Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Canadian Fighters

5. Gary Goodridge

Beloved MMA pioneer Goodridge cracks the fifth spot here. I have recently written about Goodridge, noting that he was one of multiple early fighters who found success in the new sport despite having virtually no fighting background to speak of! Instead, Goodridge was a world champion arm wrestler, which is how he first came to the attention of the UFC. However, Goodridge didn't let a little detail like not knowing how to fight keep him from success. He eventually developed into a solid striker who also had a number of pro kickboxing and boxing matches and developed enough takedown defense and basic ground skills to stymie most pure grapplers. Among his more notable wins, he knocked out Oleg Taktarov in just under five minutes at the very first Pride Fighting Championships event, stopped then-unbeaten Andre Roberts in just 43 seconds, knocked out Valentjin Overeem in the first round, knocked out monster wrestler Dan Bobish in 18 seconds, and despite having been finished twice by Don Frye in early UFC events, finally got revenge against him via a gorgeous head kick. Goodridge was never a top contender, going 4-4 in the UFC and 10-9 in Pride, but he was an important early figure in mixed martial arts. Alas, one wishes that he had retired earlier that he did from MMA as well as boxing and kickboxing, not only because he suffered a slew of losses in all three combat sports, but because they likely contributed to his current, tragic health woes.

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