Igor Zinoviev vs Mario Sperry

[cpjjwiii]

isn't this an early Battlecade match? the beginnings of MMA in America?

[cpjjwiii]

@cpjjwiii i see it now, lol

[NicoyaJudoka1]

The Ref was Gokor Chivichyan another Judo/Sambo great who has tranied under Gene LeBell and has taught both Manny Gamburyan and Karo Parisyan .

[ussrwrestling]

We can hardly watch such wonderful technical ground-fighting in recent MMA events! It is now more and more about striking, kicking and punching! :-(((((

[SuperTestfreak]

todays fighters arent built like igor,he looks like he is made of stone

[YesWeCain8]

@SuperTestfreak steroids

[SuperTestfreak]

@YesWeCain8 it takes more than steroids to look like igor,you also need to eat right and train hard,steroids dont just work all alone,that is a myth

[MsAHager]

@SuperTestfreak Igor doesn't take steroids. He is my Boxing coach now and he looks just the same at age 45. He is just a huge ass dude, with a huge heart and easy on the eyes :) Oh, not to mention the best coach ever.

[MeissnerFlux]

Zinovev got lucky. He only won because of a cut. Sperry was in control almost the whole time. Sperry should have thrown more uppercuts when he had the chance. Igor has an obvious weight advantage.

[Codiak26]

@MeissnerFlux Don't hate on Igor just cause he is bigger or stronger then Sperry.

[flossy26]

@pcjudosambo was that sarcasm i was maybe just you know leting people know about other great wrestlers. like mario and igor. your a fukin hero

[pcjudosambo]

So was this pure Combat Sambo VS pure Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?

[MrRusian89]

@pcjudosambo Yes!!!

[ussrwrestling]

@pcjudosambo Yes! I enjoy the old-school "single-dimensional fighting" of early MMA. The fights were much more interesting and exciting to watch back then!

[LJSJIUJITSU]

@ussrwrestling

Well Mario Sperry and Zinoviev cross trained for certain so they were far from one dimensional fighters.

[flossy26]

for all you fans of sambo bjj judo im sure some of you have heard this name ALEXANDER KARILIN look him i cant believe this human being existed in reality hes an olimpic greco roman wrestler hes frm siberia but the greeks called hurcules im just comenting because of the high quilty of igor and mario . very inspiring

[TheGayHulk]

The fight was stopped by the referee. Why do you think, that Igor was better? They had trouble with the gouvernement, so they did not want to show blood. They wanted to avoid prohibition.

The speaker compares the fight to Douglas vs Tyson, but Douglas knocked Tyson out. Did Igor knock Mario out? I did not see, how he could have one this in a fight one against one.

[torr5962]

Zinoviev and Sperry are outstanding-its a shame Frank Shamrock ended Zinoviev's career so abrubtly.

[alexpapyz31]

Excellent... Job by John Lewis and Igor. Bjj guys thought it was gonna be a walk in the park. Good job

[maceda77]

I've heard that before this fight Sperry's record was 272-0 and Zinoviev's 16-0.

[cabalofdemons]

@maceda77 alot of the MMA records during the early days were dubious. Fighters would count amateur fights and even street fights to have these high win-loss records. Sperry's official MMA record is 13-4 which is very respectable.

[KnightMichael777]

apparently zinnoviev never trained with weights

[johnservando]

thanks for posting this, what a great fight. Agreed with the people who recognize this as one of the great early fights in MMA, and a turning point in the sport.

Who are these announcers?

[swedd2]

@johnservando the legendary matchmaker and world kickboxing champ John Perretti and I think Steve Bontempo.

[Bassmastr100]

At a time when brazilian jiu jitsu was dominating alll mma, because no one had really seen it, if u were, zinoviev fucked this guy up .

[Soneca83]

vitor belfort was just a kid LOLcan see him in ze mario corner

[o378]

why do they call this a stoppage cause of a cut...sperry taps at 11:40

[domingos79]

@o378 No, he didn't. They stopped because of the cut. Zé Marrio was just trying to wipe the blood out of his hand. This fight was officially stooped because of the cut and that was clear at that time.

[o378]

@domingos79 you right

[torr5962]

@domingos79 This was very fluky win. Mario was dominating.

[o378]

@domingos79 my bad, I see what you are saying...

[oagih90aa]

@o378 sperry tapped out because he's a coward and a pussy

[blueingreentrain]

terrible. holding the fence resting. rubbish

[chastell]

judo 1 bjj 0

[jack91x]

shit, Igor teaches at Utlima Gym, on Clematis St in West Palm Beach. I knew he was good, but these videos make me really happy to have him training me.

[ShitWrangler]

big thumbs up, a transitional moment in mma.

[cabalofdemons]

@ShitWrangler I'd go as far as to say it's first important fight in MMA history. MMA was only 2 years old at this point. It was UFC, Pancrase and Extreme Fighting.

[ussrwrestling]

@cabalofdemons Rings Fighting Championship in Japan started earlier, in 1992, and they also had Shooto events in Japan since 1990.

[cabalofdemons]

thank you for posting this. This is one of the greatest fights during the early days of MMA. 1995... 15 years ago

[bibafortuna]

should have stood them up at 5:39

[ussrwrestling]

@bibafortuna There were no stand-ups back in time!! And that was right!!