the American Olympian.
The fight resumes on the feet once again and this time though, Cormier makes sure he’s finished the job, doubling up on his jab and catching Bigfoot clean with a huge right uppercut. A couple of hammer-fists on the mat and the arena in Cincinnati goes nuts with Mauro Ranallo screaming his ‘Mamma Mia’ catchphrase at the top of his lungs!
The cake and chicken-eating David slayed the Brazilian Goliath, ‘Mamma Mia’ indeed!
Up next we take a look at much more shocking size mismatches...
#4 Naoya Ogawa vs Giant Silva
At Pride Critical Countdown in June of 2004, Japanese judoka, pro-wrestler and MMA fighter, Naoya Ogawa took on the 7’2” tall Brazilian behemoth Paulo Cesar da Silva aka ‘Giant Silva’. Now although Ogawa himself stood at an impressive 6’3”, he was dwarfed by the presence of his scary-looking opponent.
Giant Silva never had any legitimate martial arts skills and merely looked to overwhelm his opponents using his size. In a fight that was a typical Japanese MMA (JMMA) Pride FC offering, the behemoth of a man, da Silva looked to bull-rush his smaller opponent using wide looping slaps to the head.
That proved to be a terrible idea against the world champion Japanese judoka, who clinched with the Brazilian and secured and trip Takedown.
Ogawa quickly transitioned to full-mount and began raining down punches and hammer-fists, cutting beautiful angles by picking ground-and-pound shots carefully; finishing da SIlva by TKO at 3:29 of Round 1.
Ogawa slay the giant in front of his hometown fans in Japan.
That brings us to yet another crazy matchup...
#3 Daiju Takase vs Emmanuel Yarborough
Daiju Takase, the Japanese kick-boxer and MMA fighter best known for submitting Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva way back in 2003, also holds the distinction of being the last MMA fighter to fight the gigantic American Sumo, the late-Emmanuel Yarborough.
Standing at 6’0” tall, Takase weighed around 183 pounds, fighting the 6’8” Yarborough who weighed in over 600 pounds; at Pride 3 in 1998.
In what was one of the most comical fights of all time, Takase spent a better part of two rounds (Round 1 in Pride was 10-minutes; following rounds would be 5-minutes each), running away from his Sumo opponent.
On several occasions, the Japanese kick-boxer would try and cut angles, tagging his opponent with darting straight-lefts and at one point, even a punch to the body that just bounced off of the American Sumo’s wobbling torso.
Finally, Takase ran out of patience and shot in for a single-leg takedown that Yarborough sprawled on. The Japanese fighter ended up on his back, with the giant walrus-like mountain of fat on top of him. Takase wriggled himself out from underneath him with all his might and proceeded to tag the giant with punches and hammer-fists from the bottom, eventually taking the Sumo’s back and pounding him out for the TKO victory.
That brings us to…
#2 Big Nog vs Sapp
Pride FC’s first HW champion and a former Interim-UFC HW champion, Antonio Rodrigo ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira faced American behemoth Bob Sapp at Pride Shockwave in August of 2002; becoming the first man to defeat the notorious, steroid-abusing Sapp.
The 300+ pound behemoth American absolutely rag-dolled ‘Big Nog’, performing powerbombs, piledrivers and all kinds of pro-wrestling moves on him.
After getting absolutely smashed over the course of Round 1 (10-minute 1st Round in Pride), Nogueira made one of the most memorable comebacks in MMA history, by catching Sapp in a ground scramble, securing an armbar and tapping out the American.
In a moment that is now considered iconic in our sport’s young history, Big Nog cemented himself as a legend after overcoming a one-way shellacking only to come back and dominate in the very next round.
Nogueira handed Sapp his 1st loss in professional combat sports and proved to the world that martial arts competition requires much more than simply being a brute. That brings us to the King of our list or should I say ‘Emperor’...
#1 ‘The Last Emperor’ vs ‘Techno Goliath’
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Fedor (L) faces off against ‘Techno Goliath’
Fedor Emelianenko has faced all kinds of opponents over the course of his long and storied career, including fights against elite opposition such as Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic, Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Nogueira, Dan Henderson, Semmy Schilt and many more. ‘The Last Emperor’ has also been a part of more than a fair share of straight-up freak-show fights, most prominently his bout against Japanese giant Choi Hong-Man.
Fedor faced Hong-Man at ‘Yarrenoka!’, a 2007 MMA event co-promoted by ex-Pride FC executives, FEG, DEEP and M-1 Global. The fight started with Fedor closing the distance attempting a power-double on the 7’2” 330 pound Japanese giant, but ended up being taken down, with the giant securing top-position.
After a failed armbar attempt from the bottom by Fedor the fight resumed on the feet. The Russian legend was showing visible signs of facial damage courtesy of the ground-and-pound shots that his mammoth opponent landed on him.
The exact same sequence took place again, only this time Fedor took fewer shots in order to secure the perfect position for the armbar, tapping out Choi at 1:58 of the very first round. On December 31st 2007, Fedor Emelianenko electrified the crowd inside the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo, Japan, with his 1st round submission victory over his intimidating opponent. The Russian Emperor, slay the fearsome giant.
It’s essential to understand that MMA has weight-divisions for a reason and size does play a role in fights. However, size is not the be all and end all in a fight. Fighting is a complex thing, influenced by various factors such as skill, determination, endurance, power, co-ordination and so much more.
So the next time you find yourself up against a big, intimidating tough guy, remember the legends of our game and don’t back down. Keep up with our combat tradition and write in to me about fights and fighters that you feel could’ve made our list.
Keep training and remember- Regardless of the size of your problems, never back down. If David can slay Goliath, so can you.
