The MMA Decade, Naturally

The 2000s will go down as the decade where MMA made the leap from niche obsession to mainstream - well, if not complete acceptance yet, let's say "tolerance" and work from there.

How do you pick a "best" of the decade when the decade became such a huge chapter of mixed martial arts history? The men who took the torch from Gracie, Shamrock, and Severn brought new levels of talent to the sport. Anderson Silva tore a path of destruction from Brazil to Japan to the United States. Matt Hughes and Georges St-Pierre were rock solid at the top of the UFC's welterweight division, holding the belt for an astonishing 93 months out of a possible 120. In May of 2000, a Russian fighter with sambo and judo skills started his MMA career. Did Fedor Emelianenko have a good decade? How does 31 wins in 33 fights sound?

That's just in the cage. Outside it, almost every state sanctioned MMA under the Unified Rules codified by the New Jersey Athletic Commission in 2000. Major television networks, including CBS, Showtime, Spike, and Versus, brought MMA to the airwaves. YouTube and viral video spread the gospel of MMA in ways tape-traders never could and made stars of jiujitsu legends and Miami street fighters alike. And behind most of it were Dana White, the Fertitta brothers, and Zuffa LLC. They took a struggling promotion, rode out a flood of red ink for a couple of years, and then found themselves rewarded for their faith and patience when the UFC broke big and made them all very rich.

My best thing of the MMA decade wasn't the most important fighter or personality - although he's certainly up there.

The Matrix and new Star Wars trilogies let us down this decade, but the Couture-Liddell rumbles never did.
I've always considered myself more of a fan than an expert, so I don't think I'm qualified to tell you who the absolute best of the 2000s was. Instead, I'll present to you the fighter who turned me from casual observer to cage junkie (and erstwhile blogger). He's the man who refused to tap out to the most relentless and savage of a fighter's opponents: Father Time. At an age where NFL running backs are all long retired and even baseball players have lost a step, Randy "The Natural" Couture was winning his second heavyweight championship and getting ready to show a new generation of fans that just once in a while, a fighter does know when to hang up the gloves - and when not to.

Article Author: Matt DeTura

Matt DeTura is a sports nut -- particularly, a big fan of MMA -- currently located in Washington, DC. He can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/mdetura.

While you can only find his MMA columns here at Blogcritics, you can find his …

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