SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
April - 2015
27
Ferguson’s List
5. Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell I- UFC 43
4. Rashad Evans vs. Lyoto Machida- UFC 98
3. Carla Esparza vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk- UFC 185
2. Georges St-Pierre vs. B.J. Penn II- UFC 94
1. Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin I- UFC 64
This is one of the earliest MMA fights that I can
remember actually watching live, with my older
brother, and I remember it just being an abso-
lute dominant performance by Couture. Look-
ing back at it, it kind of showed perfectly how
high-level wrestling was probably the best base
for an MMA career and that it could neutralize
striking. Couture took Liddell down whenever
and wherever he wanted to in the fight and ul-
timately got the TKO win for the UFC interim
light heavyweight championship.
Oh UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad
Evans, we hardly knew ye. This was Evans’ first
title defense after demolishing Forrest Griffin,
but that didn’t really matter to Lyoto Machida.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more devastating-
looking knockout of a champion than this one.
Machida swarmed Evans like Evans didn’t even
have the capability to throw a punch. When Ev-
ans kind of slumped to the ground like a rag
doll, Machida was able to take the belt almost
just as quickly as he’d lose it. We call this time
BJJ or Before Jon Jones.
There might not be a better example out there
where the champion looked like they shouldn’t
have even been there. Not saying that as an in-
sult to Esparza’s abilities, but I think even she
would say that her “real-self” didn’t show up
to Dallas for UFC 185. Jedrzejczyk looked light
years ahead of Esparza in striking and was able
to land pretty much anything she wanted to. It
was absolute domination.
Penn bit off more than he could chew in this
fight. It was champion vs. champion, but the
difference in size made it not even close. GSP
dwarfed Penn and took him down routinely,
keeping him there for what seemed like an eter-
nity. Finally the punishment was just too much
and GSP got the KO after Penn’s corner said
that they had seen enough following the fourth
round.
It took less than three minutes for Silva to begin
his legendary UFC middleweight title run. Rich
Franklin was a slight favorite, as the champion
coming his second title defense, but he ran into
a force that very few people saw coming. Once
Silva locked in the Muay Thai clinch and started
delivering those knees to the head of Franklin,
it was all over.
