Do We Use The Term "Legend" Too Loosely In Mixed Martial Arts?

by Kelvin Hunt on Sep 25, 2009 1:50 PM EDT in News Comment 16 comments

I saw this elsewhere and I thought I'd present the question to you all some of my input and whatnot. Mixed Martial Arts as we know it has only been around a little over a decade, and actually was known as "ultimate fighting" in the very beginning here in America. So from a historical perspective, MMA is still in it's infancy stages in regards to other sports with rich traditions like boxing and baseball. Some people still call it 'ultimate fighting' instead of mixed martial arts to this very day. You can name names like Muhammad Ali, Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Hank Aaron, and most people know exactly who they are and what they were affiliated with. However, with MMA you can't really do that at this point in time and it's not really fair to think that you should be able to do that because of MMA's short history. Which brings me to the question. Do we use the term "legend" too loosely in Mixed Martial Arts?

What defines a fighter as a legend?

I've visited across numerous message boards and of course fans have their favorite fighters and will type until their fingers bleed trying to defend why their favorite fighters is the best etc. I've seen names like Igor Vovchachyn, Frank "The Legend" Shamrock", Bas Rutten, Randy Couture, and others tossed around as legends. So if you had to pick 5 fighters in the sport of MMA, who you consider a legend and why? Build with me.

If you have more than five...have at it as well.

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5

1. Fedor – I don’t think I need to reason this

2. Sakuraba – A natural MW who could have cut down to WW but fought LHWs and HWs most of his career and beat or was competitive with most of them. He came in with a catch wrestling style that showed bjj wasn’t the end all to ground fighting. I don’t think there is a grappler out there who has beaten or subbed as many high caliber grapplers he has.

3. Nog – Same as Fedor

I don’t feel like going on right now but I think people throw the name out for Randy too much. His whole “legend” status came from the Sylvia fight only.

by gunranger on Sep 25, 2009 1:58 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I think the word Legend is used too loosely in every sport… not just MMA.

Royce Gracie
Fedor
Wanderlei
Cro Cop
Nogueira
Sakuraba
Hughes (yeah i know)

those guys deserve to be called Legends of the sport.

by cauliflower_ears on Sep 25, 2009 2:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Dan Severn-Brought Wrestling and many other pionerrs to the sport
Royce Gracie- Brought BJJ to America and changed the sport
Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki- Started Pancrase and fought in Prancrace. The Org still chruns out many high-level fighters
And as far as a legend Big John for protecting fighters when the sport was not regulated
Frank Shamrock for using cross-training, being the first 3-tool fighter, and being a star when the sport was dark……

by EVeezy on Sep 25, 2009 2:26 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Interesting

Keep’em coming…and I’m play devil’s advocate in a bit…

http://www.mmaforreal.com
Follow Me On Twitter@KelvinHunt

by Kelvin Hunt on Sep 25, 2009 2:30 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

i'll surprise you. jeremy horn.

around 90 victories.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Sep 25, 2009 2:42 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Look who he was won vs and look who he lost vs. Major diffence in the skills department, That is why Travis Fulton is not a Legend the dude has like 150 wins but could not beat top compettion in his prime

by EVeezy on Sep 25, 2009 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

buawhahaha!

http://www.mmaforreal.com
Follow Me On Twitter@KelvinHunt

by Kelvin Hunt on Sep 25, 2009 2:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

jeremy horn did beat liddell in first fight and i believe he took severn to a draw in the early days

it might not be all about how great you are in the cage it could be how a many people you influence or how great a teacher you were. matt hughes gives alot of credit to j.h. for helping him with his submissions. the second fight with liddell was a war that concludedafter the fourth round where horn said he could not see out of both eyes. he did his fair of damage in that fight too. c.l. would be the first to tell you jeremy horn was one tough hombre. i’m not really a fan of his either i’m just looking at his whole body of work. i glanced at his fight record and he has many wins over people who were considered very good. just another point of view. peace out. ramble on!

by wolfmanshowlforever on Sep 26, 2009 10:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yea

Horn has his place..but I can’t consider him a legend.

http://www.mmaforreal.com
Follow Me On Twitter@KelvinHunt

by Kelvin Hunt on Sep 27, 2009 2:24 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Dan Henderson- So many accomplishments to name
Chuck Liddell- For being so Fucking dominat for so long in the best divison
Randy Cotoure- For fighting the best win or lose
Bas Rutten- For fighting the best win or lose and his domance in Pancrase
Matt Hughes- He didn’t fight the absolute best fighters @ his weight class but he did defend a belt in the UFC more than anyone
Hayato Sakurai- I’m nut-hugging on this one but he was a Shooto star

I might have missed two or three obvious ones

by EVeezy on Sep 25, 2009 2:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree that it is not just in MMA:

For example in Supercross Ricky Carmichael is called the GOAT (greatest of all time) yet he quit to race trucks and cars while he was in his prime. He was facing some stiff new competition that he was having a hard time beating. I don’t think that was a good reason to quit and definitely don’t think he deserves to be called the GOAT!

As far as MMA goes, I think that a Legend is someone who fought since its inception, fought the best competition at the time, has a great fan base, is a good ambassador of the sport and has achieved greatness in the sport (as well as a few other things).
I think that when they are too old to compete anymore and meet the above criteria, they deserve Legend status.

I consider Royce Gracie, Big Nog, Chuck Lidell, Bas Rutten, Don Frye, Randy Cotoure, Dan Severn and a few others as Legends. Not all as Hall of Fame material but definitely Legend Status. =)

by cosmosherry on Sep 25, 2009 4:52 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs