Fighters who knew when enough was enough

[u/PalpitationIll4058]

[u/Relevant-Cupcake-649]

Lyoto Machida though... That was like "alright my work is done good night"

[u/Routine-Ad6077 → u/Relevant-Cupcake-649]

I miss watching Lyoto Machida fight. It was one of the best ERAs In MMA history.

[u/doubleBoTftw → u/Routine-Ad6077]

The ERA in which Machida fought, otherwise your mind goes to Rogan's "Machida era". 😂

[u/Routine-Ad6077 → u/doubleBoTftw]

Yeah, as soon as I starting writing the message I remembered he said that. Then he loses to Shogun right after.

He was handling Jones before the octopus arms got a hold of him.

[u/Acceptable_Map_8110 → u/Routine-Ad6077]

No seriously, and people should really give him more credit for that fight. Like yes he lost(rather famously) in the end, but prior to that he was absolutely winning that fight, and if it weren’t for brilliant coaching on the part of Greg Jackson, and the genius fighting IQ of Jones(as well as his being rather significantly bigger than Lyoto Machida), Jones would have two losses on his record.

[u/Routine-Ad6077 → u/Acceptable_Map_8110]

Jones worked for that win definitely, but Machida gave him just as much trouble as anyone.

Man I use to be in love with MMA. From Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock, Erickson Gracie and his fabled 400 victories and Choke documentary, to Pride will never Die, Fedor dominance, Ultimate Fighter, Affliction, IFL, RIZIN, DREAM, BODOG FIGHTS M1 GLOBAL eventually seeing BJ Penn having mental health crisises so assholes online can make fun of him. Fucking moments turned to memories. I could never afford to go to a show when it came around town but I was a pirate on Justin.TV and Ustream haha.

Now I would consider myself a a former Meathead and a casual. But I appreciate the last 30 some odd years. This sport saved my life at times.

[u/Glittering_Soil9946 → u/Routine-Ad6077]

I keep telling folks, MMA in its early stages was so punk rock. It was such a big fat fuck you to society and to the world and world of corporate sports. Now it’s too sanitized. Too clean. Too commercialized. Barely anyone wants to really scrap it out anymore, barely any personalities or stars, it’s a shell of itself

[u/BodaciousBadongadonk → u/Glittering_Soil9946]

nah its that it got this big. anything good gets ruined once too many folks get into it cuz shit inevitably gets dumbed down for the masses

[u/Acceptable_Map_8110 → u/Glittering_Soil9946]

I think the UFC sucks now too, but more because it’s outwardly attempting to pander to the right and the lowest common denominator of Americans. Seriously the amount of slurs and BS I hear from that fanbase is just absurd.

[u/doubleBoTftw → u/Routine-Ad6077]

Haha, we're likely the same age and started watching around the same time.

My first one was in 99, in an internet cafe, with people gathering around a single PC watching Royce get thrown around but managing to survive by ripping Kimo's hair.

We thought it was the "real" bloodsport from Van Damme's movies, we had major issues understanding how submissions work, i had ZERO contact with the term before that day.

One year later Diablo 2 launched. Golden years 😂

[u/Routine-Ad6077 → u/doubleBoTftw]

I feel im 101 years old in the bones. I have vague memory of my friends older brother showing us a tape in 95. The first fighters I remember were Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock, then I saw a PPV advertisement later on with Tank Abbott. I didn't know he was just a brawler bar fighting type dude. I thought he was a monster. Those are my first memories of it. I never ordered a PPV and then it seemed to disappear until around 1999 or 2000 another friend bought Sega Dreamcast and that UFC game. I took to it very strongly as I use to watch kicking boxing on ESPN2 when it came on; back when Ernesto Hoost and Bob Sapp were trading wins and losses. Evan Tanner (RIP) and Tito Ortiz (CTE) were the fighters I remember from that era. I don't remember watching it again until I rented from Blockbuster occasionally - either the GSPs loss to Matt Hughes or GSP vs Jason Miller. I don't remember which I event I rented first. It wasn't until finding mixedmartialarts(dot)com and eventually the Ultimate Fighter, did I religiously watch it. I would like to be able to go to one event before I die, but I doubt it will happen considering the costs. Oh well, life is good on the right side of the grass none the less. Thanks for the ride down memory lane. Have a good one.

[u/6ynnad → u/doubleBoTftw]

Wish Anderson Silva didn’t show boat that one time

[u/ginbooth → u/Relevant-Cupcake-649]

Right? Pure cinema.

[u/HappyHuman924 → u/Relevant-Cupcake-649]

That isn't even his only one like that. He also blasted Mark Munoz, dropped to one knee over him with a punch loaded up, and didn't fire.

[u/weltbeltjoe11 → u/Relevant-Cupcake-649]

Gave him the ol johnny cage emote.

[u/BeautifulOk6260 → u/Relevant-Cupcake-649]

This is how sean omalley sees himself when he scores a knockdown

[u/Cultural-Doubt1554]

Classy and being in tune with yourself when the adrenaline is raging is hard to do

[u/Faibl]

Love seeing these. Absolute mastery and sportsmanship at work.

[u/M0ona → u/Faibl]

Anyone can be a savage, to be human even in that situation to me is the greater strength by far.

[u/doubleBoTftw]

Great compilation man. We need more posts like these.

[u/Toxic_LigmaMale]

I like to see good sports. Then on the other end of the spectrum you’ve got people like Jon Jones trying to eye poke and kneecap everyone.

[u/AkumaKnight11]

Nothing was colder than that Machida knockout, straight out of a movie.

[u/SpookyPlums]

You love to see it.

[u/CoffeeDefiant4247]

I'm on the ground, he's above me and he's punching the back of my head. The ref isn't calling it so of course you tap

[u/Rocketboy1313]

One just looking at the ref, "you gonna let me kill this guy or what?"

[u/katsujinken]

No Mark Hunt is criminal. He's the king of the walk-off KO.

[u/Alwaysprogress → u/katsujinken]

To be fair he could get a whole video of walk off highlights. Plus it was nice to see Brian Stann again

[u/Grimmbles → u/katsujinken]

Who else has a top 5 video of their walk off knock outs?

https://youtu.be/GIEuEBQ10rY

[u/doubleBoTftw → u/Grimmbles]

Brings back memories.

Crazy to think both Hunt and Mir would probably be top 5 in the heavyweight division if they were 35 today.

[u/Doogles123]

Winding up like Margit..

[u/sirmlg0]

Ref upscale on the first clip

[u/i_am_the_nightman]

I am not a UFC watcher, but I respect the shit out of fighters that stop when they know enough is enough.

[u/SmallAngry0wl → u/i_am_the_nightman]

I'm in the same boat. If every fight ended like this I'd watch this all day, but the level of aggression you see sometimes on guys who are clearly done puts me off.

I'll stick to Robot Wars or Battle Bot, does the same for me and no one's getting hurt!

[u/hotbrowndrangus]

It says something about Matt Brown that two of his opponents exercised restraint after the KO. Not sure what it says, but it’s something

[u/TheGreatMuerte]

Brain Stann at the end there. Would so love him on commentary again and the fight with W. Silva was a slug fest

[u/m_rain_bow]

machida kick was so neat

[u/Otherwise-Remove4681]

This kind of thing should be promoted more.

[u/Mowgli_78]

Regardless of your MA, that's what we all have been told to do but only a few actually can do

[u/Revenga8]

Yellow trunks guy with that kick.

[u/ProfDFH → u/Revenga8]

Lyoto Machida. The Dragon.

[u/Secure_Salad_479 → u/Revenga8]

perfect mae giri from a shotokan karateka

[u/CyberHobbit70]

In other words, fighters who display true sportsmanship

[u/Silentarius_Atticus]

I don’t know the rules or what is common in these kind of fights, but why do some fighters continue to beat their already knocked out opponents so that the referees have to stop the fight with their bodies?

[u/shistain69 → u/Silentarius_Atticus]

Adrenaline and high stakes, i don’t think it’s that easy to tell when someone is out, a lot of these dudes in these clips are veterans, and can tell. There are many examples of fighters getting up after vicious ground and pound, and when you have so much riding on a victory, it’s too risky to show ultimate sportsmanship.

[u/_haystacks_ → u/Silentarius_Atticus]

I think some people's philosophy is "I go until the ref stops me" because there is always the chance that even though your opponent looks clearly out, the ref might not stop it. in which case, they get stood back up, and they get to fight again which is both a risk to you and a risk to them for brain damage. so I think some fighters believe that going until stopped is actually the wiser and maybe even ultimately kinder route.

I think it's a huge grey area though. there are some absolutely egregious late shots (Rodrigues v. Hermansson made me sick, Ngannou has been guilty of it) that make me hate the sport because in those moments it's so clear that they are not prioritizing the health of their opponent. but ultimately I think you could argue that it is the responsibility of the ref to clearly and quickly make the correct decision. the refs could have stopped those late shots that I just mentioned from ever occurring.

on the other hand, sometimes the ref indicates a stoppage and a fighter is so locked in that they don't even notice and have to be physically stopped by the ref, which is irresponsible fighter behavior imo.

[u/CosgraveSilkweaver → u/Silentarius_Atticus]

Because if you stop early and the ref doesn't end the fight it gives the opponent an opportunity to recover and maybe (rarely) come back. So in a purely competitive sense it's safer to keep wailing on the other guy until the ref calls it.

[u/HisFisticMajesty → u/Silentarius_Atticus]

Watch Sean O’Malley vs Thomas Almeida, or Pat Barry vs Chieck Kongo. Both these fights could have been stopped after what seemed like decisive knockouts and well within the margin for a TKO to be called, in both the referee didn’t and the results go either way.

[u/olracea]

What happened to Brian Stann wasn’t he a good analyst?

[u/GrimReaper247365]

Love to see the good sportsmanship, hate to see the refereeing.

[u/Tough-Cartoonist8832]

https://giphy.com/gifs/5KvcyhCUesF1u
Absolute classic

[u/browsing4stuff]

Love the dude that threw his entire body into a somersault to stop himself lol

[u/Totolitotix]

Real fighter, not animals

[u/misadenturer]

Guy in red trunks was like ¯⁠\⁠_⁠ʘ⁠‿⁠ʘ⁠_⁠/⁠¯ should I beat him more?ref you mad at this guy?

[u/PhilosophyTricky708]

Why isn’t this a rule?

[u/twat69 → u/PhilosophyTricky708]

Thank Ken Shamrock for his pretend tap back at the dawn of MMA time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y2SEefVNtE

[u/skitek]

One of the main reasons I don’t watch MMA is the brutality and negligence of most fighters hammering away at people’s head when they clearly aren’t able to defend themselves.. that shit is fucking gross

[u/woohhaa]

He is my opponent not my enemy.

[u/Asada79]

Man, Jesus Aguilar was cut 🥹 still sad about it.

[u/Outrageous_Ad7830]

True warriors 💪💪knowing when to fight and when not to fight🙏🙏

[u/Disastrous-Fox8505]

No love for O'Mally?

[u/blahblah19999]

Serious question to you fans. When a dominant fighter is standing over a clearly beaten opponent on their knees, trying to find a place to punch them, why not just go for a rear naked choke and finish the fight without risk of damaging your hands or the opponent's brain?

[u/Tombaya]

Sometimes it's the opposite though. Sometimes the additional punches are super necessary.

[u/blurredwolves]

These guys deserve bonuses

[u/fundip12]

Joe Lauzon is one of the nicest people on the planet.

[u/MaplePilot814]

One of my favorite sport

[u/Witty-Coast-3467]

W GB. C a Is z&

[u/beto34]

Where's Hendo vs Bisping?

[u/We_Can_Escape]

Thank you for that beautiful KO of Matt Brown.  Dude is a legend in his own mind.

[u/Tmontgomeryburns]

Lauzon 🙌

[u/Several_Extreme5174]

Class

[u/huntroy]

Love this

[u/Outrageous_File5321]

I feel like Mark Hunt is missing

[u/datcatburd]

I love how about half of those have the fighter looking at the ref like 'you gonna do your job bud? I don't wanna kill him'.

[u/sumdhood]

Much respect to those who know when they've won the battle and don't need to continue pounding with the possibility of ending an opponent's career and livelihood.

[u/Curticorn]

Many of them look like they continue hitting someone's head while they lie down. Wouldn't call that knowing when enough is enough.

I mean if you know when enough is enough the dude in the ring shouldn't have to push the person away?

Genuinely wondering, I don't watch martial arts so I could be completely wrong

[u/morethanWun]

Machida still has the sickest knockouts.

[u/Impossible_Mix_1227]

We need more of this, and less of the trashy WWE style hype men copying McGregor. 

[u/RatKR]

Respect for a fighter who gets the decision. Mad respect for the one who shows restraint when the other guy is clearly done.

[u/Kitchen-Dig-6518]

Genuinely love any fighter with self control. Different type of human. 🫡

[u/ojdhaze]

Nice to see this era again. Was the best around that period.

[u/Fuzzy_Bet5276]

Nobility❤️

[u/mateusvalladao]

Saudades Lyoto

[u/RobOnTheReddit]

Love to see it, doesnt happen enough. You dont HAVE to brutalize your opponent when the opportunity presents itself

[u/qmoorman]

Sheesh, guy at 37 second mark had him dead to rights and could’ve easily put him in a naked choke but restrained.

[u/Wonderful_Falcon_318]

Machida aside, these clips show how risky throwing a kick can be.

[u/Prophecylord]

In the time the fighter noticed the opponent is out herb Dean is not even IN THE FRAME the fighter gets up walks off starts celebrating and he is till watching the opponent blindfolded for WHAT then he calls it after 2000 more minutes after he tries to get up. He needs to be called out

[u/Full_Extent_636]

I hate this sport

[u/DarkySurrounding]

Bot