Another year is in the books and like last year, and the year before, it could be argued that it was the best year ever for MMA around the globe. I have compiled a Top five best list for the year 2003. This is a list that reflects my own personal opinion is is mostly compiled of fights that I have personally watched with my own eyes. We all have our personal favorite moments from the past year and I have cut the crap and stockpiled the best of the past Year. What will the year 2003 hold for the MMA fans around the world? Nobody knows for sure but one thing is for certain… good things come in fives. Here is part 1 of 5 starting with the top 5 Biggest Upsets of the year and the Top 5 beatings of 2003.

Worst Beatings of the Year

#5 - Rodrigo Nogueira Over Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipovic
Pride Final Conflict Nov 9th 2003
Even though he won the fight in the end, for much of the first round Nogueira took a beating that rivals some of the best in the business and showed the heart of a true champion. There was precious little offence from him in round one but he came back and turned the table in the second stanza, for that one round however, there is no question that he took a royal beating. All hail the heart.

#4 - Mauricio Rua Over Akira Shoji
Pride Bushido Oct 5th 2003
Shoji took one for the team, the whole team that is, as he ate punch after punch on his way to being knocked out against the rising star of Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. Rua dismantled him with strikes from the standup position and Shoji could muster little on his way to being punched and kicked into the canvas.

#3 - Vanderlei Silva Over Quinton Jackson
Pride Final Conflict Nov 9th 2003
Quinton Jackson started off strong but after a questionable stand up, the onslaught of knee’s came, and they came hard. Jackson took more punishment in this fight then many fighters take in their careers, the best part was, he came out smiling. Big props to Jackson for taking the shots and showing off one of the hardest heads in MMA.

#2 - Antonio Carvalho Over Phillip Legace
TKO 13 Ultimate Rush Sept 6th 2003
Not too many people got the chance to see this fight as it took place in Montreal and is not on DVD or PPV, but Legace took a beating in this fight and the refferee must have been out to lunch. This fight was stopped so late that one of Legace’s teammates who was scheduled to fight later that evening, refused to fight after seeing the poor reffing job in this fight. Carvalho was dishing out a beating but being the sportsman that he is, was visable upset with the fact that he had to continue dishing it out when it was clear the fight was over. Bad reffing. Bad, Bad, Bad.

# 1 - Fedor Emelianenko Over Gary Goodridge
Pride Total Elimination Aug 10th 2003
This fight was not fun to watch. Goodridge has a punchers chance against anyone at heavyweight due to his hard hitting in your face style, but this was not his night. Everyone and his pet fish felt the punishment that he endured and it was not pretty. He took numerous shots to the head culminating in an early first round stoppage, this is what happenes when you have gross mismatches, and a slow referee.

Biggest Upsets of the Year

#5 - Joachim Hansen Upsets Takanori Gomi
Shooto 2003 10th edition Aug 10th 2003
Considered by many At the time of being the Uncrowned king of 155, Takanori Gomi was thought to be near unbeatable. His ground and pound tactics coupled with his granite chin and slick submission defense was a recipe for an undefeated record of 14-0. Hansen’s rise from relative obscurity to ranked Lightweight culminating in the Title victory over Gomi is one to remember.

#4 - Daiju Takase Upsets Anderson Silva
Pride 26th June 8th 2003
A losing record including a loss the fight before to Nino Schembri and a loss in his career to Fabiano Iha did not paint the whole picture of Takase’s skills. Few pundits gave Takase an albino’s chance in Las Vegas of taking the fight against the undefeated Anderson Silva, who had recently defeated the highly ranked Hayato Sakurai and Carlos Newton. It is amazing how much one fight can change everything.

#3 - Randy Couture Upsets Chuck Liddell
UFC 43, June 6th, 2003
Coming off two losses to Josh Barnett and Ricco Rodriguez respectively,the advantage of a drop in weight was deemed to be precious little for a man that was on the cusp of 40 years on this earth. Liddell on the other hand was undefeated in 10 fights and without a loss in 4 years, which is a rarity in MMA. Impressive victories over Kevin Randleman, Guy Mezger, Murilo Bustamante, Vitor Belfort and Renato “Babalu” Sobral were already on his resume and many felt that he was the uncrowned king of the lightheavyweight division. One fight later, Randy Couture is the Interim Light heavyweight Champion of the UFC, and Liddell is left to ponder what went wrong.

#2 - Randy Couture Upsets Tito Ortiz
UFC 44, Sept 26th, 2003
Couture’s win over Chuck Liddell, the man that many feel Ortiz was ducking, was deemed by some to be a fluke. The truth was, he had only one win in his last 3 fights and at 40 years of age, Couture was getting old fast right? Wrong. Couture won every round in the 5 round marathon and left Ortiz in the losers column for the first time in almost 4 years to the day. What a difference a year makes.

#1 - Danny Lefever Upsets Benji Radach
Ultimate Ring Challenge 6 Oct 25th 2003
Danny Who? Benji Radach, the man with 3 impressive UFC appearances, an ever rising stock, and a recent win over the highly touted Gustavo Machado was about to step into the ring and get knocked out by a noname fighter for the first time in his career. Any way you cut it, a K.O loss to a man with 0 MMA fights to his name is one loss that will be tough to get over.

Honorable Mention

Tetsuya Kawajiri Upsets Yves Edwards
Georges St Pierre Upsets Pete Spratt
Kazushi Sakuraba Upsets Kevin Randleman
David Loiseau Upsets Anthony Fryklund
Duane Ludwig Upsets Jens Pulver
Joachim Hansen Upsets Rumina Sato
Tim Sylvia Upsets Ricco Rodriguez
Rich Franklin Upsets Evan Tanner
Pete Spratt Upsets Robbie Lawler

Best Submission Escapes

#5 Quinton Jackson escapes a Mikhail Illoukhine Kimura

Illoukhine is hardly a household name but his submission skills are at a very high level and a record that boasts 21 submission wins out of 26 wins in total certainly backs that claim. A man that uses the Kimura to good effect in most of his fights almost had the submission in the bag.

#4 Quinton Jackson escapes a Murilo Bustamante Guillotine & Armbar

Murilo Bustamante rarely misses an opportunity to finish with a submission when the opportunity arises. Jackson remained calm and used power and technique to escape two submissions that could very well have spelled disaster for Jackson.

#3 Carlos Newton Escapes a Renzo Gracie kneebar

It looked to me like the submission was sunk in very deep. In fact I thought the fight was basically over considering Renzo Gracie is a black belt in Jiu Jitsu and one of the finest practitioners of Jiu Jitsu in the world. Newton dug deep, waved his magic wand an “POOF !”, he was out, simply amazing.

#2 Josh Thomson escapes a plethora of Gerald Strebrendt attempts

Gerald Strebrendt looked every bit the part of the finishing machine transitioning a very slick ground attack from all facets of the submission game at a machine like pace. Thomson had other idea’s however and waded his way through the attacks, and went on to win. It looked a little scary for “The Punk” early on but his Submission defense was up to the task.

#1 Richard Crunkleton Escapes a Hermes Franca Submission

I don’t know if this one actually qualifies as an escape because Franca had the submission sunk deep and actually dislocated Crunkleton’s arm essentially finishing the submission. I don’t know if he escaped or there was no way to apply the submission any deeper but Crunkleton survived and made his way to the next round.

Best Submission of the Year

#5 - Chris Brennan Kimura’s Eiji Mitsuoka

The thing about this submission victory is not only the fact that he finished the fight with the slick Kimura, but that he finished the fight twice. Let me explain, Brennan had an armbar secured early in the fight and Mitsuoka screamed and looked to tap out from and armbar, the ref didn’t see it and restarted the fight with Mitsuoka denying that he tapped out. Brennan would not be denied on this night however, and Brennan quickly re-isolated the same arm and made him pay for his dishonorable deed.

#4 - Karo Parisyan Over Dave Strasser

It was not so much the submission itself but the interesting set up and roll to get the finish that impressed here. Parisyan utilized Judo techniques that are not seen too often in MMA fights.

#3 - Ivan Menjivar kneebar’s Brandon Shuey

When is the last time you saw a knee bar in a fight. Armbar’s Kimura’s and Rear Chokes are still going strong but the kneebar seemed to have fallen off in the game of MMA. I don’t know if people are getting too good at defending it, or the loss of position is too much to gamble but a knee bar finish is few and far between nowadays. Even when they were pulled off, few come off as slick as this one.

#2 - Kyle Sandford Reverse Arm triangle’s Aaron Tregear

In this day and age of fighting it is rare that you see a new submission or a submission that you haven’t seen pulled off in a fight before. In fact this was not the first time he pulled off this submission in his fight as he has finished others with it before. A reverse Arm triange from essentially a front headlock position. Good work from an up and comer.

#1 - Rodrigo Nogueira Armbar’s Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic

The amazing thing about this submission was the beating he had to take in order to put himself in a position to win. It could be argued that he was saved by the bell but his submission skills surely saved him in the second stanza. He proved that the difference in ground proficiency over Cro Cop, was equal or greater then that of “Cro Cop’s” advantage on the feet.

Honorable Mention

Daiju Takase Triangles Anderson Silva
Kazushi Sakuraba Armbar’s Kevin Randleman
Chris Brennan Armbar’s Jason St Louis
Jason McDonald Rear Naked Chokes Ulysses Castro
Alexandre “Pequeno” Nogueira Guillotine Choke’s Rumina Sato
Frank Mir Toe Hold’s “Tank” Abbott
Matt Hughes rear Naked Choke’s Frank Trigg
Georges St Pierre Rear naked Choke’s Pete Spratt

If you agree or disagree with any of my picks don’t be shy, Yell Holler and let me know about it, dont feel bad, flame away.

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