November 9, 2008

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.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm officially watching your blog! The UFC post was great, and my blood runs blue, too (GO-Bama!). I can't wait until the Couture fight later this month!!!

Jeremy said...

Why thank you.

I'm so excited for the Lesnar-Couture fight too. I keep trying to imagine possbile scenarios for this fight but then my brain almost explodes just thinking about it.

Brent Hope said...

Dang man! That Gracie collection is something else. I like the sense of urgency in which they tapped out! Almost as if to yell, MOMMMY!!

Roo Roo's Corner said...

How about:
Barack vs Osama
Mickey vs Goofy
Jack Ruby vs Lee Harvey Oswald
No?

Jeremy said...

Good ones Ruth! I really like Jack Ruby vs. Oswald.

You could go a lot of directions with the political figures.
Example:

Barack vs. Osama (Roo Roo)
George Bush vs. Osama
Barack Hussein vs. Sadaam Hussein
George H.W. Bush vs. Sadaam Hussein

or for a tag team match-up:
Obama & George Bush vs.
Sadaam Hussein & Osama

Finally, Republicans and Democrats unite!

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