When the sport of mixed martial arts first came to the United States one of the founders and creators, Rorion Gracie, employed a rule that some said made the sport barbaric and cruel. This was not allowing the competitors to wear gloves. His reasoning was simple: he wanted to present the purest form of combat available which included minimal rules.
Years later, scientific studies have proven that it is actually safer to fight without gloves than it is to fight with gloves, even the smaller 4 oz. MMA gloves. This is a discussion for another day, however; one thing is clear: there is something incredibly intriguing about watching a fight with no gloves. In this article we will take a look at three of MMA/UFC’s biggest superstars and their bare-knuckle MMA fights.
3) Nate Diaz
Nate Diaz, like his brother Nick, has been fighting his entire life. In fact, the reason that Nate started fighting is because, in his own words, I really didn’t have much going on and my brother Nick threw a pair of gi pants at me and said why don’t you come train with me?
Ever since then Nate has pretty much shadowed his brother Nick and as a matter of the fact made had this to say on Chael Sonnen’s podcast You’re Welcome:
Man look, I’m a soldier, you know? I’m a soldier and Nick is like the General so whatever Nick says to do I do it.
So it comes to no surprise that at just 16 years of age Nate Diaz had his first fight in a cramped wrestling room against a grown man…sans gloves.
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2) Michael Bisping
The UFC’s newest Middleweight champion, and owner, albeit on the wrong side, of one of the greatest highlight reel knockouts, is probably one of the most experienced fighters on the UFC roster.
Not only has Bisping, who made his UFC debut on the third season of The Ultimate Fighter, been fighting in the UFC for over a decade, he regularly competed in kickboxing matches all over Europe, but even before that he fought bare-knuckled MMA matches for a promotion his coach was running…beginning at the tender age of 14 years old!
A lot of these fights were against grown men and in the video below we see a young 15 year old Bisping in action.
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1) Wanderlei Silva
One cannot have a discussion in regards to bare-knuckled mixed martial arts without talking about Wanderlei The Axe Murderer Silva. One of the most famous fighters to come out of the famed International Vale Tudo promotion in Brazil he is the owner of what some people have called the bloodiest fight in MMA as well as the most brutal fight in MMA.
With a style that can only be described as reckless, Silva’s style has not changed one bit: he does everything within the confines of the rules, or lack thereof, to win and he does so with devastating power and a ferocity that has rarely been matched by anyone.
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In the video above, although there is a mixture of gloves as well as sans gloves Silva fights, the evidence is clear: whether he has gloves on or not, Silva is one of the most devastating fighters to ever enter the arena known as mixed martial arts.
