BE's Baddest Tournament: Who Is MMA's Greatest Wrestler Of All Time?

Oh yes, folks, that’s right - BE’s Baddest is back.

For those unfamiliar, the BE’s Baddest is a tournament that’s run here on Bloody Elbow to determine the best fighters in MMA history. It’s been dormant since 2014, and it returns now. You can view the full BE Baddest history here, but for a quick rundown, we’ve already crowned three champion: Fedor Emelianenko as the BE Baddest Greatest of All Time (a title he defended this past weekend with a totally legit win over the fearsome Fabio Maldonado), Kazushi Sakuraba as the Greatest Submission Fighter of All Time, and Jose Aldo as the Greatest Striker of All Time. Now, we begin the quest to crown our fourth champ with this question:

Who is MMA's Greatest Wrestler Of All Time?

Much like the striking tournament, this is not "who is the most decorated wrestler that ever fought once in MMA?" Coach Mike already wrote that article, and it’s great - go read it now. Instead, this tournament is about who executed the best wrestling in the history of MMA. Wrestling of course is a broad category, so it’s intentionally a bit vague. You can determine for yourself what you see as great MMA wrestling, how much you account for historical time period, influence, etc.

The process will work exactly like it did in the past, which means it's time to start nominating. Here's how the nominations work:

You have someone you want to nominate? In the comment section write "Nominate - Fighter Name", but, you know, replace the words "Fighter Name" with the name of the actual fighter you want to nominate. Clear? Good. So if I want to nominate the wrestling pedigree of Tank Abbott I write:

Nominate - Tank Abbott

From there, it's all about the RECS. If someone has nominated the Tank already and you want him to move on to the field of 32, REC that person's nomination. The top 32 advance to the tournament, and will be seeded accordingly.

One important note here - DON'T nominate the same person more than once. That just confuses things. So if I want to nominate Tank, I should first search the comments to make sure he hasn't been nominated. If he has, I REC him. If not, I nominate him.

Nominations for this tournament end this Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. ET, so get them in now. We'll have the tournament draw over the weekend, then voting on each head to head match-up begins next week.

And remember folks, rec, rec, rec. You don't rec up your favorite fighter and he doesn't get in to the tournament? Well, then you have no one to blame but yourself.

Oh, and before you ask, why yes, we did borrow this idea from our friends over at Cageside Seats, thanks. And yes, I did copy and paste much of this from the last kick-off article (and the one before that).

Any other questions, ask them in the comments. If not - LET THE NOMINATIONS BEGIN!