1. Nick Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi
Pride 33
It was on the penultimate Pride card and the second ever card held in Las Vegas and top to bottom, the event was magnificent. But the one battle that stood out more than any other was the unbelievable war between American jiu jitsu brawler Diaz and Japanese banger Gomi. The defending lightweight champ’s title was not on the line and it’s a good thing it wasn’t because he would have lost it that night.
Gomi came out throwing bombs as soon as the fight began and he floored Diaz with a right to the jaw. It appeared as though Gomi was going to win with an explosive early knockout, but with Diaz being the tough sonofabitch he is, he endured the attrition and found his way back into the battle. Diaz stood toe-to-toe with his foe and traded with Gomi bomb for bomb, rocking and wearing “The Fireball Kid” out to the point of exhaustion.
Finally, after another wild exchange and with Diaz with a horrific laceration under his right eye in the second, Gomi inexplicably shot in, allowing the submission wizard to pull guard. Diaz immediately latched on the gogoplata, one of the rarest submissions in all of MMA, and forced the tap. Technically, Diaz didn’t get the win because the result was later changed to a “No Contest” when Diaz failed a post-fight urinalysis, but nobody cares; this fight and it’s ending is the greatest in MMA history.