Sherdog’s Top 10: One and Dones

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7. Karam Ibrahim
K-1: Premium 2004 Dynamite
Dec. 31, 2004 | Osaka, Japan
Egypt’s Ibrahim is one of the very best Greco-Roman wrestlers of this generation. He took gold at the 2004 Olympics at 96 kilograms with shocking ease, winning his semifinal match 11-0 and prevailing 12-1 in the finals, reportedly the largest margin of all-time in a gold-medal match. He also won the silver at the 2012 Olympics at 84 kilograms and took two silvers at the world championships. At his best, Ibrahim was a dominating force with some of the most graceful and brutal athleticism in high-level wrestling.

Coming off his incredible performance at the 2004 Olympics, Ibrahim took an MMA fight against Japanese workhorse Kazuyuki Fujita, who relied on his inhuman ability to absorb punishment more than any individual skill. Ibrahim showed off his speed and athleticism early, landing some ugly punches with his chin straight in the air, but Fujita absolutely clocked him for a one-punch knockout win a little over a minute into the fight.

Ibrahim returned to wrestling afterward but struggled for years to regain his previous form, finishing 13th at the 2008 Olympics and failing to medal at the worlds. He dropped down to 84 kilograms in 2012 and took silver at the London Olympics, reclaiming his spot at the top of the world in a remarkable comeback. That 2004 bout was his only foray into MMA, but what a fighter he might have been if he had been given a reasonable learning curve, found a good team and stuck with it as a 25-year-old freak athlete.

Number 6 » He was largely responsible for bringing the Netherlands into the mainstream of muay Thai and worldwide kickboxing. He was one of the first foreigners to go to Thailand and fight the best of the best in their houses and under their rule sets and to be competitive doing so, if not always winning outright.