As is the case with just about any full contact sport in existence, the competing favorite is likely to emerge victorious over opposition a good eight of ten times. Even in a sport as erratic as mixed martial arts, the odds makers tend to do their homework, and usually make the right picks. However, when the cycle is broken by the resilient underdog, it’s an amazing sensation, and it echoes in the memory.

In the last 18 years many a favorite has fallen at the hands of the unsuspecting challenger; the man ushered into the cage to become little more than another tally in the favored participants win column. Sometimes upsets are squeezed out on the score cards, sometimes they arrive in fast, dramatic fashion, and now and then an unforeseen variable alters the outcome of a fight. When it comes to the truly memorable upsets, there are a few that just cannot be forgotten.

This year saw a string of MMA fighters execute some amazing submissions. The massive Richard Hale caught Nik Fekete overlooking his submission prowess and locked on a tight inverted triangle choke that put the talented wrestler to sleep at Bellator 38. Chan Sung Jung, or as most now know him, “The Korean Zombie” pulled off one of the most rare submissions you’ll see in the sport, as he applied the powerful “Twister” to an unsuspecting Leonard Garcia at UFC Fight Night 24; it was hands down one of the most brilliant finishes in the history of the sport.

But the spectacular finishes weren’t confined to American based cages, or promotions for that matter. Russian fans were witness to a remarkable modified gogoplata that Vinny Magalhaes pulled out of thin air, cranking the neck of Red Devil product, Viktor Nemkov and forcing the submission, and he did it all from the mount! Shinya Aoki also kept his Japanese fans more than appeased, as he finished his first three fights of 2011 with his patented neck crank. Perhaps Vinny and Shinya should book a lunch and juggle submission dialogue.

This year offered an assortment of spectacular fights. Many a men engaged in highly memorable duels, and while fights like Frankie Edgar versus Gray Maynard III, Nick Diaz versus Paul Daley, and Jose Aldo versus Mark Hominick are certainly worthy of such recognition, one fight took place this year that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the pack.

At UFC 139 two longtime veterans met for the first time, despite traveling similar career courses for years: Dan “Hendo” Henderson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. These two engaged in a war to be remembered. For five full rounds, both men utilized every tool in their repertoire, which led to a frenetic bout that saw plenty of action on the feet, as well as some solid ground work.

Written By: Dennis Fratella

About a week ago I wrote an article on what encompassed the journey of the loser of this heavyweight battle that’s getting ready to go down tomorrow night. Rather than make a prediction then, I wanted to save it for now, because I really needed time to make up my mind not only for the headliner, but also the undercard as well. I think this card—at least these three fights I’m writing about, have to be some of the most well matched fights I’ve seen in some time.

I came to what will likely be—the bitter truths of these 3 fights I’m going to review in this article, and I found that we’re going to have a heavyweight brawl, a coin flip, and a wrestling match.

2011 proved a few very interesting things: veteran fighters with countless years of experience are still capable of evolving and remaining relevant, and the new breed of uber athletic fighters are every bit as frightening as their physique’s and potential ceilings would indicate. From the rejuvenation of Dan Henderson, to the otherworldly resilience of Frankie Edgar to the mesmerizing performances offered forth from Jon Jones, it’s been a great year for mixed martial arts, and these three particular men not only turned heads, but turned in remarkable years that command acknowledgement.

Nick Diaz

A Look At MMA’s Bad Guy’s

In this sport, there are guys who act “bad”, which I can only chalk up to an attempt to intimidate potential foes, and then there are guys who truly are bad. And I don’t mean bad as in synonymous with tough, I mean bad as in synonymous with vile, despicable human beings. We’re talking guys who will break every rule in the book to win inside the cage (including a razor blade inside the UFC MMA gloves), and break every rule outside of the cage just for entertainment value. Some may call them antagonists, some may call them heels, I keep it real simple and call them as I see them: these are the villains of MMA.

Cheick Kongo

Okay, this just in: Santa is a very skilled martial artist (see video)! DO NOT touch his cookies and milk or it might be the last thing you do. Check out the beating he put on the Wavemaster XXL heavbag. Credit goes to Atomdog on youtube for this one.

Merry Christmas (None of this happy holidays crap) from The MMA Zone!

Erik Koch

There is a very good interview here done by Erik “New Breed” Koch.  This rangy featherweight has all the tools required to cement himself as a title contender. He’s got a terrific reach advantage over most foes, slick counter punching, shocking speed, terrific head movement and solid take-down defense. That’s just about all you can ask for, but just to accentuate my point I’ll note the trio of brutal knockouts he’s delivered. This kid is two or three fights away from a shot at gold, and the only true test he must be subjected to prior to his bid, is a bout with a remarkable wrestler.

Unless you have been under a rock it is likely you have heard about the death of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il. Although he was a very strange leader and had strange personal habits he always took his safety very seriously. He demanded that he have the toughest and most skilled bodyguards who trained all their waking hours to protect the eccentric leader.

This video from Lifeleak.com shows the regimen of the bodyguards which is built around becoming a rock like the comment by one man saying we hit things from the moment we got up until we went to sleep. They also have something over President Obama’s bodyguards in that I bet the U.S. bodyguards don’t practice dodging ‘shuriken’ commonly referred to as throwing stars. Check out this video to see the incredible work of Kim Jong-il’s bodyguards.

We’ve all seen the previews. We know how big they are. We know what’s at stake. I’m not going to focus on the styles or match-ups yet. I could write on this forever. But rather, I want to echo the previous post, “UFC Heavyweight Fight: Lesnar vs. Overeem“, and add my own $.02 if I may, on the possibilities that may be facing the heavyweight division after this all goes down on December 30th.

I agree with our contributor Jeff Herbst in that the heavyweight division was in all sorts of trouble about 3 years ago, and it still has a lot of work to do. There are two great fighters in the UFC at heavyweight right now, that being Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez. We had the two best in MMA go at it in November and we all loved it in all of its 64 second grandeur. Lately, it seems nobody has really done anything in the division to warrant a third person involved in this conversation.