Who's here after watching Joe Rogan experience today? John McCarthy really didn't have any reason to stand them up, I think tank was right that Big John had it out for him
Didn’t you read the rules at the start tho, it said the ref can restart the fight when they were saying that rule wasn’t in. Maybe I’m wrong but yeah it says it in the start.
@TheCrazycrab2 nobody has said anything about illegality... rather simply that McCarthy, by many of his game changing decisions both on and allegedly offscreen ( as well as his wife's ) appeared to have it out for Tank Abott, as well as had an appetite for power and the limelight that comes with it..
Tank also got screwed because Taktarov's previous fight was fixed. Macias had the same manager as Taktarov so he threw the fight, that way Taktarov would still be fresh when he went up against Tank.
Calling it here. If Tank hadn't shown up at UFC 6, the whole concept of MMA would have faded into obscurity. People were already sick of watching Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock roll for 45 minutes. When Tank cracked Matua, MMA was reborn!
@@huwhitecavebeast1972 for awhile there the UFC was only Tank and he helped propel the sport to where it is today. Damn right this man saved MMA in the USA!!
@@robertlambert4514 No he didn't, there was def other guys, I know I was there and I watched them. Tank did not get me to watch, I would have watched anyway as a martial artist no matter who was fighting.
@@huwhitecavebeast1972 "I would have watched anyway as a martial artist". Guys like Tank got the average person watching. I've been watching from the beginning, and the biggest complaint from people in the early days was the grappling. Your average person finds that shit boring. They want to see a blood bath. Guys like Tank and Liddell didn't have skill beyond brawling, but it's those guys that made it more popular.
I wouldn’t call him the greatest of all time but if you feel that way that’s cool. Personally, I liked UFC better back in these days because it truly was the Bloodsport (movie) concept. Put fighters of all different disciplines in a tournament and see who wins and how their styles mesh with other styles. Nowadays it’s so formulaic. All of the fighters are xerox copies of each other. Everybody cross trains in all the same arts.
I used to think that TA had no technique, but the more I learn about grappling, the more I see that he's actually a good wrestler with good defense against submissions.
😂 I was thinking the same thing but the only rules were no biting and no eye gouging. So fish hooks, stomping, and shots to the back of the head were all legal moves.
King of the streets on youtube, is the modern version of the old school ufc, but on a concrete floor, and with *everything* including eye gouging, biting etc, allowed. they even have some pro mma fighters competing (not from the ufc, but from european leagues)
@@thaistomp like i said in my other comment, if youre a fan of that golden age, vale tudo style of fighting, check out King of the Streets on youtube. *no* rules. Eye gouging, biting etc is allowed. they also fight on concrete.
@@ssths That sounds interesting man. I still think Vale Tudo is the best rule-set for fighting. Biting and eye gouging should never be allowed in a competition fight imo. I still might check it out though haha.
@@thaistomp yeah, ive been inclined to agree, until a specific fight with KOTS, where a guy was trying REALLY HARD to gouge out a guys eyes, and it didnt work, because the dude just shut his eyes lol. tried it with a friend. it works, but your eyelid will swell. still, its a huge gamble and id rather guys not have to risk it. again, though, it doesnt happen often, so if you DO wanna check out KOTS, youd be pretty easily able to avoid viewing anything where there is permanent damage.
youtube King of the Cage. Its got less rules than the og UFC. They fight on concrete, and allow everything including eye gouging, biting, stomps to grounded opponents an everything.
@@LaSean640 lol holy hell, youre totally right. mustve been drunk when i typed that or something lol. its deffo king of the *streets*. and I thought the same at first, but now im not so sure. it seems like the guys fighting there, a decent selection of them are accustomed to fighting in a street environment, so bad injuries arent as regular as id expect. and the eye gouging is rare too. its also not as effective as one would think either. in the two cases i saw it used, it was far from an immediate fight ender. Most of these king of the streets guys come from a hooligan background, so theyre used to fighting in parking garages, on muddy hills, on sidewalks etc, so they take some precautions against fall damage from hard surfaces (or if they dont, they learn to quite quickly). ive only seen a couple fights end because someone hurt themselves with the ground, and only a few where the gorund was used as a fight ending weapon. I still agree with you though, their careers will probably still be shorter than an mma fighter's. minor damage from bumps and falls on the ground will accumulate faster than they would on a mat, regardless of precautions taken.
I was lucky enough to have the descrambler box back in the 90's and was able to get every channel for free including PPV channels. Although it was illegal, it was nice to have. I watched the first 11 UFC's live. I wasn't impressed with any of the fighters until Tank Abbott made his debut at UFC 6. Watching him fight was pure excitement and adrenaline. It was equivalent to watching a Mike Tyson fight back in the 80's. I believe Tank put the UFC on the map, not Gracie, not Shamrock, Severn or Taktarov. It was Tank who brought the thrill into the octagon. He was the very first "true" fighter. The next person who brought that excitement didn't come along until the debut of Vitor Belfort. Crazy hand speed and accuracy. Insane to watch him go! The good old days. Tournament format. Crazy!
Tank Abbot was a monster. Guy could bench 600 lbs, upright row 315lbs to his chin, do 150lb arm curls, knock out and wrestle around 400 lb guys all while weighing 280 lbs... And he was still beaten buy a guy in a long drawn out fight with both standing and ground game who weighed only 210 lbs... Taktarov was something out of this world.
Look how fast tanks hands were kids he weighed ,280 and hit hard he also was a div 2 NCAA wrestler he hurt his knee so he quit wrestling he was a beast then and fought injured vs cheats on peds and was close to winning it all multiple times he gave Rizzo the hardest striker ever a good fight thats how he will be remembered
if they had rounds and were not at the altittude Tank would have won that fight, he was always kinda unlucky like when he fought Frye and slipped as he was starting to control the fight and here fighting in the high altitude under the olf fight settings.
Oleg Taktarov came to the USA to study at the school of actors, he graduated from the Academy of Arts and actually became an actor in Russia and the USA, he starred in Robert Rodriguez's Predator and in many Russian films.
Oleg got lucky. Tank had 2 real fights before facing him. He had one. His second fight he fought a friend of his. The guy who was a kickboxer ran across the ring, shot for a takedown against Oleg, a grappler and got submitted in like 10 seconds. His friend threw the fight.
I wonder if Tank would have won his last fight under different circumstances. Remember, it's widely believed Oleg got a Bye in his semifinal match against Anthony Macias. They were friends, training partners, and had the same manager. Macias is a kickboxer and shoots in against an expert grappler and taps to half a choke in 12 seconds. Even the announcers sniffed it out when it aired.
@@BillyBob-wq9flyea a lot of these early guys didn't do much endurance training. Makes sense considering most of these fights were done in a matter of minutes. It's when a quick bout turns into an extended grapple that it comes back to bite em
@@johnrawlings2161 do you honestly believe tank was more athletic than royce or ken shamrock? you gotta be kidding lmfao. tank had power but athleticism? you're fooling yourself there
@@seanthegod4585 Trump's more liberal than obama. Y'all already forget he had the country locked down the last 2 years of his presidency because a cough was going around?
@@Tylar122 You're delusional. He got dominated for 23 mins, surviving on having great cardio and a god-given chin. Landed 1 good punch, but was too busy acting tough to properly hunt for a finish. It was not a good performance at all, and was more a failing of Edward's gas tank.
I saw an interview with Tank where he said his fight with Oleg Taktarov was the greatest 18 minutes of his life. He said he respects Oleg the most out of any opponent in his career. Oleg was one TOUGH s.o.b.
Man, guys, these fighters weren't picked off the street. Look at tanks SHOES, dudes a WRESTLER that can strike...not a striker that can wrestle. To this day same thing, you MUST know ground skills, striking is a very distant second. The only reason we see striking is because the audience wants action. If we wanted to see a fight to the death between the best two fighters, it will be a ground game, and at LEAST 2 hours on the ground.
I had fightpass for like 4 years. It was cool to go back and watch the first events. Every guy was a character and it was easy to find yourself rooting for a guy to win it all. Guys like Tank, Scott Ferrozo, Harold Howard, were some of my favorites from the old days.
Taktarov was impressive, fighting a guy 70 lbs. heavier and w/ streetfighting skills! Wow! Had he had kicking skills he would have ended the fight earlier.
Big respect to Taktarov! I watched this live and the Varelans vs Abbott fight was brutal the camera angle on Varelans neck when Tank had his knee on his head and was pulling in the fence with his weight and grip was just vicious. I liked Tank I rooted for him at like 13 years old. Watching it now I was like OKAY dude . Because I knew Oleg would whip his ass. Oleg is a true Martial Artist and now has some decent acting credentials. Tank is a beast. Oleg is a Martial Artist and honestly one of the first true Mixed Martial Artists the UFC had seen.
Say what you will about Tank's technique and conditioning, but very few ever hit harder. the guy's punching power was first-rate. At 40 years old, he knocked out Cabbage like it was nothing, that alone is legendary.
@@Robert-nu4vcok robert. I watched all his fights and all fighting since 1990.. He is top 10 for sure. Fedor was a great puncher too. Tank floored Frye with a jab ok.
*“I’m going to be the most athletic person who’s ever stepped into the octagon..”* - to quote the great Inigo Montoya: “I do not think that word means what you think it means.”
It really sucks that Tank got winded so fast... even if he had just a little better cardio who knows how many more people he would have gone through... probably one of if not the toughest “street fighter “ to ever set foot inside the octagon...
He was a lot more than just a street fighter, though. Sure he was a dude who enjoyed throwing down at bars, but he had plenty of wrestling and boxing experience. More than most of the competitors back in those early days. He was also the first guy (other than Art Jimmerson) to wear some sort of gloves to avoid breaking his hands. He knew what he was doing.
@@ChillPill365 Very well said👍.. I never knew Tank was one of, if not the first man to bring those mma style gloves into the ring.. There’s no doubt he knew what he was doing.. when I use the term “street fighter “ in reference to him, it’s more because of his style and technique, which was to not try and feel anything out about his opponent, but more like just go right at him and win with superior overwhelming violence haha.. and if he had to take a shot or two so he could land a couple of his bombs then that was fine with him.. just as long as he wins, and I suppose that is the ultimate goal, right??... In absolutely no way am I saying anything remotely critical of Tank.. The man is a legend and one of the toughest men to ever step foot in any ring.. He backed down from Nobody, and could never be intimidated... He focused on getting the job done and getting it done quick... Nothing but respect for the man 100%..👍👍🇺🇸
Tank participated in a lot of "miracle" fights early on. I call them miracles because it's a freaking miracle that Tank's opponents won. Taktarov not going to sleep in UFC 6 = miracle. Frye managing to get the RNC after Tank slipped on the invisible banana peel = miracle. Before the slip Don was getting absolutely annihilated. Maurice Smith vs Tank = miracle. Tank was winning the first 3-4 minutes of the fight, but it got stood up (for no good reason) which allowed Smith to secure the win with leg kicks. No ref stand-up and Tank would've killed Smith with GnP.
The fact that Tank fish hooked that often and still has all is fingers is pretty amazing. He’d have whooped my ass, but I’d have snacked on one of those digits 😂
2:09 No way Matua is 400 pounds. I think they’re using some WWE-type hype stuff, like “Kevin Nash is seven feet tall!” kinda thing. Matua looks to be about Tank’s size, I find it hard to believe that the former outweighs the latter by 120 pounds.
They didn't actually do weigh-ins back then, so most of the weights are either estimations or just whatever the fighters put down on their applications. I think you need something like a farm animal scale to get an accurate weight of somebody over 400 lbs.
Tank was cheated in this tourney. Oleg got to fight his training partner Anthony Macias in the second round. Macias clearly threw the fight as quickly as possible giving Oleg a bye to the finals.
Tank Abbott made a 400 lb man look like a punk he beat him bad. It don't matter how big you are someone's head is still the same size and if you get punched it don't matter. Someone's head can only take so much of a pounding the 400 pounder couldn't take that pounding his head just almost blew up
Огромное уважение Олегу Тактарову,за волю к победе и стойкость! Выдержал шквал атак,от такого кабана,да ещё из последних сил придушил его! И соперник не сразу сдался,а только тогда,когда почувствовал что силы у Олега остались,для последнего удушающего! В конце,рефери сказал на английском: Русский медведь!
