Tapping Out With TBerg 05.29.09: Episode XXXIII: Freak Fights

Posted by Todd Bergman on 05.29.2009

Freak Fights are all the rage in Japan. 411’s Todd Bergman breaks down the history of the Freak Fight and discusses why the match up is still relevant in today’s MMA. Plus, a Top 5 Freak Fight video countdown along with readers’ feedback from last week in this edition of Tapping Out With TBerg.

DREAM 9 brought forth a lot of different opinions this week. Some of the people were thrilled to see an old concept brought back in the Super Hulk Tournament and some were completely put off by the thought of MMA returning to its roots. The roots, of course, being the open-weight, sometimes even called Freak Fights by fans. These battles were the original building blocks of a young company named the Ultimate Fighting Championship. These fights were set up to determine who was the best fighter in the world, regardless of size. Royce Gracie made a career out of battles like this. Ultimately when the UFC began losing large amounts of money due to being banned from Pay-Per view due to what was referred to as gross, barbaric acts of violence from many politicians, the sport was cleaned up and presented in a more viewer-friendly way. Of course, this viewer-friendly product meant the adaptation of weight classes and a produce that more closely resembled boxing than the original. While, I'm not arguing that the sport needed the change, the fact that the open-weight fight was taken away from a vast majority of American-based promotions is truly a crime.

Dana White isn't a fan of the so called Freak Fights. It's not only Dana that hates the concept; some forum sites will ban you if you mention the term Freak Fight. What a novel concept done by the do-gooders of the underground when it comes to talking MMA. The thing that bothers me the most is that Dana White opening his mouth and slamming this form of match up. Dana wouldn't even remotely be in the position that he is had it not been for this type of fight. David vs. Goliath match ups are still all the rage in the world of MMA. Skill and technique over power and might is what Mixed Martial Arts is all about. You must look no further than this week's DREAM 9. Minowa used great skill to submit the monstrous Bob Sapp. In fact, all of the smaller fighrers, with the exception of Bash Brother Jose Canseco, used their ability to overcome huge, physical obstacles. It's been a long time since a promotion outside of the UFC garnered the public's eye like this past DREAM event did. Granted, a huge majority of it had to do with Canseco and his on-again, off-again relationship with the media, but Choi really became somewhat of a star here in America.

What Is A Freak Fight
While the term Freak Fight is thrown around more than Paris Hilton, in my eyes the basic definition of the fight is as follows.

a match-up between two physically unequal opponents (i.e. Royce Gracie vs. basically anyone in the first few UFC events)

or

the general booking of a fight by means of physical characteristics (i.e. "Battle Of The Giants" Gan McGee vs. Tim Sylvia)

The term Freak Fight cannot only be used when companies are promoting open weight fights but when they are matching up two guys, or girls, who are billed on their physical traits. Earlier, I called out Dana White for being down on this type of fight, but he was in charge of the company when Sylvia battled McGee and, for the most part, Hughes vs. Gracie. White just changed the term of the Hughes vs. Gracie fight from Freak Fight to Super Fight because it sounded better.

Why the Hate?
There's a great deal of hate for this type of match up when it comes to MMA fans. For the most part, MMA fans are some of the biggest assholes in the world. Yours truly is included and recognized in that statement. MMA fans think that the sport is untouchable and we overanalyze everything and rip on everyone. Maybe it's the huge amount of testosterone that comes with the sport. The term Freak Fight, it somewhat of an insult in its own right. However, much like many nicknames, this term truly has defined the fights in general. While these fights usually don't have a huge effect on World MMA Rankings, they do prove who is a better fighter on a given day. Isn't that enough for the common fan? Believe it or not, there is a great amount of people who quit watching the sport when sanctions and the boxing mentality took over. I have to listen to some of them bitch on a daily basis at work, and it's greatly irritating, but they do have valid points. So while I've gone off on a huge tangent for no apparent reason, let's get back to the hate. The rankings argument is flawed because most of the fights that take place in MMA have nothing to do with rankings. Most fighters, outside of Sean Sherk (nice boxing exhibition the other night, Muscle Shark!) don't care what they are ranked anyway. They fight because they simply love the combat aspect of the sport. For general purposes, the next two shows run by bigger promotions are featuring catch-weight fights as their Main Events. I was unaware that websites published a catch-weight division ranking system. There is a pound-for-pound ranking, but it's really not the same thing. The other argument is injuries and unfair match ups. The injury aspect is anther one of my pet peeves because you could just as easily be injured riding up the escalator at work as you could fighting Bob Sapp in an Freak Fight. It's a high-contact sport, so you might get injured by Jonny Nobody down at Mr. Fuji's Dojo when he throws a straight kick that splits your dome. Things like that happen in MMA, so deal with it. The unfair match up argument sounds more like the NCAA Football argument of teams running up the score on a defenseless opponent. If you don't like it, stop it. While I realize that it might be harder to stop Mark Hunt's atomic butt drop than to stop a Tim Tebow Jesus Pass, you still train to outsmart and out fight your opponent. Sure, Hunt might KO you silly with one punch but you might get lucky like Soku and land a ridiculous amount of shots after the fight has been stopped. What have we learned here? Probably not a whole lot, but as MMA fans, we (myself included) need to stop being hard asses about everything and just enjoy the sport.

Top 5 Freak Fights of All Time
While the list is completely subjective, here are my choices of the Top 5 Freak Fights of all time.

5.) Keith Hackney vs. Emmanuel Yarborough UFC 3-The American Dream



While this MMA might be pretty hard to watch, it's actually pretty comical. To hear the announcers call Yarborough's style, and I quote, "samoo" and "jewdo" brings back the fond memories of yesteryear.

4.) Fedor Emelianenko vs. Hong Man Choi Yarennoka - New Years Eve 2007



The best fighter in the world shows why he has that title. The arm bar resembles a child swinging on a tree branch.

3.) Zulu vs. Butterbean PRIDE 34-Kamikaze



This is a Freak Fight at its best. Two huge dudes battling it out for the Golden Doughnut Cup. I'm shocked that Butterbean could touch his arms together with the amount of fat on his body mixed with Zulu's. That is a pretty hilarious intro video to the fight as well. The link to the actual fight can be seen at the following site.
Zulu vs. Butterbean
2.) Bob Sapp vs. Minotauro Nogueira PRIDE-Shockwave



This video is more of a clipped version of the fight, but you will still get the point. In the same way that Royce Gracie used to tangle up his bigger opponents, Big Nog does the same here. Apparently PRIDE couldn't pay their light bill as both are dancing in the dark towards the end of the fight.

1.) Gary Goodridge vs. Paul Herrera UFC 8-David vs. Goliath



This is completely violent and not something that you want to show someone who might want to get into the sport. However, the old UFC graphics are hilarious along with the announcing. Kuk Sool Won for the win!

So there's my list of Top 5 Freak Fights of all time. I'm sure that most of you will have others that should replace the one's that I've listed below.

Talking T-Bags
Last week, only a few people were able to find my article. I appreciate the few responses.




Charles loves me: You crack me so consistently, up.

I honestly couldn't care less if you are joking or not. I will take the compliment.

Big Nasty goes for the KO: "the ultimate beat down that was laid on Serra's mentor, Royce Gracie."

That would be RENZO Gracie, ignorant sir. You should never be able to write again. I would rather chew all my limbs off than witness such an atrocity ever again. You deserve the name "Todd Bergman".

Pretty original nickname there, but I do get the relation to the UFC game. Anyway, I will not expect a response from you this week because you won't have any limbs. Don't let that hold you back though. You can always agree to fight Kyle Maynard in a Freak Fight.
I already responded to your Gracie claim, so there's no need to touch on that again.

Conk is correct: UFC Undisputed has ridiculous fight sims. GSP went 1-8 in my Career.

It is fairly crazy how that works out. I, for some reason, can't stop a takedown no matter what I do. Keep in mind that I've maxed out my takedown defense as well. Oh well, I guess there's always playing online and fighting the people who constantly run away from you and the ones that do the same Frank Mir punch over and over. I hate 12 year olds!!

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