Which Fighters Are MMA Hall of Fame Worthy?

by SlickRick00 on Jul 1, 2009 1:16 PM EDT in News Comment 17 comments

UFC Middleweight Champ Anderson Silva

What fighters that are currently competing do you believe should be deemed Hall of Fame worthy? Although MMA has no official Hall, which fighters (if they retired today) would you cast a ballot for? Feel free to break your selections down by weight class. Also feel free to list any guys that you'd consider to be "on the bubble." Here are just a few of my shoe-in vote getters:

HWT- Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Randy Couture

205- Quinton Jackson, Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva, Tito Ortiz

185- Anderson Silva, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba

170- Georges St. Pierre, Matt Hughes

155- B.J. Penn, Takanori Gomi, Sean Sherk

145- Mike Brown, Urijah Faber, Norifumi Yamamoto

135- Miguel Torres

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Rec'd

I’ll be back with mine a little later.

http://www.mmaforreal.com

by Kelvin Hunt on Jul 1, 2009 1:58 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

HW- Mirko Cro Cop and Frank Mir depending on his next few fights
LHW – Forrest Griffin, just for his importance to the sport.
MW – Frank Shamrock, Dan Henderson, Masakatsu Funaki
WW – Pat Miletich, is he still competing?
LW – Jens Pulver, Mach Sakurai

I’ll probably come up with some more later on

" Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated "
- Hemingway

by Hellsing on Jul 1, 2009 2:15 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

HWT-Fedor, Big Nog, Couture, Mark Coleman
LHW-Wandy, Liddell, Ortiz
MW-Anderson Silva, Sakuraba, Henderson
WW-Matt Hughes, GSP
LW-Ehh….

Bubble Fighters-Rich Franklin, Jens Pulver

My criteria would consist of the following:

Win/Loss Records
Who And How They defeated their opponents
Contributions To The Sport(Trends, Trademarks)
Longetivity

Plus this is off the top of my head…so don’t shoot me if I left someone off…

http://www.mmaforreal.com

by Kelvin Hunt on Jul 1, 2009 2:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

One of the guys that I’d consider “on the bubble” would be Lyoto Machida. If he retired today I’m not sure if his body of work would warrant it or not. Ask me again after October and you may well get a different answer.

by SlickRick00 on Jul 1, 2009 2:34 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I think Machida needs a couple of more big wins before I’d say he’s worthy….Rashad Evans is the only top ten LHW he’s beaten…

http://www.mmaforreal.com

by Kelvin Hunt on Jul 1, 2009 2:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

True. If he can get a couple more wins I think he’s in the mix.

by SlickRick00 on Jul 1, 2009 2:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

all of the above plus frye and tank abbott. i know alot don’t think tank is worthy, but he was the 1rst ufc fighter that made me think “wow, i can’t wait to see that dude again”. royce and ken were cool to watch, but tank just had that “it” factor for a brief period of time. i’m a little older than some of fans who probably don’t have much appreciation for someone like tank.

by bdw on Jul 1, 2009 3:31 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

An interesting topic to be sure but I feel like most of these lists are polluted by wishful thinking. My list would be much smaller, probably including:

Fedor
Randy Couture
Matt Hughes
Liddell
Royce – brought BJJ to the attention of Western sports.
Rickson – brought BJJ “back” to Japan.
Sakuraba

Some guys I would have in my fantasy list by the time they retire,

Anderson Silva
GSP
Nogueira

And some more guys who might make it if they keep up their impressive careers,

Machida
BJ Penn
Cro Cop
Shogun
Gomi
Rogério

Specifically did not include, Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva, Sean Sherk

by Ahhhoki on Jul 1, 2009 3:39 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Royce

Yea, I forgot about him…Rickson probably doesn’t make it IMO…because of the # of MMA fights he has…I mean he’s only fought on 7 different occassions…including the Zulu fights…he was important in BJJ/Japan though and the birth of PRIDE.

http://www.mmaforreal.com

by Kelvin Hunt on Jul 1, 2009 4:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

MMA Hall Of Fame

It would be fantastic if they got all of the MMA bloggers together to vote on the MMA Hall Of Fame like they do with the baseball sports writers and the Baseball Hall Of Fame.

by MMAMoneyLine on Jul 1, 2009 4:38 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

What up MMAMoneyLine?

True…actually…it’s something I would be interested in…

http://www.mmaforreal.com

by Kelvin Hunt on Jul 1, 2009 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

agreed

i like that the ufc has a hof, and don’t blame them for not including non-zuffa fighters, the NFL doen’t induct CFL players, nor does MLB induct japanese players (unless they played for those orgs) but it would be very nice to see a unified world HOF much like baseball and BOXING does, with the writers voting, but 1 has to remember it took decades before either of these 2 sports plus the nhl and nfl included to open an actual hof facility. someday :)

by bdw on Jul 1, 2009 5:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs