Previous Roundtables:
Who Is Your Favorite Fighter?
What Is Your Favorite Entrance Ever?
What Fight Got You Into Combat Sports?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m40DZKndiM4
Earl Montclair: My favorite fight finish of all time happened at the UFC 115. Rory MacDonald was facing the toughest test of his young career in Carlos Condit in his home country of Canada. After thoroughly dominating Carlos through the first 2 frames, Rory was 5 minutes away from sending Canada into an absolute frenzy.
Carlos knew he was in the shit and needed a finish. After getting thoroughly dominated both on the feet and on the ground, Carlos was able to get on top of Rory via two failed takedown attempts. The last gain of top position for Condit resulted in the most furious, urgent yet measured barrage of elbows and punches we have maybe ever seen. This was the last chance for a desperate man and he smashed the absolute bejesus out of Rory earning himself a TKO victory with a mere 7 seconds left in the fight.
Seeing Rory get so close to this victory in Vancouver only to have it so violently ripped from his grasp was such an emotional rollercoaster and just a tremendous fight that elevated the careers of both men. One of the most violent finishes combined with an absurdly hot crowd and an enormous comeback makes this fight one of my all time favorites.
-(Earl can be reached @EarlMontclair or [email protected])
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iGj9uXDJrA
Josh Hall: For my favorite fight finish of all time I look back to the first MMA card I ever attended in person, UFC 69: Shootout. It was a card full of ups and downs for the fans, from the crazy fun brawl on the prelims between Roger Huerta and Leonard Garcia to the awful co main even where a staph riddled Diego Sanchez spent 15 minutes slowly circling away from Josh Koscheck in their rematch from TUF 1. Any critiques about the quality of the card became irrelevant after the main event, however.
Georges St Pierre and Matt Serra was not a highly anticipated welterweight title fight. Serra was only getting a title shot because of a gimmick on a season of TUF in which past UFC failures would compete, with winners at 170 and 185 pounds receiving title shots in their respective divisions (Travis Lutter missed weight for his at 185 pounds).
Basically, Serra was one of the biggest underdogs in UFC title history. St Pierre had just destroyed Matt Hughes for the title and was around a 7-1 favorite against Serra. It did not matter. St Pierre was able to control the first couple of minutes by spamming kicks with his lead leg and working the jab, but Serra’s work to the body changed things quickly.
Once the hands of GSP began to drop slightly in reaction to the body punches, Serra initiated a brawl. He started to increase his volume, and GSP found himself trading with the powerful New Yorker instead of controlling the range. Serra landed a monster overhand right that grazed the champion’s temple, and you could fell the whole arena shake a few seconds later as the crowd watched GSP wobble across the cage and drop his right hand to the mat.
When Serra saw the hand drop, he knew this was his chance, and he seized it like only a true champion can. He closed the distance. BOOM. Right hand to the temple. DOWN GOES ST PIERRE!!!
The champion fights back to his feet, only to eat another huge right. Still hurt, GSP cannot get out of range. Left hook, right hook. DOWN GOES GSP AGAIN.
He fights back to his feet yet again, shooting for a desperation takedown after eating another thumping right hand. Serra shrugs him off. Right hand. Another right hand, and a third. OH MY GOD GSP IS DOWN AGAIN!!
This time the champion falls hard to his back, and Serra does not allow him to get back to his feet. A never ending barrage of jackhammer right hands from full mount, and GSP begins to go limp. The crowd reaches a full on frenzy as Big John McCarthy steps in, ending one of the biggest upsets in MMA history and crowning Matt Serra Welterweight Champion of the world.
-(Josh can be reached @jhall282 or at [email protected])
Nolan Howell: Randy Couture was a legend by the time I got into MMA. Though the old gray mare wasn’t what she used to be, it still astounded me to watch a man of Couture’s age hang in there with a genetic freak like Brock Lesnar and go to war with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
At UFC 129, Couture was on his last leg and planned to retire. For whatever reason, he was set up against the wood chipper in Lyoto Machida. While Machida had come off the loss of his title to Shogun Rua, there was no doubt in my mind Machida would roll through Couture.
The fight itself was uneventful for the first round and a bit of the second. While Machida had stunned Couture, it was nothing to write home about. Couture was hanging in there when Machida swiveled his hips, usually signifying his going for a leg kick or a high kick. However, he skipped forward and front-kicked with the opposite leg. Down went Couture and up went a tooth. We had seen Anderson Silva land a front kick a few pay-per-views ago, but it wasn’t as ridiculously smooth as the crane kick that felled Couture. Machida’s kick looked like it belonged in a Shaw Brothers flick from the 70s and it nearly had the same effect.
Traditional martial arts aren’t ballyhooed much in today’s world because of the bullshido culture that lead to its demise. Machida reminded me just why I got into the sport with an Elvis Presley-like swivel, skip, and kick. The finish was truly unforgettable.
-(Nolan can be reached @undercardslamnh or at [email protected])
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF14BzW5qrg
Ben Kohn: UFC 100, the biggest event in the history of the company in terms of name value and PPV buys with former champs, top contenders, and possible GOAT GSP on the card, yet he was delegated to the co-main because of the magnitude of the HW title fight between Brock Lesnar, the PPV king at the time vs. Frank Mir, the only man to beat the former Pro-Wrestling icon and monster on a tear.
Despite beating the holy hell out of Mir in the first fight, Brock lost by kneebar and many wondered aloud if he could truly be a dominant champ or if his lack of experience would have him drop his belt in his first defense. Well his first title defense ended in one of the most brutal and horrific face-smashings I’ve seen yet. Brock pinned a helpless Frank Mir against the cage, trapping his right arm in a gift-wrap like position under his own body and let fly with a barrage of hellacious right hands that seemed to cave in Mir’s face. Over and over Brock slammed a lunchbox sized fist into Mir’s dome, his hair flopping around and his body first going limp, and then twitching pathetically until Herb Dean mercifully stepped in to save what was left of Mir’s face from resembling raw meat.
The finish itself was amazing and the post-fight celebration was just as fucking awesome on its own but I will forever have that image of Brock as the dominant champion he was and should have continued to be if not for his illness. That beatdown that I witnessed will remain my favorite finish for a very long time indeed.
-(Ben can be reached @agentbenten or at [email protected]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVSDFzKqBxc
Luke Irwin:
“A big black spider lived in a hole;
A terrible spider was he;
As big as your hand, and with hairy legs,
And a mouth as red as could be.The beetles and flies at the sight of him fled,
And even the birds were afraid.
He had two great nippers, and eight wicked eyes;
How he ran, and what leaps he made!I and all who lived in the garden knew
That terrible spider’s lair,
And told their little ones, under their breath:
‘o never, ‘o never go there!’Those who were naughty and disobeyed,
By their mothers would not have been known,
For the spider had sucked their juicy parts—
Sucked them as dry as a bone.One day when he crept quite out of his hole,
To pounce on a passer-by,
Buzz, buzz, came a wasp: the spider’s afraid—
A spider afraid of a fly!His poisoned nippers he opened wide,
And reared himself up to fight;
Round, round, and round, flew the wasp, then— down!
And stung him before he could bite.He crumpled up, and was carried away,
And buried alive, to feed
The baby-wasps that were soon to be born;
…a story for bullies to heed.”-“The Spider and the Wasp”, Arthur Vine Hall
-(Luke can be reached @BVandDietPepsi or at [email protected])
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