Top 5 Next Generation fighters in the UFC
MMA is a very unique but young sport. It does not have an unmitigated and storied history as a sport, although the fascination with fighting has always led martial artists to experiment with their craft.
There has been a wide variety of secrets shared, trades globalised and techniques perfected by various hardcore traditional martial artists around the world for millennia. But never had we seen it all come together so beautifully and gracefully as in the world of MMA.
A subculture wholly dedicated to single handily hypothesising, researching and experimenting with the arts. The aim being to plunge into the bottomless pit of pursuing perfection and mastery but never concluding and crystallising on how a complete martial artist is meant to react. All is subject to change. All is subject to perception.
It is a science based on situational awareness and innumerable possibilities exhibited by the human body. A perfect blend of ruthless pragmatism combined with the spirit of exploration. It is about balancing the act.
Traversing beyond a mere logical sequence of thoughts transcribed as moves was always the underlining driving force. One that has been sufficiently realised but yet demands a focused attention in spite of it. The prototypes that this process resulted in has given us a more than just a few major prospects.
The matchless strengths that these athletes have figured out in themselves, through years of trial and error have become their most lethal weapons. Weapons that many before them wielded but couldn't quite set up well enough to pull the trigger on command. That is where the genius of these athletes came in handy on the technical aspect of the sport.
Inadvertently, creating a level of competency that also ended up becoming their unique selling proposition. There are two ways to be exceptional, but both involve being highly well-rounded.
The first is the rather obvious one of being good enough in all areas so as to cause problems for the opponent wherever the fight goes. It is a simple strategy to come up with but an arduous one to implement and perfect.
The second one involves being extremely competent in one area and constructing your game around bringing out the best in your specific choice of fighting. Also, forcing the opponent to give into your frame, resulting in a very familiar mode of expression for the highly specialised fighter.
This is how a boxer fantasises transitioning into MMA, not having to worry about utilising anything but his primary skill. This is often a pipe dream but the few who manage to pull it off typically stand out as brilliant martial artists with an edge.
This list includes a good mixture of fighters that utilise one or the other approach to force their game on their adversary, while concurrently reacting appropriately to the stimulus from the opponent.
Here are five fighters who have pushed the sport to new avenues and don't plan on looking back anytime soon.
#1 Dominick Cruz
The first thing that comes to mind when most people think of Dominick Cruz is graceful and perplexing footwork. This is his bread and butter, one that he can rely on to execute, in an immaculate trademark Cruz fashion.
Something that he knows is so inimitable that it goes without saying, finding the right sparring partner to imitate Cruz is nothing less than being on the quest for a unicorn.
The ordeals the Cruz had to go through, forced him to look at his game from an objective standpoint and while he was out of action, he spent the majority of his time studying tapes on legendary boxers and kick-boxers.
Analysing their movement and breaking it down to the very minutia and turn it into bite sized implementable pieces that he could then be integrated into his own game.
After having to relinquish his belt due to being sidelined with injuries for more than three years, Cruz was forced to take a deeper look at life. The hiatus forced him to be creative in finding something purposeful to fill his time with.
As a godsend, the job of an analyst for UFC on FOX helped him chisel his craft of analysing fights, as well develop an almost surgical, cerebral approach to trash talking, which has been a breath of fresh air in a world full of banal, repetitive and remarkably unremarkable trash talkers.
Cruz also took the time to explore the big questions in life such as his purpose in living and the meaning he chose to ascribe to his existence. In wrestling with these questions, he stumbled upon many subjective truths that played themselves out in his life.
The truth that he was always complete and abundant, regardless of whether he had the belt as an outside label. The truth that he never needed many things he thought he was in dire need of. And in an awe inspiring interview with Ariel Helwani, he confessed that his deepest realisation was that he didn't need a belt to be happy.
Already a master of the sport of MMA and a trail-blazer with his unique style of fighting, now equipped with a bulletproof mindset, Cruz then went on to do the unthinkable as he ended the reigning champ TJ Dillashaw's dominant streak, by winning a split decision with only one fight to his credit in over three and a half years.
A feat that has been rightfully called the greatest comeback story in MMA and perhaps all of combat sports history.