If you are an MMA enthusiast, you know about many epic fights, fighters, and controversies in the Mixed Martial arts, but there are still a number of facts that are unknown even to die hard fans of the sport. So in this article, we have enlisted some very interesting facts about MMA, of which a few are related to the battles and some are more obscure.
First ever MMA fight
The first ever publicized MMA fight set with different styles of fighting against each
other took place in Shanghai in 1909. It was British Boxer Hercules O’Brien who
grappled with Huo Yuan Jia, a Chinese Wushu fighter. another fact about him is that,
Huo used to challenge many fighters from other styles, and he was immortalized in
the 2006 film Fearless,” which starred Jet Li.
The Big Daddy
Gary Goodridge, famously known as “Big Daddy,” was clearly one of the greatest arm wrestlers of all time, but very few know that he had no MMA background before winning the UFC 8. He actually took two full lessons from Kuk Soul right before UFC 8.
The longest winning streak
The Ukrainian mixed martial artist and kickboxer Igor Vovchanchyn has an impressive record of winning 32 fights in a row from January 1996 to May 2000. He retired from professional wrestling at the age of 32, and currently he runs a cafe bar called “Champion”. Vovchanchyn’s record still stands today, and there is a very rare chance that it will be broken in the future.
Griffin’s first ever fight
It is very strange, but the two great icons of MMA from completely different eras, Forrest Griffin and Dan Severn, actually met for the first time in the cage. It was Forrest Griffin’s first fight. This was in 2001, at a promotion called RSF. Severn defeated Griffin 1-0 and won his 58th pro fight by unanimous decision.
The Guy with the Most KO/TKO
Travis Fulton has fought in more documented MMA fights than any other fighter. He fought over 300 matches in just 15 years. Fulton made his debut on July 26, 1996, when he was just 19 years old, against Dave Strasser at an event called “Gladiators”. He lost the match by submission. Within two years of his debut, Travis fought over 50 vale tudo fights. He has the record for most knockouts and technical knockouts in the history of MMA with 92 wins.
The announcer
Mike Goldberg, who is an American commentator and was also an announcer in UFC fights, was not only the announcer of the fights. When he was not in UFC fights, Goldberg used to be an announcer for the Red Bull Air Race World Championships. He also does play-by-play for Arizona Cardinals football games and many other random things. The 58-year-old is mainly known for his work in the UFC from 1997 to 2016. He also worked at Bellator MMA from 2017 to 2021.
The only knockout of “Cabbage”
Wesley Correira, who is nicknamed Cabbage,” began his career in mixed martial arts in 2000. He came into the spotlight after a number of knockout wins in the Heavyweight division. Cabbage was never knocked out in the 21 fights of his professional career, and the impressive thing was that each of his rivals was trying to do the exact same thing. But as you know, streaks and records are made to be broken. Wesley lost his 22nd match to Tank Abbott, and it proved to be Correira’s only knockout loss out of his 33 bouts.
Triangle Choke Masters
Joe Pearson is an MMA fighter whose 22 professional victories out of 39 were by triangle choke, which can be estimated at 56 percent of his wins. On the other hand, 34-year-old Paul Sass has a slightly higher percentage, with 58 percent of his wins via triangle choke, but with far fewer fights because he won 7 out of his 12. Another interesting fact is that Sass isn’t only the UFC record holder for most overall wins by triangle, but Evan Tanner has also won his nine bouts this way.
UFC champion with only two wins in his entire career
The winner of the UFC 3 tournament in 1994, Steve Jennum, faced Harold Howard for the tournament title when Ken Shamrock couldn’t make it to the finals. Jennum won the match by submission, but after this, he lost to Bowen at UFC 4 and never won any fight after that, losing to Tank Abbott, Marco Ruas, and Jason Godse before retiring from MMA.
The Tooth story
Almost every MMA fan knows that the first ever UFC fight was between Gerard Gordo and Telia Tuli and Gerad knocked out their opponent in just 30 seconds. But the fact we are going to tell you about might seem weird and disgusting, but it is true. During the fight, Tuli’s teeth fell into the crowd because of a kick from Gordo. Another disgusting thing was that Tuli’s two more teeth were driven into Gordo’s leg, and to avoid open wounds, the doctors decided not to remove the teeth in the cage. Gordo fought two more times that night with the stuck teeth in his foot, and later he spent several weeks receiving treatment.
