THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY: MMA SUPERFIGHTS WE NEVER SAW

The greatest of all-time… it is a subjective accolade, but survey any group of MMA lovers from any age and the huge majority will offer up either Georges St Pierre or Anderson Silva as MMA’s theoretical»person to conquer.» In late 2016, news of this French-Canadian’s return fueled whispers of UFC president Dana White’s»one who got away» — St Pierre vs Silva — the very best versus the cleverest. Regrettably, the chances of this occurring now are as slim as they were. «Hurry» vs.»The Spider» is a myth; one of several super fights we will probably never see.
Sadly, it’s not the sole one. Below are a few other MMA superfights we never got to see…
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brock Lesnar
Partly due to the UFC’s monopolistic advertising power and partially due to his very best years being a decade ago, Fedor Emelianenko doesn’t always receive the respect he deserves from modern-day MMA fans. For people who watched his epic poem rampage through PRIDE’s heavyweight division however he was the best heavyweight of his age… perhaps the biggest ever.
While Fedor might have become the best fighter in his day, Brock Lesnar was the largest box office attraction. An immediate celebrity, he polarized an audience who did not know what they wanted more; so watch him humbled in defeat, or glorified in victory.
Physically, Lesnar was an animal. Walking around north of the 265-pound heavyweight limit, the NCAA standout moved with all the speed and grace of a man half his size. Whether it was down to popularity or notoriety he was a magnet for the paying public, headlining what was afterward the UFC’s biggest card above the likes of GSP, in what was his third tilt with the advertising.
Following years of deriding the Russian while he plied his trade for the contest, White announced that registering Stary Oskol’s favourite son was his»obsession.» Accounts of what happened following differ depending on who you listen to them from. Fedor was tied up with M-1; based on White, a deal offering $2,000,000 per fight, Pay-Per-View points along with an immediate title shot against Brock Lesnar was spurned; M-1 wished to co-promote Fedor’s fights, and supposedly wanted Zuffa to fund the building of a stadium in Russia. M-1 refuted these claims, and talks broke down.
Fedor’s stock would drop considerably following three straight losses and Lesnar, while still a licence to print money, was exposed by better fighters and abandoned the game. It could have been the biggest-grossing MMA fight of all time, but as is so often the case, politics ultimately ruined it.
Ken Shamrock vs. Tank Abbott
Throwbacks to another age, arguably another game, Ken Shamrock and Tank Abbott were the poster children of this UFC’s formative years. While the event was thought to be a subversive info-mercial to get Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, you need to believe that the cash men were quietly yanking a Shamrock success at UFC 1. He was 220 pounds of chiselled muscle, and the only fighter in the bracket with documented»free-fight» encounter, Shamrock had the expression of an action hero and the capacity to back it up.
A few decades after, David»Tank» Abbott hit the scene. Watch MMA live or at a bar even today, and you’ll find no shortage of out-of-shape, beer-swilling loudmouths eager to share their view of how they’d mop the floor with the men on TV. Abbott was the man, only he could mop the floor with some of the guys on TV. Fat, cocky and sporting about the same amount of teeth since he’d had karate lessons, Abbott was the manifestation of everything that a martial artist was not supposed to be.
There is a bit of MMA folklore that states Tank was introduced into shed, thus proving the concept that the martial artist would always succeed over the thug. His (admittedly limited) wrestling foundation was played down and he had been branded a’Pit Fighter’ in promotional stuff. When Tank began cracking heads in a number of the very violent UFC struggles of the age, a star was born, to the point that the company put him on a monthly salary; something not repeated since.
There was even legitimate bad blood between the two parties, with Shamrock and his»Lion’s Den» once hunting down Abbott backstage after he’d caused difficulty. Ken never caught him up either at the parking lot or even the cage, with both eventually leaving the business for careers in pro-wrestling. Their surprise early-00’s returns once again sparked hope of a superfight from the other generation, but for reasons unknown it was not meant to be.
Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones
Ahead of the controversy that shelved him for that which could probably have been his fighting prime, few could argue that Jon Jones wasn’t at the absolute pinnacle of mixed martial arts. A world-class athlete, not just skillful, but an expert in all aspects of the match, Jones looked insurmountable. In 2011, he finished what was arguably the best season’s work of any combat sports athlete, defeating Ryan Bader,»Shogun» Rua,»Rampage» Jackson and Lyoto Machida in the space of just 10 months.
While Jones was painting an image of violence at the light-heavyweight division, Anderson Silva had been making a masterpiece at middleweight. Nobody had cleared out such a talent-rich branch and seemed really untouchable in doing so. So absolute was Silva’s dominance, he’d twice moved up a weight class and demolished his opposition. His claim to the title of’best ever’ could be contested by a scant few.
White once mentioned his capacity to make a Jones vs. Silva superfight happen as something that could define his own legacy as a promoter. Fate, as it is want to do, conspired against him. Silva’s standing plummeted after having a series of losses and a failed drug test. Jones’ picture was tarnished even further; while he didn’t falter from the cage, a run of self-inflicted’personal difficulties’ stripped»Bones» of his dignity, credibility and — most importantly — his ability to compete.
Silva is past his prime and threatening retirement. Jones is focused firmly on regaining the light heavyweight title he never dropped in the cage. Problems outside the cage have almost certainly deprived us of one of the best battles within it.
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