This is my first contribution

to the site and I am extremely excited about it. I have been an avid MMA fan ever since I first caught a glimpse of the now deceased PRIDE Fighting Championships. Ironically what I am going to be writing about is what attracted to me to the sport.

I strongly supported and followed MMA legends such as Chuck Lidell, Dan Henderson, Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva and my personal favorite (and I believe this to be true for many people) Mirko "Crop Cop" Filipovic. Many of these legends are still fighting today not only in the UFC but in other MMA branches as well.

to your attention,

before UFC 133 Dana White announced the retirement of possibly one of the greatest heavyweights of all time in the “Last Emporer” Fedor Emilianenko. He has been issued many great compliments over his fantastic career and labelled by most as one of the best heavyweights in the history of the sport and if not the best. According to Dana White, Fedor and his management team had their shot in 2005 to enter the UFC and prove that he was the best heavyweight in the division (You can read about it here!). Now we get to a point in 2011 where Fedor has lost three straight fights with Fedors’ last loss coming to the veteran Dan Henderson. The main point however is that two of these losses which happen to be his last two losses have come via TKO.

Fedor is not the only case however of veterans that has lost their chin and their ability to take a punch and go the distance in a fight. Tito Ortiz is one of the most recent examples as he took a young up and coming fighter in Ryan Bader and submitted him via guillotine in the first round. Although this win was very impressive for Tito, there was still something that could have one questioning themselves did he get lucky or does Tito still have it? That question was recently answered by Rashad Evans as he just manhandled Tito for two rounds at UFC 133. Wanderlei Silva’s last fight was hyped up to be one of the most exciting fights not only of the year but of the decade against knockout artist Chris “The Crippler” Leben. This fight lasted a whole 27 seconds as Leben caught “The Axe Murderer” in an exchange of punches and sent him straight to the canvas. Even the legend Mirko Cro-Cop was outclassed in his last two fights that both were won via Technical Knock Out.

to you as readers and fans of MMA is

when is the right time to call it quits? This question can be pondered by both the fighters themselves and the organization that they belong to. We all know that these men were at the top of their class (maybe with the exceptiong of Tito Ortiz) in sportsmanship and just the overall ability to go out there and put on a show for the fans. There is however a time in any pro athlete’s life where they should call it quits and retire from the sport they love. That point can be defined by losing three straight fights or just not having the same abilities as they once had. The afforementioned athletes above are prime examples of veterans/legends that just do not have the “chins” or just the overall ability to be top notch fighters anymore in a sport filled with competitive and hungry athletes. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this post and hopefully there will be more contributions to follow!

Take care!

Kevin Nigro

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