I will admit that I am relatively new when it comes to watching UFC, especially when it comes to fighters I have yet to watch, I am still a huge fan of mixed martial arts and the competition it brings. And on Tuesday night (May 15) I had the distinct pleasure of watching my first fight featuring Korean Zombie (Chan Sung Jung) as he took on Dustin Poirier.

Before the fight began, I was warned by both my best friend and sister’s boyfriend that I would be in for a treat. Both explained to me Zombie’s American fight history and how he was known for his barn burner fights. They also wanted to explain how he got his nickname but figured it would be better if I just watched.

Once the fight began and I saw Zombie and Poirier going after one another, I knew right away exactly why he was called Zombie. He kept taking hits on his chin and delivering equally impressive blows back. After a couple of takedowns in the first round, Zombie appeared to have a slight edge. The second round certainly didn’t disappoint and neither did the third round.

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There is nothing better than a good brawl between two competitors, but it can all culminate and go away with one perfectly timed punch, kick, knee, or elbow.  This leads to complete excitement and enjoyment amongst the fans.  Now let us take a look at the top five greatest one-hitter quitters in UFC history.

5. Todd Duffee vs. Mike Russow @ UFC 114: Rampage vs. Evans

4. Mirko “Cro Cop” vs. Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga @ UFC 70: Nations Collide

The UFC is bringing epic wars to Fox with a welterweight battle between top contenders, Johnny Hendricks and Josh Koshcheck, in a fight with title implication.  Heading the card is a battle between the two toughest fighters in the lightweight division as relentless Jim Miller takes on scrappy Nate Diaz in what is sure to be fight of the night.

Welterweight Battle: Revenge and Validation

As Josh Koshcheck continues his campaign for another welterweight title fight and another shot at Georges St. Pierre, he finds himself completely motivated and looking for revenge against his opponent Johnny “Big Rig” Hendricks.  At UFC 141, Johnny Hendricks took on the most significant test of his career against Jon Fitch, who many believe is one of the top two ranked welterweights in the world and Hendricks knocked Fitch out with one punch, eleven seconds into the first round.  Hendricks accomplished something that GSP, Thiago Alves, and Diego Sanchez could not accomplish in a whole fight and that is finishing off Jon Fitch.

Koshcheck last fought Mike Pierce in a rather lackluster performance because he felt that he “wasn’t motivated for the fight.”  With the move from his long time home of the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California, to his own gym in Fresno, one has to wonder if Kos will be able to adapt to a new camp style.  There will certainly be no lack of motivation for Kos with him taking on the man who knocked out his good friend and training partner, Fitch.  This will be the first time that both men will be facing an opponent with just as much power if not more power in their hands.

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At UFC 145 Jon “Bones” Jones looks to defend his UFC Light Heavyweight Championship for the third time against top contender, former Light Heavyweight Champion, and former friend and training partner, “Suga” Rashad Evans.

After almost a year of teasing, the two top light heavyweights in the world will finally clash this Saturday at UFC 145.  This all started when Evans was set to fight Shogun Rua at UFC 128 for the light heavyweight championship but hurt his knee and had to pull out of the fight.  Meanwhile, Jon Jones handed Ryan Bader the first loss of his professional career and was granted a title shot after the victory.  Jones went in and made a mockery of the former champion, Rua, and took his belt in dominating fashion.  Then Jones was slated to defend his title against Rashad, but clearly there were a lot of issues going on behind the scenes.  Greg Jackson was the head coach of both Rashad Evans and Jon Jones and Rashad refused to train with Jackson because he would be favoring the younger champion in Jones and if they were both being trained by the same coach it was going to be unacceptable.

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UFC President, Dana White has officially announced the rematch that we have all been waiting for – finally! Chael Sonnen will get his rematch against Anderson Silva this June in Brazil at UFC 147.

In their last fight, Sonnen was laying the smack down on Silva for 23 minutes. Unfortunately for Chael, he got caught in a nasty triangle choke and was forced to tap with just seconds left in the fifth round.

Unlike their previous bout, Anderson Silva shouldn’t be complaining about injury and should be in full health and ready to take another beating – this time in his home country. The Brazilian fans are pretty crazy and this is by far the biggest MMA fight that Brazil has seen in years so who knows what will happen in the stands.

Personally I want to see Sonnen open a can on Silva and take the UFC Middleweight title from him in front of 50,000 crazy Brazilians – I want to see people tearing down fences, fighting each other and breaking television equipment.

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The endless debate of what are the best fights in UFC history continues and there certainly are those who make their picks on the basis of a phenomenal finish or because their favorite fighter is involved in the fight.  In 2009, in anticipation for UFC 100, Zuffa counted down the greatest fights in history, but I looked at the top 10 picks and I was very puzzled by the choices because many of them were not as good as you would think.  However, because this is already an existant list and everyone will have their own opinions about it, I will be making my top five picks post UFC 100.  This list will only include fights that took place from July 2009 to the present.

You may notice that a majority of this list consists of fights from 2011 – which was one hell of a fight year. To me, what dictates a good fight is a back and forth battle where both men are in the fight and it is not a clear domination, nor is it an incredible finish.  Whether you are a long time fan of the UFC or a newcomer, these are must see fights.

5. Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 102

In August of 2009, one of the most anticipated and highly talked about match ups in heavyweight history took place.  Two MMA legends went head to head when “The Natural” took on “Big Nog” in one of the most back and forth and action packed heavyweight fights of all time.  Although this fight only took place two years ago, you need to realize that before this fight, people looked at the majority of the heavyweight division as guys who would take you down, hold you there and not try to stay in the pocket.  This was before the era of the “super-heavyweight” fighters such as Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez, Shane Carwin, and Junior Dos Santos came along and changed the landscape of the heavyweight division.

Here are two men who evolved from the very beginning in both Pride and the UFC having won a combined 4 UFC heavyweight championships, 3 UFC light-heavyweight championships, and the Pride Heavyweight and Heavyweight Grand Prix title.  Needless to say, the hype of this fight was quite immense, but at the same time, many people were writing both fighters off after each having lost to Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir.  Couture utilized excellent counter, dirty boxing and world class wrestling, while Nogueira used his boxing and jiu jitsu.  Both men were throwing and connecting on boms and Big Nog had dominant positions on the ground.  This was an exciting fight for all three rounds with action never ending and neither man accepting defeat.  Definitely one of the most exciting heavyweight fights of all time.

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With the recently crowned Strikeforce Bantamweight Women’s champion, Ronda Rousey, maintaining an undefeated record utilizing a plethora of armbars – the question now is when will she be able to showcase her skills in the UFC? For a few years now, there has been a boom in women participating in mixed martial arts.  The majority of the top female fighters in the world have competed in Strikeforce including Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey, Gina Carano,  and Cristiane Santos, but the trend of women fighting in MMA is ever expanding.

The biggest female name in the sport has to be Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, who won the inagural Strikeforce women’s featherweight championship and has defended it 3x. People have always seen the world of sports to be dominated by men, but these women have shown that there is beauty within violence.  These women are the figureheads of a movement that shows that it’s not just the men who can compete at the highest level of the sport. The women’s division began in Strikeforce in 2009 and has flourished since.

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Anthony “Showtime” Pettis earned a title shot against long time WEC rival and new UFC Lightweight Champion, Ben “Smooth” Henderson.  This is absolutely ridiculous. At first, I couldn’t believe it when I read the headlines but then I confirmed it with Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez at his gym last night.  He and I both agree that Pettis was not next in line for a title shot.

Pettis knocked out Joe Lauzon with a “round house kick from Hell,” a nasty “shin to chin,” in the first round of their fight last Saturday night in Japan at UFC 144.  Yes, Pettis was on the main card but he was the first fight of that main card – that usually means that your fight is less important than those after yours.  But, in the eyes of Dana White, Pettis’ knockout was enough to earn him a rematch against Ben Henderson.

The history between these two fighters dates back to the WEC, where Pettis beat Henderson to become the last WEC lightweight champion.  Pettis, who is known for his flashy style, ran, leaped off the cage and, in mid air, kicked Ben Henderson in the face to knock him down (video below).  Bendo did not get knocked out and Pettis stole the WEC championship from Henderson in a unanimous decision.  Now they will meet again in the UFC for Henderson vs. Pettis II.

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The UFC makes its first appearance in Japan since UFC 29 in 2000 and it is bringing a stacked card to the Saitama Super Arena, long time home of Pride Fighting Championships.  Featured bouts include the welterweight debut of Japanese stand out Yoshihiro Akiyama taking on multiple world champion Jake Shields.  Ryan Bader challenges a man who made his name in Pride and Japan, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.  And in the main event Lightweight champion, Frankie Edgar takes on relentless challenger, Ben Henderson.

Shields vs. Sexyama:

In what will certainly be a very interesting fight, Yoshihiro Akiyama makes his welterweight debut against top contender and former Strikeforce middleweight champion, Jake Shields.  This is a very interesting match up because both men are tremendous grapplers. Shields utilizes a unique combination of All-American wrestling and Brazilian jiu jitsu and Akiyama has a tremendous judo background.  While standing, Akiyama has shown on multiple occasions that he is more than willing to engage anyone as he showed against Vitor Belfort, Michael Bisping, and Chris Leben — all of whom are known for their stand up skills.  I believe that the advantage in the standup realm belongs to Akiyama who has very crisp technique and power.  However, on that note, Shields has shown that he has a tremendous chin despite his last fight, which he lost via knockout to Jake Ellenberger.

The advantage on the ground most definitely goes to Shields.  Shields has submitted many an opponent and is one of the biggest threats on the ground to any fighter in the welterweight division.  The big question mark in this fight is whether or not the weight cut affect the stamina and technique of Akiyama. In his fight against Leben, he got extremely tired as the fight wore on, so he has shown to have problems with stamina.  The weight cut will only have more effects on his conditioning and cardio.  The fact that Akiyama will be performing in front of his home country will only fuel the passion and will help him to put on the performance of his life.  However, I believe that Shields will not let this fact get in the way of what needs to get done.  I have Shields winning by decision.

Rampage vs. Bader:

Light heavyweight upstart, Ryan Bader takes a serious step up in competition as he challenges the man that unified the Pride and UFC light heavyweight championships, and a man who made his name in Japan fighting for Pride — Quinton Rampage Jackson.  Rampage clearly will have the home field and experience advantage with over 40 fights and having made his name in Pride Fighting Championships. 

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This is not a list to take away anything from the current champions in the UFC, but this is a list about who would be the most dangerous contenders for each champion.

Flyweight: Joseph Benavidez

For those of you that were unaware, the UFC will be having a four-man tournament featuring Benavidez, Yashuhiro Urushitani, Demetrious Johnson, and Ian McCall to crown an inagural flyweight (125lb) champion.  Out of these four contenders, Benavidez has the greatest chance to be crowned champion.  He has only two losses on his record, coming at the hands of current bantamweight champion and top 10 pound for pound fighter, Dominick Cruz.  The reason that Benavidez has the greatest chance is his well roundedness.  While all of these men utilize tremendous speed and agility, Benavidez is big, strong, fast, agile and has incredible standup and wrestling.  This will lead him to victory and championship gold.

Bantamweight: Urijah Faber (current No. 1 contender)

The only man to hold a victory over the current bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, Faber looks to settle the score in the rubber match between after they coach the next season of the ultimate fighter.  Urijah Faber is one of the most well rounded fighters in mixed martial arts, utilizing explosive wrestling as well as excellent boxing and kickboxing.  He has never really been a great threat on the feet, but in recent years he has proven that he is more than willing to stand. His standup inflicted solid damage against Raphael Assuncao, Takeya Mizugaki, Eddie Wineland, Cruz, and Brian Bowles – all of whom have either held the title or have been legitimate contenders.

Faber utilizes incredible head movement and great angles while on the feet.  His ability to cut off the ring and cover distance is exceptional as he showed in his last fight against Bowles.  This is what makes him such a threat to Cruz because Cruz utilizes his mobility which makes it hard to attack and gain an advantage over him.  If Faber can cut off the ring and utilize all aspects of his well rounded game, he can finish his most bitter rival and secure the UFC Championship that he has for so long desired.

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