Forgotten Pioneers/Legends of MMA

[applesbananas]

Who are some forgotten (to some) pioneers/legends in MMA? I was watching some old fights with my girlfriend and I got all nostalgic watching their fights. I'm 22 now and I remember watching highlights and fights of these dudes when I was 12 in middle school when I first started watching MMA. So far I've came up with:

Genki Sudo: Great person who was very entertaining and had crazy entrances, not known really by newer fans
Luiz Azeredo: Very skilled fighter but dropped the ball in his biggest fights. Gave Gomi a hell of a fight
Volk Han: Very good grappler, some of his fights were clearly fixed but still badass
Kiyoshi Tamura: Pro wrestler dude who is very underrated
Masakatsu Funaki: Another pro wrestler dude who is very underrated
Sanae Kikuta: Great fighter who also created legendary Grabaka gym
Alexandre Franca Nogueira: Shooto icon had legendary fight with Hideo Tokoro
Rumina Sato: Shooto legend, maybe not as forgotten as others on this list
Hidehiko Yoshida: Olympic gold medalist in judo, great fighter
Kazuhiro Nakamura: Great judoka who was thrown to the wolves, I think he could have been better had his career been handled properly

 

[EndlessCritic]

congrats on listing a bunch of guys who fought in pride + nogueira and sato.

 

[manboy<3]

Svetlana Goundarenko: People talk about Gabi Garcia like she's the first giant woman in MMA but Svetlana was not only bigger than Gabi but also predated her by 20 years. She made crushing tiny japanese girls into a gruesome and erotic spectacle and also had the most awesome pair of sweatpants to ever enter the ring.

Her first 3 fights were won by can opener

Jose Landi-Jons: Poor dude doesn't even have a wikipedia page

 

[PunchTheNeckChokeTheFace]

Yuki Nakai - The man was blinded by illegal eye gouging by Gerard Gordeau & didn't mention it publicly so that MMA wouldn't catch a bad reputation at the time. He was almost always outweighed by his opponents and even fought Rickson Gracie after his bout with Gordeau.

 

[Wrestler160]

Maurice Smith-Proved that a kickboxer with conditioning can beat a grappler

 

[The Big Babou]

Nakamura... that time he fight Wand in a gi... then decided to take it off mid fight. Wand saw that opening & took it.

 

[Ignicious]

Dick Vrij
Oleg Taktarov (maybe not completely forgotten)
Rene Rooze
Marco Ruas (maybe not forgotten)
Teila Tuli lol
Wallid Ishmael (maybe I'm comfusing him with someone else)
Amar Zuluev

 

[The Big Babou]

Igor V
Takayama
Mark Kerr

 

[EndlessCritic]

Dick Vrij
Oleg Taktarov (maybe not completely forgotten)
Rene Rooze
Marco Ruas (maybe not forgotten)
Teila Tuli lol
Wallid Ishmael (maybe I'm comfusing him with someone else)
Amar Zuluev

Amar Suloev is dead.

 

[Ignicious]

Amar Suloev is dead.

he is? doesn't make him less off a pioneer though, even if he came in a little later than the real ones. He was a blatant cheater too wasn't he?

 

[Darwinambrosius]

Mark Schultz was first Olympic medalist.

 

[Falconkick]

Carlos Newton for the sport but also for Canada much love for the Ronin

 

[NHB7]

Jason Delucia: Today, if he is known at all, it is primarily as the goofy white Kung fu guy that Royce beat in the early UFCs.

But Delucia was actually legit back in the day and fought a lot of big names in Pancrase including having some decent wins over Masakatsu Funaki, Matt Hume, Yuki Kondo, Minowaman.

 

[DuppyMekka]

Are these guys forgotten? I hope not...

 

[Chindit]

Denis Kang - I see him as the prototype of the well-rounded fighter GSP-type.

Hidehiko Yoshida - IIRC, one of the first olympians gold medalist in MMA. Great judo obviously. Great wars in the ring.

Bustamante & Pele - big names back in time.

Laura d'Auguste & Yoko Takahashi - pioneers of WMMA.

 

[David Street]

*Erin Toughill (most know her only as American Gladiator) &
*Kathy Long (only fought once in MMA but was a real Martial arts legend) 5 time world kickboxing champion & 8th degree black belt in Kung Fu San So, 1st degree black belt in Aikido.
*Laura D'Auguste 9-0-1

 

[BisexualMMA]

Offhand...

Waldemar Santana
Mashiko Kimura (other than his surname being used for the submission)
Scott Ferrozzo
Carlos Newton
Marco Ruas (other than around here to some degree)
Tsuyoshi Kohsaka
Oleg Taktarov
Mark Kerr (believe it or not)
Keith Hackney (other than his nut punching)
Townsend Saunders
Jose Pele Landi-Jons
Steve Jennum
Maurice Smith
Jon Hess and Paul Varelans (the Ray Jacksons of MMA)

 

[Mob69]

Who are some forgotten (to some) pioneers/legends in MMA? I was watching some old fights with my girlfriend and I got all nostalgic watching their fights. I'm 22 now and I remember watching highlights and fights of these dudes when I was 12 in middle school when I first started watching MMA. So far I've came up with:

Genki Sudo: Great person who was very entertaining and had crazy entrances, not known really by newer fans
Luiz Azeredo: Very skilled fighter but dropped the ball in his biggest fights. Gave Gomi a hell of a fight
Volk Han: Very good grappler, some of his fights were clearly fixed but still badass
Kiyoshi Tamura: Pro wrestler dude who is very underrated
Masakatsu Funaki: Another pro wrestler dude who is very underrated
Sanae Kikuta: Great fighter who also created legendary Grabaka gym
Alexandre Franca Nogueira: Shooto icon had legendary fight with Hideo Tokoro
Rumina Sato: Shooto legend, maybe not as forgotten as others on this list
Hidehiko Yoshida: Olympic gold medalist in judo, great fighter
Kazuhiro Nakamura: Great judoka who was thrown to the wolves, I think he could have been better had his career been handled properly

Good shout!

 

[tat2man5k]

Dick Vrij
Oleg Taktarov (maybe not completely forgotten)
Rene Rooze
Marco Ruas (maybe not forgotten)
Teila Tuli lol
Wallid Ishmael (maybe I'm comfusing him with someone else)
Amar Zuluev

I used to love watching him, along with Semenov

 

[Asurah]

Yuki Nakai - The man was blinded by illegal eye gouging by Gerard Gordeau & didn't mention it publicly so that MMA wouldn't catch a bad reputation at the time. He was almost always outweighed by his opponents and even fought Rickson Gracie after his bout with Gordeau.

Not to mention he started up one of the biggest gyms in Japan (Paraestra Tokyo and it's many offshoots) and is heavily involved in MMA (primarily Shooto) still to this day. Definitely one of the most important guys people forget.

A few I haven't seen named yet
- Yuka Tsuji
- Miku Matsumoto
- Mikhail Ilyukhin
- Noboru Asahi
- Minoru Suzuki
- Satoru Sayama (only fought exhibitions in MMA, but he founded Shooto)
- Kenji Kawaguchi
- Marloes Coenen (not necessarily forgotten but I don't think most people realize just how long she has been around)
- Tara LaRosa
- Akira Maeda (most, if not all, of his fights were works but he founded RINGS, helped run HERO'S and just has been a non-stop promoter in Japan since the early days)