Fight Club

Earlier today my six year old son Eric (he turns 7 this month) posed an interesting question to me. He asked, "Daddy, who would win in a fight between a shark and a rhinocerous?" I told him I didn't know, but that fight would never happen due to their different habitats. I also told him it would be an awesome fight to watch though.

Then I thought about how that's the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) started. Everyone wondered how a boxer might fair against a wrestler. A stand up fighter vs. a ground fighter. The Gracie family from Brazil wanted to bring their fighting style which consists of grappling, to the U.S. This discipline is known as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The Gracie's wanted to show people that a smaller man could beat a larger stand up fighter. So, with no weight classes, UFC 1 took place with Royce Gracie representing the Gracie family. The Gracie's proved exactly what they wanted, a smaller man could beat a much larger stand-up fighter with jiu jitsu.


Royce Gracie in some of the early UFC tournaments

Mixed Martial Arts was born. 15 years later, there's about six different disciplines used in MMA, providing fans all over the world with dream match-ups with different styled fighters. Over the years the UFC has changed dramatically and is much better for it. UFC 91 takes place next Saturday.


Between little Eric's question and me relating it to the UFC I began to think of some unlikely dream fights. Here's what I came up with:


1) Great White Shark vs. Rhino (Eric's idea)
2) Great White Shark vs. Hippo
3) Gorilla vs. Lion
4) Rocky Marciano vs. Rocky Balboa
5) Mike Tyson vs. Apollo Creed (Tyson in his prime, not the face tatooed rapist we know today)
6) Floyd Mayweather vs. BJ Penn
7) Brock Lesnar vs. The Incredible Hulk
8) Napoleon Dynamite vs. Urkel from Family Matters (see pic below)
9) Elton John vs. Eddie Izzard
10) Jeron Johnson vs. Ronnie Lott
11) Ike Turner vs. Bobby Brown
12) Forrest Gump vs. Arnie Grape (Leonardo DiCaprio's retarded character in What's eating Gilbert Grape)
13) Christopher Reeves vs. Brandon Routh
14) The PC Guy vs. The Mac Guy
15) Barack Obama vs. John McCain

There's the battles I've come up with so far. Although unlikely, the Floyd Mayweather vs. BJ Penn fight is the only match-up on my list that could actually happen. I would sell a kidney to watch that fight.

Feel free to add to the list.