UFC's Hall Of Famers

In the fastest growing sport in the world their are legends that rightly so put ufc and mma on the map and these legends are entered into the hallowed hall of fame,a place reserved for some of the best and most influential mixed martial artists on the planet,There are 7 people inducted into the hall of fame and all for very different reasons,some for their fighting skills,some for their legendary status and some even post humorously.Prepare for the legends.

In no particular order 

No:1 Dan Severn  Severn started out as a wrestler and was born in 1958 in Michigan,his stats list him as 6ft 2 and 250lbs,he is a two time world professional wrestling champion and his professional mma record is 93-16-7 and he is one of only a handful of fighters that have surpassed the 100 carer fight mark,he was one of the first wrestlers to enter the ufc and to remarkable success,he entered the ufc in 1994 at ufc 4 he fought some good fights but unfortunately lost to Royce Gracie in the finals.He went on to win the ultimate ultimate 1995 tournament where he defeated 3 fighters in one night which is a feat which could probably not be repeated these days.He then went on to beat ken shamrock at ufc 9.He was inducted into the hall of fame at ufc 52.

Mark "The Hammer" was another high school wrestler who transitioned into mma so effortlessly you almost forgot that his only skills were wrestling and his sizable frame,Born in 1964 he was an olympic amateur wrestler.He was the godfather of the technique known as ground and pound ie gaining full mount and punishing opponents from on top.His first foray into the world of the ufc had him winjing both of his first events namely ufc 8 and ufc 10,he also won the tile at ufc 12 defeating Dan Severn.He made his first tilt defence at ufc 14 and aftera long battle he lost a decision to heavy underdog Maurice Smith.Coleman took nearly a year off before returning at ufc 17 and after emptying his gas tank rather early this fight will just be remembered for the way in which Coleman was spectacularly knocked out with a head kick for the first time in his career.Shortly after this loss and a few other fights Coleman moved to japan to fight with the legendary Pride organisation between 1999 and 2006.After several wins in a row he eventually lost to antonio rodrigo nogueira.

Charles Lewis was a businessman and promoter,known by all those that new him as mask founded the Tapout clothing line in 1997 which through the hard work of mask became a multi million dollar company,He began by selling mixed martial arts apparel out of the back of a van and by 2007he was turning over 20 million dollars plus.He was known as mask because of the stripes of facepaint that he was rarely seen without.In 1997 he starred with fellow promoters Skyscrape and Punkass in a reality television cable show  that followed up and coming martial artists,Unfortunately on march 11th 2009 Lewis dies in a high speed car crash whilst in his Ferrari,he was hit by a Porsche driver and then hit a lamppost,Lewis was declared dead at the scene of the crash,the Porsche driver has since been charged with dangerous driving.Lewis was posthumously inducted into the hall of fame at ufc 100 in July 2009.He is the first non fighter to be inducted.

Ken Shamrock was born in 1964 and emerged into one of the biggest mma stars in history,He was the first ufc super fight champion which was eventually renamed the heavyweight division.He has also won titles in japan,he is also the founder of The Lions Den a camp which in the early days of mma had no rivals.Shamrock was also known by his moniker,The worlds most dangerous man.Shamrock entered into the very first ufc but was defeated by a choke from the legend that his Royce Gracie,he returned for ufc 3 and made it all the way to the final but when hearing that Gracie had pulled out,refused to come out and fight in the final as he wanted his revenge over Gracie.He eventually got his chance at ufc 5 but it resulted in a dull draw.At ufc 6 Shamrock choked out Dan Severn to gain the championship and successfully defended it at ufc 7 and ufc 8.After ufc 9 due to the low amounts of money on offer through the ufc he quit mma and joined the wwf wrestling group,in 2000 he returned to the japanese organisation pride,He enjoyed a second spell in the ufc from 2002 and had some very well received bouts including the first  fight with Tito Ortiz as well as the 2 more after that.Ken was released from the ufc in 2007.His record in mma was 27-13-2

What hasn't been said about Randy Couture,he is a true legend and defies belief with the fighting abilities he has at the age he is.He is a three time heavyweight and two time light heavyweight ufc champion,he is mainly known for his greco roman wrestling and he was also an Olympic wrestling alternate.Randy currently holds the record for title fights he has participated in 15.He was born in 1963 and is also the holder of the record for oldest title holder.He started mma late as he was 33 when he entered into mma.His most popular fights have been the trilogy of fights with other hall of famer Chuck Liddell.He has recently been doing some film work amongst other ufc stars.He has his own clothing line and range of gyms called xtreme couture.Amongst other things he has been embroiled in a legal case with the ufc and also has expressed his wish to fight Fedor emilanenko.He will very soon take on former heavyweight boxing champion James Toney who has made the switch to mma and hopefully will show this former boxer that punching power just does not cut it in the world of mma.

Where so i start with the original pioneer of mixed martial arts,this guy was there at ufc 1 taking on guys twice his size when everyone believed that due to his size he wouldn't make it more than a minute.But he did,he managed to grapple bigger guys to the floor and then use his world class jiu-jitsu to submit them and fast.So confident was he of his success that he put out a 100,000 dollar challenge to anyone who could beat him,apparently according to speculation he never needed to pay out.He has fought in both ufc and the pride organisation and holds a mma record of 14-3-3 12 of those 14 wins coming by submission.He owns a 7th degree black and red belt which means he is as good as you can get in the martial art of jiu jitsu.He is a legend and probably one of the reasons today that mixed martial arts is where it is,he proved that size doesn't matter as long as you have a good skill level.

When you first look at Matt Hughes you can tell he is going to be strong but according to most people that have fought him his strength is almost superhuman,he is the former 2 time ufc welterweight champion and defended his belt a record 7 times(welterweight record)Hughes was born on a farm in Illinois and has spent most of his life working on farms which may be where he gets his strength from,his skills lie in wrestling and the art of ground and pound,but he does have a remarkable ground game as well,as a lot of decent fighters have found out.He first won the title in 2001 defeating Carlos Newton in a fight in which many thought he was unconscious before slamming Newton to the floor.He kept the title until he fought Bj Penn but then Penn and the ufc parted ways briefly leaving the door open for Hughes to come back and regain his belt,He then lost the belt to Georges St Pierre in November of 2006 and has struggled to gain momentum since then,he spent some time out with his family and,nearly a year later he returned and has just recently signed a multi-fight deal with the ufc in the hope that he can make another run at the title.

The last entrant into the hall of fame needs no introduction,chuck liddell has been the face of the ufc for the last 12 years and is known for his explosive knockouts and highlight reel action.In April of 2005 Liddell defeated the then champion Randy Couture to become the new light heavyweight champion and a title that he would hold for 2 years breaking all sorts of records,unfortunately his winning streak came to an end in 2007 when he faced pride superstar Quinton "Rampage" Jackson for the second time and lost via a right hook tko 2 minutes into the second round.He has since tried to regroup and take another run at the title but seems to of lost the granite chin he once had,although being Dana Whites pal means there will always be a position in the ufc for this hall of famer.