Who were the best
Canadian fighters ever to compete in the UFC?
Canadian fighters ever to compete in the UFC?
On April 30, the Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Canada for the
biggest event in its history, UFC 129, which will be held in front of 55,000
fans at Toronto's Rogers Centre. So who were the best fighters from Canada to
ever grace the Octagon? Let's find out.
Note – the following list has been based on UFC performances only, so
fighters who had stellar careers in Canada but weren’t able to match that
success in the Octagon won’t be included here. Also, three fighters on the list
(Krzysztof Soszynski, Gary Goodridge, Carlos Newton) were born outside of
Canada, but fought their careers based out of and are seen as synonymous with
their adopted country.
10 - Gary Goodridge – Trinidad and Tobago / Barrie
UFC Record - 4-4 (3 KOs, 1
sub)
UFC Debut – UFC 8 – KO1 Paul Herrera
Key UFC Win – UFC 8 – KO 1 Paul
Herrera
Few will ever forget the devastating barrage of elbows that
produced Goodridge’s first round knockout of Paul Herrera, and as one of the
UFC’s early pioneers, he battled it out with a Who’s Who of early standouts like
Jerry Bohlander, Don Frye (twice) and Mark Coleman. Goodridge actually went on
to more acclaim in Japan’s PRIDE organization, where he was a mainstay for
years, but to early UFC fans, ‘Big Daddy’ will always be associated with the
Octagon.
9 - Mark Bocek - Toronto
UFC Record – 5-3 (4 subs)
UFC Debut – UFC 73 – TKO
by 1 Frankie Edgar
Key UFC Win – UFC 124 – Wsub1 Dustin
Hazelett
After a slow start to his UFC career that saw him lose two
of his first three fights (albeit to Frankie Edgar and Mac Danzig), Bocek
started to warm up in late 2008 with a win over Alvin Robinson. And once he
settled in with the American Top Team squad, Bocek’s game really took off. Now
the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt is firmly established as one of those rare
fighters that can finish you off in seconds if he gets you on the mat.
8 - Krzysztof Soszynski – Poland / Winnipeg
UFC Record – 5-2 (2 KOs, 2
subs)
UFC Debut – TUF8 Finale – Wsub2 Shane Primm
Key UFC Win – UFC 110 –
TKO3 Stephan Bonnar
Once seen as a journeyman whose erratic
performances kept him from getting to the next level, Soszynski hit his stride
after a stint on the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter, and has since won
five of his seven UFC fights. He has also finished four of his five victories,
with the only losses coming to Brandon Vera and Stephan Bonnar. In 2010, he
split two wars with Bonnar and finished out the year with a UFC 122 win over
Goran Reljic.
7 - David Loiseau - Montreal
UFC Record – 4-5 (4 KOs)
UFC Debut – UFC 42 –
KO1 Mark Weir
Key UFC Win – UFC 53 – TKO2 Charles McCarthy
Go to
any UFC event, and you will see David Loiseau’s amazing spinning back kick on
Charles McCarthy during the pre-fight highlight reel that plays in the arena.
That fight is an apt one when it comes to the career of ‘The Crow’, as the
victory came in the middle of a three fight run (Gideon Ray and Evan Tanner were
the others) that saw Loiseau tearing through all comers. That trio of victories
earned the elbow strike master a shot at the middleweight crown held by Rich
Franklin, and though Loiseau would lose to the champ that night in 2006, his
display of heart and determination throughout the five rounder won’t be soon
forgotten.
6 - Sam Stout - London
UFC Record – 5-5
UFC Debut – UFC 58 – W3 Spencer
Fisher
Key UFC Win – UFC 108 – W3 Joe Lauzon
I almost put Stout’s
2007 loss to Spencer Fisher as his key fight because it remains one of the
greatest fights I have ever witnessed live, whether MMA or boxing. And for a
while, that was Stout’s MO – win or lose, he was going to bring it and put on a
great fight. But at the same time, if you could get him to the mat, your odds of
winning escalated greatly. In January 2010 though, Stout put on a
career-defining performance in his victory over Joe Lauzon, and after an October
victory over Paul Taylor, it looks like Stout has finally put everything
together in his fight game.
5 - Jason MacDonald – New Glasgow
UFC Record – 5-6 (3 subs, 2 KOs)
UFC Debut
– Ortiz vs Shamrock 3 – Wsub1 Ed Herman
Key UFC Win - Ortiz vs Shamrock 3 –
Wsub1 Ed Herman
Despite his status as one of the Canadian fight
scene’s top veterans, few expected MacDonald to defeat TUF3 finalist Ed Herman
in Herman’s first post-TUF fight. MacDonald did it though, and he went on to
beat two more TUF alumni (Chris Leben and Rory Singer), earning him the nickname
“The TUF Killer”. But MacDonald also performed against non-TUF fighters,
defeating Joe Doerksen and Jason Lambert and giving Demian Maia hell for nearly
three rounds in an entertaining ground war. MacDonald’s only issue in the UFC
was beating that next level of competition, like Frankin, Maia, and Yushin
Okami, and his up and down performances has kept him from moving into true
contender status.
4 - Patrick Cote - Rimouski
UFC Record – 4-7 (2 KOs)
UFC Debut – UFC 50 – L3
Tito Ortiz
Key UFC Win – UFC Fight Night 12 – TKO1 Drew
McFedries
After a 0-4 start to his UFC career, no one would have
expected to see Cote on this list. But the hard-nosed Cote was not about to go
away that easily, and after he fought his way into the final of The Ultimate
Fighter 4, he made a run at the title with consecutive Octagon victories over
Scott Smith, Kendall Grove, Drew McFedries, and Ricardo Almeida. In his shot at
the belt at UFC 90 in 2008, Cote became the first man to extend Anderson Silva
into the third round of a UFC fight before a knee injury sent him down to
defeat. After rehabbing his injury, he returned to the Octagon, but lost
back-to-back bouts against Alan Belcher and Tom Lawlor.
3 - Mark Hominick - Thamesford
UFC Record – 3-0 (1 sub, 1 KO)
UFC Debut –
UFC 58 – Wsub2 Yves Edwards
Key UFC Win – UFC Fight For The Troops 2 - TKO1
George Roop
Thamesford's Mark Hominick shocked fight fans in 2006
when he decided to abandon his 2-0 UFC record and go back to the featherweight
division on the local Canadian circuit and then to the Affliction promotion
before settling in with the WEC. But it was a move of great foresight, as
Hominick's career took off in the WEC, with his three consecutive wins over
Bryan Caraway, Yves Jabouin, and Leonard Garcia being a perfect segue into his
UFC return in January, where he earned himself a shot at featherweight boss Jose
Aldo with an 88 second TKO win over George Roop. At UFC 129, he gets the
opportunity to become only the third Canadian to win a UFC title.
2 - Carlos Newton – Anguilla / Newmarket
UFC Record - 3-4 (3 subs)
UFC Debut
– UFC 17 – Wsub1 Bob Gilstrap
Key UFC Win – UFC 31 – Wsub3 Pat
Miletich
With a 3-4 record, you may wonder how Newton gets such a
lofty ranking. But the talented and charismatic ‘Ronin’ is a former UFC
champion, and three of those four Octagon losses came to Matt Hughes (twice) and
Dan Henderson. More importantly, while we’re judging Octagon performances here,
guys like Newton were handicapped a bit by the fact that the UFC wasn’t running
shows at the rate it is now. If a prime Carlos Newton was able to compete in the
Octagon three or four times a year, his record might be a little different. Case
in point, let’s say Newton’s prime was from 2000 to 2003. During that time, he
went 2-2 in the UFC, beating Pat Miletich and Pete Spratt and losing twice to
Hughes. Outside of the Octagon during that period, he went 5-2, beating the
likes of Jose Landi-Jons, Johil de Oliveira, and Renzo Gracie, losing only to
future middleweight champs Dave Menne and Anderson Silva. Newton was the real
deal.
1 - Georges St-Pierre – Montreal
UFC Record – 15-2 (5 KOs, 2 subs)
UFC
Debut – UFC 46 – W3 Karo Parisyan
Key UFC Win – UFC 65 – TKO2 Matt
Hughes
The no-brainer of no-brainers. With 15 UFC wins (10 more than
his closest competitors on the all-time Canadian UFC win list, Jason MacDonald,
Sam Stout and Mark Bocek), two UFC welterweight titles, and a cemented place in
the upper reaches of the mythical pound for pound list, St-Pierre is the best of
the best when it comes to Canadian MMA. Owner of victories over Hughes (twice),
BJ Penn (twice), Matt Serra, Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck (twice), and Thiago Alves,
St-Pierre already has a stellar resume, and if his December 2010 win over Josh
Koscheck is any indication, he’s showing no signs of slowing down either.
THIS AND THAT
Canadians to win UFC titles
Carlos Newton, Georges
St-Pierre
Record of Canadians in Championship Fights
9-7
Most Wins
Georges St-Pierre 15
Most Losses
Patrick Cote 7
Most Knockouts
Georges St-Pierre 5
Most Submissions
Mark Bocek 4
Most Fight of the Night awards
Sam Stout 4
Most KO of the Night awards
Patrick Cote 2
Most Submission of the Night awards
Jason MacDonald 3
First Canadian Fighter in UFC
Harold Howard – UFC 3
Canadian vs Canadian Fights in UFC
UFC 52 - Doerksen vs
Cote – Doerksen Wsub 3
UFC 83 – MacDonald vs Doerksen – MacDonald TKO2
Unbeaten in UFC
Mark Hominick 3-0
Record of Canadians in UFC debuts
22-16-1
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