Megumi Fujii Goes 22-0, Best MMA Record Ever?
by Nate Wilcox on Oct 1, 2010 12:45 PM EDT
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Megumi Fujii made it look easy last night at Bellator 31 with a quick submission victory over old rival Lisa Ward. Fujii boxed her up on the feet, took her down, got the mount, took the arm and locked in the submission. Fans who were hoping for a back-and-forth war given Ward's claims of a premature stoppage in their first fight were disappointed.
Fans who crave record-breaking accomplishment on the other hand, couldn't be happier and Fujii extends her record to 22-0, a mark unmatched in modern MMA. Here's Mike Chiappetta:
Megumi Fujii's place as the top female fighter on the planet may be debatable, but the Japanese fighter has one record all to herself. The Bellator standout etched her name atop the history books by becoming the first MMA fighter to win 22 fights before suffering a loss.
...
Prior to Fujii, Jason Black and Satoko Shinashi had both 21 fights without a loss before suffering their first respective setbacks, though both also had draws on their record as well.
She's certainly well out in front on Sherdog's list of Best Records Among Active MMA Fighters. The next best is one Nazareno Malegarie, a Brazilian fighter with an 18-0 record. Strikeforce's Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm is tops among fighters for major North American MMA promotions at 15-0 (although Sherdog's Fighter data base only lists him as 13-0). The UFC's best are Charles Oliveira and John Hathaway with 14-0 records.
But wait, the Sherdog Fight Finder includes a man named John Strawn who went 30-0 from 2001 to 2003 before losing. Thanks to JCS of FightMatrix for pointing that out.
This just shows the difficulties facing anyone trying to make sense of MMA records. Fujii has fought most of her career in relatively well-documented, high level promotions -- as high level as women's MMA gets at least. Strawn for his part built up his glittering record in unsanctioned, dubiously documented local fights in the Mid-West.
What do you think? Does Fujii own the record?
SBN coverage of Bellator 31
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by Empty Thoughts on Oct 1, 2010 5:23 PM EDT up reply actions
*checks ammo and puts ear to the ground*
The Fedor fans….They’re coming…
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Strawn
In that 30-0 streak, the “average” opponent record he faced was approximately 2-1. However, there were some highlights in there.. well. as far as records go. One guy was 6-0 (7-1 in their 2nd meeting), another was 7-3, 8-1. All local fighters though.
Those Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday Night Fights in Iowa would’ve wreaked havoc on our rating system as those guys pooled up a shitload of points. Similar to what you see at BoxRec with boxers from South Africa, Japan, and even the republic of Georgia.
Creator of the FightMatrix rating system.
Man I'm upset I missed this fight.
I look forward to the finals though – hopefully Frausto can make it a fight.
If you fight, you fight. If you hope, you hope.
I was wondering where the Mega Megu coverage was
She’s deserving of the title, she an active fighter, doesn’t have the prima donna attitude of some pound for pound champs, and fights every where (ie doesn’t just stay in japan).
This tourney was a huge risk for her, but to build her name over seas she took the risk.
She’s a freaking beast, no one can dispute that.
She’s my #1 pound for pound female fighter. For those that say Chris Cyborg I say, if they fought at 115 ~120 Megu would rip her arm off.
The finals with Frausto should be interesting. Frausto’s got to come in feeling like she needs to prove something.
Cyborg
Would probably have to fight with no arms to make 115-120.
Creator of the FightMatrix rating system.
he’s talking about P4P i think… like a shrunken mini-sized cyborg.
IMHO, a slightly smaller, proportial cyborg would absolutely demolish megumi. doesn’t matter that megumi is more technically talented. being the stronger, faster, superior athlete by a wide margin is why cyborg is the best P4P female fighter.
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megumi is the 2010 female version of the 2000 kazushi sakuraba.
that is, highly talented, technical, submission grappler from japan, that would soon be obliterated by a violent, aggressive, powerful brazilian.
www.tapology.com | twitter @tapology
A proportionally smaller Cyborg wouldn’t be all that much stronger or faster than Megu – less muscle mass, y’know…
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by Monday Morning Martial Artist on Oct 1, 2010 4:02 PM EDT up reply actions
how can there be any doubt about this?
Megu is the best female fighter, ever. Period. This tournament is a HUGE risk for her, and she should be commended for taking that risk.
Love to watch her. Every time I’ve seen her in the ring/cage, she has always given it everything she’s got — plus she’s incredibly respectful to her opponents. Gotta love that.
I do, however, have a problem with Frausto being in the finals. She did NOT deserve that win last night.
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by bobthewriter on Oct 1, 2010 11:52 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
I know the 22-0 looks nice..
But I can’t put her over Tsuji over LaRosa on an all-time list YET.
Creator of the FightMatrix rating system.
why not?
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by bobthewriter on Oct 1, 2010 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions
1. strength of opponent – Mega Megu is great, but she has a lot of 0-1 fighters on her record whereas LaRosa has consistently faced competent pro fighters.
2. rules of competition – LaRosa has spent the vast majority of her career fighting legit modern rules MMA, whereas Fujii has spent most her career fighting under proto-MMA RINGS style rules.
Just finished watching the event. As impressive as Fujii is, I was also severly pissed off by the BS Frausto decision! 30-27, are you kidding me? Man, these idiot judges are going to give me a heart attack. Aguilar clearly won that fight, she was pushing the action, always going forward, landed more shots and busted up Frausto’s face something bad! Frausto was just backing up all the freakin’ time, not doing much at all. Why was she so afraid to trade with Aguilar? Why was she just running backwards all the time? Why in hell was she awarded the decision? Are these judges paid off or really this fucking stupid and blind? Man, Aguilar got robbed big time. I’m not a fan or anything but it really sucks, especially when it’s such an important fight, for the finals and chance of winning 100 k. Retard judges = biggest problem in MMA right now.
Sorry for the rant, just had to get that out.
by Horselover Fat on Oct 1, 2010 5:49 PM EDT up reply actions
Only because there is little to no competition in women’s MMA.
It’s like when people thought Mamorou was the best P4P fighter on earth. The reality was that he was fighting in the lowest talent division in MMA. (You could say something similar about Miguel Torres…his division is better, but he got most of his wins against nobodies.)
Megu is fun and VERY talented. However, the talent gap between women’s MMA and men’s MMA is huge. I have no problem with women’s MMA, however you shouldn’t try and rank her against the men when she is fighting completely different competition.
by Bob Loblaw TX on Oct 1, 2010 12:19 PM EDT up reply actions
undeservedly so.
if megu fights good athletes she’s getting blasted.
until then, she’s the best among an inferior group. strong women like sarah kaufman and cyborg are the direction that women’s MMA is headed.
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Quality > Quantity
There are very, VERY few fighters with a big win column that are not massively padded.
Trying to think of one… failing.
by Lunatic-Fridge on Oct 1, 2010 12:18 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Great post.
Win streaks are worthless. Guys like Randy and BJ have so-so records, but for the most part fight very good competition all the time. If you look at most win streaks, they are padded with crap then topped off with a few good wins.
Fedor’s win streak is easily the best in MMA history, though it might not be the longest.
by Bob Loblaw TX on Oct 1, 2010 12:20 PM EDT up reply actions
Even Fedor only had 10-12 quality wins in there. Which still puts him at the top of winning streaks in MMA. Although if Brock goes 11-1, he’ll have that beat quality wise.
by Lunatic-Fridge on Oct 1, 2010 12:23 PM EDT up reply actions
i cant imgine brock defending his title 6 more times
that would be impressive though
by Richard Doughty on Oct 1, 2010 1:49 PM EDT up reply actions
I don’t know, Carwin is the only person I saw giving Brock trouble. And now the he knows he can take Carwin’s power, I see the rematch not being as near as competitive.
by Lunatic-Fridge on Oct 1, 2010 2:03 PM EDT up reply actions
Anderson had some weak ones in there too…not really his fault though.
But even he isn’t constantly going against real top 5 MWs…more of a who-he-hasn’t-beat yet.
by Lunatic-Fridge on Oct 1, 2010 2:01 PM EDT up reply actions
Lyoto Machida
His undefeated streak was of fairly high quality before his loss to shogun… Penn, Franklin, Silva, Evans, Ortiz ,Shogun 5/6 were former champions in their divisions
Women's MMA isn't deep enough.
As far as stats goes they need to be totally separate from the Men’s obviously. So longest women’s streak? Sure, that’s fine. But overall the qualiy of competition has to be a factor in the significance of the record.
If the question is merely "who had the most professional fights before taking a loss"
Then the answer is not yet Fujii. This poll hurts my brain.
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