Favorite fighter thread ....

[mrhurtado17]

wow. interesting choices lol. i cant stand many of the guys you mentioned but you all gave good reasons haha. i love gsp! and i never thought i would at first. but he sold himself to me over the years!

[mwagner24]

my favorite two are Eddie Wineland and Mark Hominick

I have met both of them and Wineland and I keep in touch he's a great dude...I met Hominick the day after the Aldo fight and even though he couldn't see out of one eye and looked beat up he smiled in our picture and was nice as could be....Shane Carwin is a close 3rd :)

[ChargerChris]

Rich "Ace" Franklin has been my favorite fighter even back to his SuperBrawl days. I always loved the fact that he was a teacher (like myself) who trained in a converted garden shed. Plus he's the most down to earth, humble athlete I've ever had the opportunity to meet and train with. I've followed his career ever since he started.

[hector234]

Dan Henderson, always been a fan of his. I never miss a Hendo fight

[hector234]

Alltime? Kazushi Sakuraba and Carlos Newton stand out as two of my favorites. I know it dates me a bit, but if you go back and watch some of the old Pride events, guys like Saku and Ronin were constantly looking for ways to evolve the sport past punches and kicks. The fight where Sakuraba first tried the jumping foot stomp I think was a huge step forward (no pun intended) toward exposing the capabilities of the sport, and their clash together stands out as possibly my favorite fight of all time. I don't often get excited over much, but I could hardly contain my excitement in meeting Newton a couple weeks back.

Nowadays, I keep a lot of the same "must watch" guys as many of you and I rarely miss a UFC or Strikeforce event, but I really like the guys looking to take the sport and the fight game into the next level...guys like Rory MacDonald and Jon Jones...

...but I still mark hard for some of the grizzled vets like Dan Henderson :D

The Gracie Hunter! Man, he is one of the best of the sport. One of the best grapplers, i remember watching the Sakuraba vs Newton match, classic match

[mayhem13]

Alessio Sakara.

Italian background, exciting to watch fight, cool tats..and loves to throw bodyshots, which are greatly underused in MMA!!

[chadsexington]

The Gracie Hunter! Man, he is one of the best of the sport. One of the best grapplers, i remember watching the Sakuraba vs Newton match, classic match

Carlos will tell you its one of his favorite matches too, even though he was on the losing end.

Sakuraba's one of the people I credit for making MMA what it is today. If you go back and watch some of the old Pride events, some of the guys like Renzo Gracie were looking to duplicate Royce's success the same way he did...using jiu-jitsu. Meanwhile, guys like Don Frye and Gary Goodridge were looking to bring the pain with their fists. Saku put both of those together, and it wasn't until the Newton fight where I thought he was matched up with someone that worked both styles as well as he did, which is what made it such a good fight.

[NyFanCam01]

Tito Ortiz!!

[FCFighter]

the late Evan Tanner but active fighters my fav would be Vitor Belfort

[anthonypettis622]

Tito Ortiz!!

I have to ask...why? He's a such a baby, and whiner, before every fight it's the same BS, "I've never felt like this before, I'm 100%, and I feel better than ever!" Then after the fight he didn't lose because he was facing a superior opponent, no, it was that he had some crazy injury, like after the Forrest fight he had a cracked skull...I really don't think you can get cleared to fight with a cracked skull!!!!

I will say, he was a great fighter in his prime, but I really can't stand his personality...at all. Unlike Chuck and Randy, he embarrasses the sport more than he helps at this point.