Your top 3 favorite MMA fighters? and 2 runner ups ?

[Tornado69]

1. George St Pierre
2. Mirko Crocop
3. Fedor Emelianko (sp?)

Runner ups

4. Andrei Arlovski
5. Royce Gracie

Gracie because I remember watching it when it first came out and he was just awesome. Kind of like the pioneer of MMA and the first big star, like Elvis to Rock N Roll. Even if you never saw any of his fights, you just respected him no matter what. Arlovski just has an exciting style and is almost always going to give you a great fight to be excited about.

Onto my favorites, GSP is just absolutely awesome and exciting as well, on the ground or standing, he's just one of the best all around fighters and every fight I've seen him in so far has been action packed

Crocop just seems like a machine with no emotion and insane power. Those leg kicks are just superhuman it seems.

Fedor, I always heard lots about him and he was near the top of my list even though I didn't see any of his fights until just a few weeks ago. He just had my respect through what I'd heard and when I downloaded a lot of his fights over the past few weeks I've realised just how good this SOB is. He's an absolute animal. That ground and pound and his submissions are just awesome. Can't wait to see him whoop the UFC HW's like Sylvia and a few others now that UFC bought PRIDE. I love Couture but at his age with the talent he has to face in the future he's going to be back commentating very soon. How about your thoughts ?

[orange]

1. Fedor destroys anyone he fights. He went undefeated in Pride (very very difficult) and has beaten some tough dudes (crocop for one).

2. GSP looked excellent in that fight vs. hughes. I enjoy watching pride a bit more and am not as familiar with UFC. But GSP looked like an animal, very versatile.

3. crocop/henderson (the pride middleweight champion) have to be up there too. Henderson beat silva down pretty good. Crocop is a monster as well, his kicks are sick.

[zer0]

1. Nick Diaz...i know he's cocky beyond belief, and most people hate his brash attitude, but there's just something about him "winning" his losses (ie: never gotten his ass kicked) vs. guys like sanchez, parisyan, sherk, riggs, etc. i dont know what it is, i love watching him, win or lose.

2. Georges St. Pierre...because he's the exact opposite of Diaz, and wins while being incredibly humble. he's just so f'n good, i'm not sure there's anyone 170 who will beat him soon.

3. Shogun Rua....cause he's so incredibly talented, and will be the face of non-hw mma for years to come, imo.

(runner ups? why not make it top 5?)

4. Wandy Silva
5. Nate Marquadt

[bluef0x]

1. Nick Diaz - Reppin' my hometown, so I gotta return the favor
2. Ken Shamrock
3. Royce Gracie - Shamrock vs Gracie was the greatest

Honorable Mention:
Tank Abbott - LMAO, I just laughed whenever he came out. I loved seeing him get KO'd in under a minute.

[MikeyPatriot]

Fedor - LDO
Cro Cop - LDO
Bas Rutten - Danga da danga da danga da

[Jeff W]

Kazushi Sakuraba
Vanderlei Silva
Fedor Emelianenko

[TalkingDonkey]

1. GSP (duh)
2. Mirko Cro Cop
3. JZ Calvancanti

Runner-ups:
Aoki Shinya
Sean Sherk

GSP wins hands down, the total package. Maybe one of the best athletes in any sport, ridiculously well-rounded. Cro Cop for pure striking massacres, I almost did backflips down the street when he LHK'ed Wand. JZ is more unknown, he fights at 155 in K-1 Hero's. But this guy is sick, crazy jiu-jitsu skills and a damn good striker. Aoki Shinya IMO has the best jiu-jitsu game for MMA, he throws flying subs (armbars, triangles, etc) like it's no thing. Also subbed Joachim Hansen with a gogoplata, so sick. A lot of people rap Sherk for being boring, but his striking combos are lightning fast and his wrestling is the best in the world at 155.

Fedor would have made my list a year ago, but his refusal to fight any legit competition pisses me off. His last competitive fight was Cro Cop in August of '05, since then he's fought only 3 times versus Zuluzinho, a 42-year old Coleman and Mark Hunt. If he doesn't fight someone real good real soon (Lindland does NOT count) he's going to move into paper champ territory.

JZ Calvancanti highlight: http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance...jz-calvancanti

[gusmahler]

1) CroCop. Just love his style. I know he's not the best HW out there. But he's still my fave.

2) Fedor. He IS the best HW out there. But doesn't have the excitement of CroCop

3) Shogun. A better version of Vanderlei Silva.

[Jeff W]

[ QUOTE ]
3) Shogun. A better version of Vanderlei Silva.

[/ QUOTE ]

Meh, I disagree--I think you're weighting Silva's most recent losses too much. Shogun is awesome, though. It's a shame that we won't see any more Soccer Kicks or Head Stomps from the Chute Boxe team(and no knees unless/until NSAC changes the rules).

[TalkingDonkey]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
3) Shogun. A better version of Vanderlei Silva.

[/ QUOTE ]

Meh, I disagree--I think you're weighting Silva's most recent losses too much. Shogun is awesome, though. It's a shame that we won't see any more Soccer Kicks or Head Stomps from the Chute Boxe team(and no knees unless/until NSAC changes the rules).

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree with calling Shogun Wand 2.0 because they're completely different fighters. Wand has a black belt in jiu-jitsu but he has shown a reluctance to throw submissions from the bottom; it seems like he holds on and prays for a standup. He likes to push, push, push on the feet and come at you with constant strikes. I see Shogun's stand-up as more technical, he uses more kicks and angles than Wand. He's also not afraid to play ground game - his display of leglocks against Kevin Randleman was sick, and he showed some very crisp jiu-jitsu against the judo world champion Nakamura. I think they just get lumped together because of their Chute Boxe membership.

Cliff notes: Wand > Shogun on feet, Shogun > Wand everywhere else