Sherdog’s Top 10: Ground-and-Pounders

1. Fedor Emelianenko
The greatest heavyweight to ever live achieved those unimaginable heights due largely to his destructive ground-and-pound. Emelianenko had one-punch knockout power on the feet and could spring submissions from virtually any position on the ground, but what made “The Last Emperor” so terrifying was his granite chin, his stoic stare and the Terminator-like pressure he applied once he had an opponent down.

When he ruled Pride Fighting Championships, he mowed down every fighter placed before him, including many of his all-time-great contemporaries. The most memorable demonstration of his wicked ground-and-pound came in his Pride 25 encounter with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira on March 16, 2003. Emelianenko pounded on the Brazilian to such a degree that his punches echoed throughout the Yokohama Arena.

His brutal ground strikes also stopped Heath Herring and Gary Goodridge, set up submissions of Mark Hunt, Kazuyuki Fujita and Mark Coleman and spurred decisions over Nogueira (twice), Mirko Filipovic and four-time K-1 World Grand Prix winner Semmy Schilt. Consider this: For all his ground-and-pound prowess, Emelianenko was never permitted to use elbows in Pride.