13 of the most humongous fighters in MMA history

Giant Silva vs Akebono – that’s 14 feet and 400+ Kg of human flesh in the ring

When envisaging a clash between two forces, we’ve been led to believe that bigger is better, right? In a war, the more massive an army, the better the odds of victory. Even the hardiest of men would think twice before getting into a street fight with a much larger foe, wouldn’t they?

That was the impression emitted by MMA in its origination; embellished underground brawling, with a very black-and-white categorization – those above 200 lbs, stand in this line, those below, get in the other one.

What’s the tagline of that old creature feature? Size does matter? Well, in one version of the multiverse, Godzilla meets its end at the hands of a scrawny, bespectacled biologist, a middle-aged French spy and a reporter(the F-16s were just a tune-up after the motley crew’s machinations).

The archives of MMA also house David vs Goliath battles in the flesh, and the inhabitants of the sport soon learnt that big tree falls hard. As the sport took on more and more contours, fighters became more prehensile and honed their savoir-faire. The price tags on skill soared, while size became a parergon.

Now, this isn’t a skinning of the place size has in MMA. On the ground, frame and weight are imbued by gravity to become a hunter’s net that mires opponents in quicksand. Reach is part of the current vogue of movement, and expect to see increasing numbers of fighters dance back and forth like phantasms fencing.

But, there comes a time when fans pine for the romance and nostalgia of the good ol’ days – they’re just itching to see a pair of Brobdingnagians collide and send shockwaves to the deepest reaches of space.

The Land of the Rising Sun was well known for being the stage for such Biblical encounters. The country that gave the world the lithium ion battery and the DSLR camera also birthed Pokemon and Karaoke. Make no mistake, the Japanese just love a Smorgasbord of entertainment; just look at Babymetal and Piko Taro. Let’s not even peek into the trippy sphere of their sexually bizarre game shows.

Stereotyping isn’t the intention here, but almost all the colossi on this list have set foot in a ring in Japan at some point in their careers, with mixed endings. Let’s count them down:

#13 Gabi Garcia

Height: 6’2”

Weight: 110 Kg

The only woman on this assortment, Garcia is a 2-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club gold medallist and has won nine Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world championships. She appeared as a guest coach for Wanderlei Silva’s team on The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil.

31-year-old Garcia made waves in the MMA world when she crumpled 50-year-old Yumiko Hotta in the final of the Rizin World Grand Prix 2016.