10 MMA-Inspired Wrestling Matches

9. Akira Maeda Versus Aleksandr Karelin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikKfO0hfo3I With all due respect to John Smith, Dan Gable, Bruce Baumgartner, and Cael Sanderson, there's no amateur wrestler in history with the pedigree of Aleksandr Karelin. Widely considered the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of all time, the super heavyweight won Olympic gold at the 1988, 1992, and 1996 games, and finished with silver in 2000 after a controversial loss to Rulon Gardner. Karelin is a sports superstar (especially in his native Russia), but less well known is the single pro wrestling match in which he competed. Karelin participated in a bout for Akira Maeda's RINGS promotion in 1999, and while, at that time, RINGS was an MMA promotion and not a pro wrestling promotion, Karelin's bout with Maeda was indeed a shoot-style work. Despite being largely lost to history, the match was a huge success at the time - it drew a gate of over $1 million and was covered by The New York Times and Sports Illustrated. Karelin won on a unanimous decision after the three five-minute rounds had elapsed.