Future UFC Hall of Famers

Everyone who watches UFC should be familiar with the Joe Rogan tagline "here comes the future Hall of Famer..." Thus far, very few have managed to break into the UFC Hall of Fame, and rightly so; the sport is still very young and by nature a hall of fame should be an exclusive place to be. I don't want to come off as a fanboy - just look at the NFL where everytime a QB has one good season everyone is screaming for him to make the Hall of Fame (I'm a huge Eagles fan, but when I heard people crying out for McNabb to make the Hall of Fame I recoiled in disgust). So here goes - my list of Hall of Fame candidates...


Georges St Pierre

Come December 29th, GSP will have held the belt for four years and a record six title defences.One of his only two defeats is against Matt Hughes - someone who is already in the UFC Hall of Fame and has defeated every other 170lb champion there has ever been in the UFC. More than this though is Georges' complete athleticism and adaptablility - he has comprehensively outwrestled national champions. He is also one of the first UFC fighters to gain mainstream acceptance; testament to this is his Under Armour sponsorship, and many awards from television broadcasters and sports publications. Many will complain about his seeming reluctance to finish fights (I personally disagree), but the legacy he will leave behind is beyond argument


BJ Penn

There is no doubt that BJ Penn is not the fighter that he once was, nor can people look past the fractious relationship he seems to have had with the sport itself, but this aside the multiple division champion should not be overlooked by the Hall of Fame. He has done the most to bring BJJ to MMA since the Gracies themselves, an achievement in of itself. That being said, his crowning achievement is the championships at different divisions - something that so few others have done before him, and probably just as few will do after.


Anderson Silva

Won the title in only his second UFC fight, undefeated in his 13 fight UFC career, an ongoing title reign of over five years, a record breaking nine title defences...enough said.


Dana White

This may seem kinda like a silly choice, but when you look at the inclusion of Charles 'Mask' Lewis due to his contribution to MMA, it's impossible to overlook Dana White's contribution to MMA. I appreciate that a large part of the UFC's success is due to the financial injection from the Fertitta's - but this would have been wasted if they didn't have the right man running the company. Granted, he doesn't always say the right things, and granted many people have good reason for thinking he's a bit of a prick. But at the end of the day he took the UFC from a crumbling business, to the multi million dollar company it is today; bringing MMA as a sport along with it. Without Dana White the UFC wouldn't be what it is today, without the UFC then MMA would only be a fraction of what it is today


Tito Ortiz

One of the last members of 'the old guard' who are still fighting in the UFC today. A pioneer of Ground and Pound, an always polarising personality and a stalwart of ticket sales. Tito's scraps with Chuck, Shamrock and Belfort helped to shape the modern face of the UFC. Add to this a five defence title reign and his recent reconciliation with Dana White, and you've a got a fairly strong argument for his being included in the Hall of Fame


Honourable Mentions

Forrest Griffin - for the electrifying TUF finale that did more for the UFC's mainstream popularity than any other single event, and for being one of the most liked UFC fighters of all time

Matt Hamill - I appreciate that his fight record isn't exactly worthy of the Hall of Fame, but I'd like to think he'd be honoured in some way for opening the door to disabled MMA competitors. I think his is a truely inspirational story and I'd love for him to be honoured for it.

Frank Mir - Ok, this one's biased as he's one of my favourite fighters, but the multiple time heavyweight champion is one of the longest serving current fighters on the roster. If, as I hope, he gets the belt one more time, he should be more sure of a place in the Hall of Fame...

What we learned at UFC 137

The UFC still can't seem to come up with a Japanese star

Don't be fooled by the victory - Hioki's performance did nothing to win over fans, or draw a greater Japanese audience. No one is really sure why the former MMA capital of the world hasn't produced any marketable stars for the UFC, but to date none of the Japanese imports have really lived up to the billing


The sport has lost a true legend...

When it was announced that this would likely be Cro Cop's last fight, many fans were disappointed and rightly so. UFC purists don't know a huge amount about Cro Cop, and nor will they ever appreciate his greatness, but he did so much for the sport in the earlier years. I strongly believe he opened the door for kickboxers to transition to MMA, and also carried the European support of the sport almost single handedly in the earlier years. Many people, myself included, would have loved to see him KO Nelson with a left head kick...but I don't think many actually believed it would happen. Alas, it wasn't to be, and so we said goodbye to a legend in similarly disappointing circumstances as we said goodbye to Couture. Thanks for the memories Cro Cop


...But I think it has only lost one

I don't believe for a second that BJ has retired from MMA. I like to draw comparisons between him and Ronnie O'Sullivan. For those of you who don't know, Ronnie O'Sullivan is the greatest natural talent to ever pick up a snooker cue; he's also enigmatic, outspoken, temperamental...and has "retired" two or three times now. I'll be the first to write an article on BJ when he officially hangs them up, but I completely believe that once his swelling has gone down and he's had a chance to lick his wounds, we'll see him back in the octagon


GSP has piled more pressure on Silva than Sonnen ever could

Chael Sonnen has come closer to shattering the phenomenal streak of Anderson Silva than anyone else. Setting aside the Silva injury and the subsequent doping charge for Sonnen, quite a few people wanted to see the rematch (though I can see the argument that he lost and should have to wait his turn again). Following a comprehensive victory over Brian Stann, Sonnen launched a WWE-esque tirade against Silva who was sat cage side. He didn't react, he didn't respond...we didn't even hear from him for weeks. This prompted widespread abuse that he was scared of Sonnen - after all, there aren't many others in the title picture, and he has a free schedule for the foreseeable future. Roll on a few weeks, and Nick Diaz does the same thing to GSP in an arguably less disrespectful fashion. GSP was already booked for another fight but that very same night he demanded that he get to fight Diaz. Ironically his request has been granted to go ahead on the same weekend that Sonnen wanted to fight Silva. But fans and doubters alike of Anderson Silva are now left asking...why hasn't he done the same?!