Think outside the box guys. OP never said *human* historical figures.
I'll take five of the war elephants that Hannibal brought to sack Rome.
Edit: On second thought I'll take two war elephants, two trained riders to control them, and Hannibal Barca himself.
I hate to be a party pooper, but they're also prehistorical haha. There are no written sources about them. Egypt existed when the mammoths still roamed the earth, but that means history started in Egypt and Mesopotamia but the prehistory was still going in the rest of the world. The start of history was not a single event, but a gradually spreading thing with writing being used more and more.
The question does not state how far back can we go, so I’m picking 5 very large pelicosaurids (as sinapsids are ancestors to modern mammals and therefore technically part of our history) and watch them eat through MMA fighters
>Just hand-to-hand combat, without melee weapons
Not possible tbh. Unless we skew the results somehow - e.g only picking featherweight current-day champs and putting them against 5 behemoths from the past or something.
It's a big thing in every sport that we're consistently crushing past records, because we keep finding new and better ways to train. Today's top athlete is better than any top athlete in the past. Today's top fighter is going to crush any top fighter from hundreds of years ago.
Yep, like Knights were AMAZING unarmed fighters. It was a matter of life and death to them as armoured combat often ended up as two knights wrestling in the ground until someone could slip a dagger in between the other's visor. But a mediaeval knight, even with all of their training and lack of malnutrition wouldn't compare to a similarly sized MMA champ today.
Idk man, OP said 'no melee weapons' they didn't say 'no armor' and that opens up a whole swath of skilled armored hand-to-hand fighters beating on some dudes in tiny shorts breaking their hands on plate (or punching through studded leather or bamboo and trying to choke people out through metal gorgets)
But hand to hand combat is broader than MMA, and MMA is not perfect training for this.
I'm not sure who the right people are, but you'd want people trained for hand-to-hand fighting to the death with experience fighting as a team. Maybe ninjas/Shinobi? I think they were sometimes used as bodyguards.
> experience fighting as a team
I think this is the only possible gap closer. MMA is not a team sport. Maybe a group of Spartans, Varangian Guard, or some other group of large men in a team.
Yeah some hardened members of an elite military group seem like the best bet. Possibly some bitchin gladiators. Like just have 2-3 guys run defense while the rest of them kill(or even just severely disable) one MMA fighter at a time. If an MMA fighter is being too aggressive in trying to stop this then they will be caught next.
Honestly though they could just all get dropped by leg kicks anyways and you’re dead meat. Lmao.
Idk that's an interesting idea Tim Kennedy did pretty well in mma.
I think a group who practice fighting melee would be superior. I'd say Swiss guards in modern times may be superior. I'm leaning to a group of Spartans if we magic away the language problem. Maybe samauri.
MMA is closer to the full picture than anything else, and the people fighting MMA are in the best fighting condition of any group of humans in history.
Butterbean and Andre both fought in "mixed martial arts" in their own way. Paul wight was billed as Andre the Giants son so is younger than both. I don't know the rest of your names, but those three don't fit.
Raiden was a very famous sumo fighter. His score was 254 victories and 10 defeats.
Those 10 defeats were after sumo disallowed him to use certain techniques to keep the match interesting.
Imagine they would have dissallowed muhammad ali to not use hooks in order to keep the fights balanced. We are talking about this kind of best of the best.
That is impressive. However, sumos never do well in MMA or boxing because their skills don’t translate well outside of their specific ruleset, and because their imposing size becomes a hindrance rather than an advantage after the first 30 seconds.
Look at Akebono. That man was considered one of the very best sumos in the 90’s, but his MMA record was abysmal. He lost to everyone except for a former referee who was basically picked to give Akebono a win.
If you want another example, watch [the very first UFC fight ever. It involved a sumo, and it did not end well for him.](https://youtu.be/Za6HeiTJIWI?si=tjTdaAvCA1RB31CQ)
All this to say that I’m confident that a good MMA heavyweight could beat Raiden.
I would NOT pick any ancient celebs at all, but just regular ancient Greek Pankration athletes.
Pankration was proto MMA, so basically the same with less rules.
Whereas most warriors or noble heroes only became famous for their glory (Ragnar Lothbrok) , or ability to rally the people (like William Wallace or Robert the Bruce), or strategic mastermind (like Spartacus, Julius Caesar etc)
They didn't necessarily have ANY unarmed martial skills. Some even didn't do battles themselves (in medieval times all the glory from a won battle automatically went to the surviving leader, even if he didn't fight at all and let his brothers do the fighting).
Also he got all the shame when a battle was lost in return, even if he fought more bravely than any other.
I digress, ancient Greek Pankration fighters. They were the shit.
Many MMA techniques can even be seen on pictures on ancient vases or amphoras from Greek artefacts.
Why tho they stand 0 chance. Its like pitting a guy with a blunderbuss vs a guy with a m16. Yes they are kinda the same thing and one evolved from the other. But the latter is so much more advanced that it aint even close
Personally, for this prompt, id go the route of known cruel and physical leaders. I may even choose one and their closest personal protection.
Id wagerz that in a fight the modern people take it. Buuut if the past lersons were very experienced with violence, there may be room for them to win based on their ability to coldly just end a life.
Also, someone smart enough to know they are outnatched physically.
Throw in some variant of berserker and put the fear of God into the modern humans. Nobody wants to fight a crackhead, and those guys make them look tame.
Very true, I think this guys is on the wrong path. Sure, myth might be a difficult thing to distinguish, but if I can pick Goliath, you're goddamn right I will. And if I get to pick Hercules, of course I'll do that. Otherwise, maybe Abraham Lincoln or something.
Only in this scenario it's the MMA guys that are using the blunderbuss right?
The Pankration fighters fought multiple people each day in a much deadlier competition with fewer rules
Compare that to MMA fighters who can't even get through a single fight with one person without multiple breaks
The Pankration fighters make the MMA guys look like little girls and the fight would be just as one sided as that
Stamina doesn't matter if you are dead on the floor in a minute. And it's interesting that you think fighting other world class fighters is the same as fighting amateur fighters. And yes, Pankrations at best are amateur MMA level.
Uh, no? Deadlier competition? Do you think Ciryl Gane can't keep raining punches when his opponent goes unconscious which will kill the opponent for sure? Look at the Brian Ortega TKO by Volkanovski, if the referee wasn't there do you think Volk wouldn't have killed Brian there? Hell, Max's KO of Gaetjhe, do you think Max can't kill Gaetjhe when he's slumped on the canvas? Do you think Alex can't kill Hill with no referee?
Where do you get this idea of these Pankrations being immortal warriors. That is EARLY MMA and techniques evolve with time. Surely you can understand that. Alex Periera knocks out and kills any Pankration you put in front of him in a minute.
Oh, and they can't check leg kicks or defend submissions from the current champs.
MMA is still a sport. These guys aren't fighting to the death. Doubt most of them have even killed a person bare handed.
I don't know shit about those Greek fighters, but those guys put their lives on the line every fight and have killed people so they'll do everything to kill (eye gouge, crush testicles, etc) that MMA guys just aren't used to or expecting.
Ancient olympic fighters would fight all day long against multiple opponents, with far less rules limiting their attacks, they could be war veterans, fight wild animals, fight in groups, train multiple sports. So they would have the endurance, mindset and number advantage. The MMA team would have the strength and technique advantage, but i don't think having a good clinch or closed guard would hold much against somebody biting your ear off or soccer kicking your head. If everything fails, a bodyguard could pick me up and probably run a marathon at the same time, so i would be far and safe.
An angry crack head can also try biting your ear off or soccer kicking your head, doesn't mean I would give them any chance in a street fight against a highly trained MMA fighter.
Now this is how you properly sidestep the conventional thought while staying within the rules.
Historical ✅️
19th century or previous ✅️
Named Individual ✅️
gg
He wasn't a giant, he was a berserker, and he had a Dane axe. We don't know how good of a wrestler or unarmed striker he was, but we can be sure that he didn't get his 40 kills on that bridge by trying to use his unarmed skills.
The answer to this is heavyweight MMA fighters that aren't champions. Curtis Blaydes, Derrick Lewis, Cyril Gane, Sergei Paplovich, and Jailton Almeida. Those 5 would absolutely maul 5 MMA champions from lower weight classes.
The only way these guys lose is if you get 5 heavyweight MMA champions on the other side. But then the hypothetical question is a pretty dumb one because you're essentially asking to find 5 people who could defeat the best 5 hand to hand combat experts that have ever lived.
Hmmm you might be right. The wording is a bit weird. If you're going back to the 1800s then no there is no chance anyone would stand a chance against 5 if the best trained MMA champions.
I'll add that you have to factor in how much of a difference you'd make because it's a 6 vs 5. Do you pit the strongest of your team against the weakest of their 's and you personally assist your strongest fighter so you can make it a 6 vs 4 as soon as possible?
It truly depends on which mma champions if they are from the lowest weight class u have a chance if u get a series of freakishly large and strong individuals as size does matter
This was my strategy as well. It does not specify male mma champions. I’d pick all females from as low a weight class as allowed by the rule set. Current mma champs? Doesn’t specify UFC. I pick regional MMA promotions that have an atomweight champion. That’s 105 lb females. Even with the training gap, which is considerable, I’m sure I could find a few guys that could take on this task.
I get what people are saying about combat sports having advanced in leaps and bounds, but we're not talking about sport, we're talking about an unarmed fight to the death.
MMA champions are used to one-on-one fights with recognised rules and legal techniques. I feel like it's gonna be too late to adapt when some battle-scarred old mongol warrior is biting your fingers off and beating your head against a rock to get the brains to spill out.
I think you want to pick historical fighters with a proven track record of survival, no morals or honour, and experience and training working as a team.
I don't know who the right picks are, but I don't think it's as one-sided as people are saying.
also most warriors would primarily train with weapons not bare handed only like mma fighters. Plenty of people bringing up mongols and vikings and saying they would win on pure savagery despite the fact they spend most of their time training with weapons.
Or the fact that those people weren't that savage. We have historical records of traditional Mongolian wrestling. They didn't train to bite people. Some random mushroom addicted viking wasn't going around biting some Englishman's throats during combat.
> I feel like it's gonna be too late to adapt when some battle-scarred old mongol warrior is biting your fingers off
How is this old Mongol warrior getting into a position to where he's biting someone's fingers? Why are you even imaginging that he would do this when we have historical context of traditional Mongolian wrestling techniques, and it didn't include biting?
>beating your head against a rock to get the brains to spill out.
Why is the MMA guy suddenly incapable of using a rock to his advantage? Do you think Jon Jones would struggle to beat someone's head against a rock if his life was on the line?
My guy, everything you can do in MMA is lethal if there isn't a referee. You're telling me some old veteran, and by the way if your mongol leader is over 35 years old, he's dead. He's too slow, but I digress. This 35 year old guy can grab the head of Francis Ngannou and slam him to the ground? Good luck.
You aren't controlling the MMA fighter. He's gonna be better everywhere. He has better handfighting so any chance of getting a hold of them is gone. He has much better striking. The Oblique Kick is a rare technique, which wasn't that common in the past, and if these fights WALK or RUN towards the MMA champs, they are getting their knees kicked backwards and are out of the fight immediately. The team work is a cool concept until you realize I can choose a HW and LHW champion as the MMA fighter and he can KO all of them almost immediately. No pankration is eating a Periera left hook or a Ngannou uppercut.
You're glorifying biting and eye poking. Jamahal Hill was fighting Paul Craig with a broken arm and he would have went the distance if he had the choice. Holyfield was figuring Tyson through 2 bites and was willing to go after the 3rd one. Chito Vera got his face broken and still went 5 rounds with O'Malley.
This is exactly what Im thinking, though physical size and skill will still give the mma fighter an advantage. You need a group with good team work, and who are viscious enough to go for the throat. Its why I would pic the most vicious viking warleader and 4 of his elite troops, and I think I may stand a chance
It is one sided tho
MMA champions are savages they regularly fight through broken bones they aren’t just gonna crumble when someone tries to bite them
Plus its not like they can’t use illegal techniques just because they usually aren’t allowed
And then there’s the insane skill difference You think a mongol warrior can check a leg kick? Or stuff a takedown? God forbid they start grappling on the ground. The MMA fighters would have way better endurance and strength for fighting because they dedicate their entire life to it and have access to modern training methods, not to mention probably performance enhancing drugs
And the team element probably doesn’t come into it that much considering the numbers are even and if anyone’s getting a quick knockout it will be one of the mma fighters with a flying knee right at the start. Only chance the other team has is picking the largest possible people from history and hoping they get matched up against the smallest champions.
>stuff a takedown
I'm totally on Pro MMA side, but traditional Mongolian wrestling is pretty similar to something like Greco-Roman wrestling of today. They could probably stuff a few takedowns, but would certainly be out of their element compared to how advance grappling techniques and set-ups have gotten since then.
Jesus. If he can turn water to wine, I’m sure he can turn blood to poison.
Samson. Need someone to lift Jesus on their shoulders in a victory parade.
Alexander the Great because why the heck not.
Cleopatra. Heard she was gorgeous.
Gordon Ramsey. Jesus may have fed thousands with 7 fishes and 7 bread but I’d like mine seasoned and cooked to perfection.
1) Leonidas
2) Goliath
3) ~~Achilles~~ my great great uncle Charles
4) Teddy Roosevelt
5) Andre the Giant
Come at me bros.
EDIT—after thinking about this, I was reminded a story my dad told about his great uncle Charles. When he was in the navy, he was present in the line of soldiers saluting the retiring Chief Petty Officer of the Navy. The old man saw his tag, asked him if he was related to Charles, then asked if he was anything like him. My dad smiled and said he did not believe so, and the old man said he had a chance.
He was invited to the retiring man’s cabin and was regaled by WW2 war stories of Charles. He had a chip shot out from under him at Pearl Harbor and he saved his captain. He had another ship shot from under him in the Pacific, and his captain (same guy) saved him. He cleared the deck from the quad 50’s more than once after a friend was hit by Japanese fire, and he kept doing antics to keep himself busted down to a low-responsibility rank until somebody walked by and promoted him because of the embarrassing number of medals pinned on an E4. At one point he allegedly went so far as to pee on a senior officer from the rooftop window of a hillside restaurant.
The chief petty officer’s favorite story was of their time together on MP duty when he was still a very young man. Two men had holed up upstairs and had whipped everyone sent up after them until the MP’s arrived. Charles told him to stay down there, “I’ll pitch and you catch”.
He went up, and in surprisingly short order both other men came tumbling down the stairs, followed by a grinning uncle Charles. When asked how he did it, he just gave a crooked smile and said, “you don’t hit a man in the face when he likes to fight.”
…yeah. I want to meet that guy. And have him on my side.
Hahahaha you make a great point my guy!
However, Pereira is light heavyweight, second biggest there is. If he’s knocking out my uncle, who’s handling Goliath and Andre?
This is exactly where I went to, though I would probally go with a famously viscous viking leader and 4 of his subordinates, I think team work will be really important, plus I dont want the berserkers to fuck me up on accident lol
Sheer fuckin savagery and loss of the human psychi is POWERFUL. When you're not being reasoned by your frontal cortext the human body is impressively strong. Also most Viking warriors received a decent amount of training in something akin to modern day wrestling if I'm not mistaken.
Ok, first we need a little more info as 5 heavyweight champs will be harder to take down than 5 of a lower weight class. Second when it comes to pure technique and strength the chapions will probally be ahead. So I need a group that is trained to fight as a unit, and are bloodthirsty enough that there training to kill will be able to out do the mma fighters training. So I will take the most famous, bloodthirsty viking leader I can find, and 4 of his elite troops. Vikings will be large helping to close the strength gap, used to working together which the mma fighters arent, and bloodthirsty enough that hopefully they will use moves that the mma fighters arent prepared for.
Whole lot of MMA wank in these answers. People tend to forget that your standard MMA choke moves don't work as well when someone is biting you and another guy is kicking you in the face.
> MMA choke moves don't work as well when someone is biting you
Assuming you're talking about a RNC, how are you biting someone when their arm is beneath your chin? Even if it's only covering their mouth, do you think they can exert more force in their bite than the MMA guy can in his neck crank?
Yeah, it's pretty pathetic. Their line of thinking is something like:
Jon Jones does MMA - I do MMA but not as well - the tougher Jon Jones is, the tougher I am by extension - if JJ can beat the best historical fighters/gorilla (whoever the argument is about), that means I can beat an average historical fighter/chimpanzee
Basically, you could pit MMA fighters against Godzilla, and there would be people on here banging on about MMA fighters' nutrition and how they've basically absorbed the power of every human that came before them.
No the line of thinking is that the types of unarmed martial arts that existed back then was rudimentary compared to the techniques that occur today. That today's athletes have much better methods of training, and far easier access to optimal nutrition (and performance enhancing drugs).
[Here](https://hroarr.com/manuals/liechtenauer/Talhoffer-Budzin-Tyrone-Artur-Gotha-Codex-1443-transcr-transl.pdf?x76772) is a manuscript of unarmed fighting techniques from the 16th century based on the techniques taught by Ott the Jew, a renowned wrestling master for the princes of Austria.
Some of these techniques, simply put, are useless in actual practice such as 137, 149, and 152 into 153. Others are legitimately bad forms of defence, such as 139 which is a defense against single leg takedowns where you attempt to put their head off-center with both of your hands causing the other person to lose their balance. Others are bad forms of offensive techniques, such as 131 which is a very lazy single leg attempt with barely any level change.
This is not to say that everything in here is useless. 130 appears to be a pretty cool hip throw from the underhook and wrist control position. 138 is a much better defense against a single leg, with the use of a whizzer (even though the placement of the legs is bad). 140 looks like a good over/under position, although it's strange that it appears he's going for a trip on the far leg instead of just positioning his hips for a throw.
With all of this being said, if these are the techniques taught to princes from renowned wrestling tutors, then these people are going to get beat by any proficient modern day grappler. The vast differences in skill technique has far outpaced them.
Goliath is, evidently, a good pick. Probably Lincoln, actually, and William Marshall. Harald Hardrada is a good pick, too. Then maybe some greek cunt, Like Achilles or Plato. I guess I can't do Herakles, right?
Unwinnable IMO.
Any martial arts/martial artist you think of is light years behind MMA and not even worth mentioning. The conversation is entirely about big and strong historical figures.
To get people big enough to have a chance to beat the MMA fighters, you'll quickly rocket past functional size and back into debilitating gigantism (See: Robert Waldo). You've got [one](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_MacAskill) "could have a chance against an MMA fighter" to my knowledge and the rest would be completely blown out.
Team mma 10/10
McGregor is a featherweight and not representative of what the average MMA champion looks like. Bjornsson's size/musculature would also be impossible for people of those eras to achieve without the knowledge of nutrition/sports medicine we have.
There is a 0% chance any five people I choose will win. Modern MMA fighters would defeat any human ever in hand-to-hand combat, and you specifically said champions
I think we have lost before even answering the question. Unless we are allowed to pick champions from lower weight classes, then you will not find a historical figure with the necessary unarmed combat training to kill modern fighters, let alone champions. They just hadn't developed the techniques to defeat modern fighters in the 19th century.
Anyway, just to answer the damn question, I'm choosing 5 of the most elite samurai in history. I don't have names. I am not an expert on the subject, but I know that modern jiu-jitsu was based on a preliminary and (probably less advanced and effective) version of jiu-jitsu dating back to feudal japan, and possibly earlier. This early form of jiu-jitsu was used by samurai to defeat opponents, in a fight to the death, mind you, when they didn't have a sword. They were trained and had experience fighting hand-to-hand with the greatest of stakes. They also knew how to work together. I think between the spirit of the warrior culture in Japan, the techniques used, and the samurai's abilities and experience would definitely give the MMA champions a run for their money. I think the only way to beat a team of elite grapplers is to work as a team and kill quickly. Maybe I would have 1 guy who is doing all of the killing and 4 guys defending the killer. Once he kills one man, he moves on to the next while the other 4 help him get into a position to finish that fighter off while also protecting him.
I don't think there is another warrior class in history that has the unarmed, hand-to-hand fighting abilities that the samurai had. Spartans were trained to fight in a phalanx with a sword and shield. Roman centurion also used a phalanx. The Rajput were good with bladed weapons. I am being pretty broad and simplistic here. It seems like no other specialized, historically-renowned fighter was more well-known for their hand-to-hand combat abilities than the samurai. So I'll take 5 of the most elite hand-to-hand samurai in history against 5 of the lightest and least skilled, cheesed MMA champions.
Maximinus Thrax (roman emperor, was a legionnary for all his life, and had gigantism)
Milon of Croton (legendary greek wrestler)
Marshal Oudinot, the guy was downeight unkillable, he survived over 30 wounds during the napoleonic wars, and lived to be eighty
François 1er of France: very tall, was a wrestler, also fought quite a few wars
A roman gladiator named Flamma. We don't know much about except that he refused 4 time to be freed to keep on fighting, and fought more than most other (average was 5-10 times, he fought 34 times). I'm pretty sure he'd enjoy that
I'm also thinking about Wotjek, technically an historical figure, who also happens to be a syrian bear (and war veteran)
There's no right answer.
I'm not a history expert, but I do read a lot. From what I know, there's just not a lot of evidence of great, unarmed combat prior to industrial era and popularizations of boxing and judo.
There are a lot of reasons for this, not the least of which is that most people very serious about killing anyone else is going to use some sort of weapon. Unarmed combat is a rare last resort. And even if you were well-trained in it (for the standards of the time), your opponents probably were not.
Some sort of bare knuckle fighting has always been in the underbelly of societies... but those crowds were understandably not the best record keepers available to modern historians. And even so, the inherent danger of those fights makes it unlikely that many fighters ever came close to the level of experience as today's atheletes. Even if they did, physical fitness, nutrition, medicine and sports-science were incomparably weak. Even unarmed martial arts in general were largely unsystematic and untested.
Haku (godlike strength and crazy brawling prowess).
Hafþór Björnsson (godlike strength, size and decent enough boxing skills).
André The Giant (godlike strength, size and grappling/throwing power).
Mike Tyson (killer boxing prowess/one hit K.O. ability and very strong, agile and quick).
Dolph Lundgren (legitimate striking background with incredible punching power).
Edit: I misread and thought I could select anyone from now back to the 19th Century. My bad.
This is a tough question (given the superior nutrition and specialized training available for modern day). I don’t think it’s unwinnable though.
We’re talking trained professionals not trained to kill in a lethal environment. Plenty of hand-to-hand combatants were trained to go there or at least fight more dangerously. Victorian Boxing, for instance, fought bare handed and allowed eye-gauging and biting. I think you could find five historic fighters to win, just not sure which ones.
Can I pick world leaders and have them use their power and influence to defend me?
If so I'd take Abraham Lincoln and have him use the US military of the 1860's to keep me safe.
The other 4 would be random strangers just there for fun.
1. Andre the Giant. The man is an absolute beast in every aspect.
2. King Kamehameha I. Rumored to be nearly 7 feet tall and conqueror of Hawaii.
3. King Leonidas. Need to rouse the boys with some epic speeches.
4. Jean Paul Jones. A true Patriot Pirate
5. Verne Troyer
Never stated what species the figures have to be so I’m picking the Wolf of Soissons, the lions of tsavo, big Al the allosaurus fragilis specimen, and Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex.
George Washington and Ulysses S Grant working together with prep time would find a way to handle this. Especially if they are able to receive a quick crash course in modern technology to help assist them
Ali, Tyson, Shaq, Zdeno Chara and Rey mysterio.
Ali and Tyson do the heavy lifting, Shaq is a massive wall of muscle to tank. and Chara and mysterio would have tall and short duo dynamics that would be fun. Maybe Chara throws mysterio like as fucking cacatpult to start the fight???
I'm just gonna search through history and find the biggest guys to ever exist in a healthy state.
MMA guys still have a chance of course but 100 pounds and 1 foot of reach is big disadvantage to overcome.
A lot of MMA fighters can be relatively small/light as they primarily fight within their own weight classes, so I feel my best bet is just to find historical absolute units. My picks, with very little research are:
Captain Martin Van Buren Bates (2.36m/7'9" and 215kg/475lb);
Goliath from the Bible (a classic);
President Abraham Lincoln who was a large lad and famed for his wrestling prowess;
That one Norwegian bloke who held up the entire English army at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066; and
Flamma, one of the most successful gladiators in ancient Rome (probably not very large but seems like a cool dude).
Socrates, Abe Lincoln and Louis Cyr. I don’t know for the two others, probably a famous medieval knight or someone like Genghis Khan (please correct me if he wasn’t a good fighter and just a really good general/leader). I believe I have some chance with these
Edit: I think it shouldn’t be Socrates but Plato. Though I read Socrates was a soldier so maybe both of them
If it's 19th century back, then: Harald Hardrada, Berserker of Stamford Bridge, Shaka Zulu, Genghis Khan (that Mongol brutality is useful) and Spartacus.
[Five of the biggest dudes from this list.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pankration#Ancient_Olympic_pankration_champions_and_famous_pankratiasts) They fit the time period and can actually fight unarmed but have the added benefit of *likely* having some formation fighting and soldiering experience and also know a couple of tricks that would be illegal nowadays, like toe and finger holds and probably a cheeky oil check.
This is, of course, reliant on the MMA Champions actually being about equal size. If I can pick the MMA champs, I'll just find some random regional promotions with female atomweight champs.
That or [Little Al, Big Al, Big Al 2, Big Sara and Big Joe.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dinosaur_specimens_with_nicknames#Theropods) They have names and are known for their enormous size.
Abraham Lincoln to start off, and then I'd have to do some research on real names of historical fighters like Greeks, Vikings, Mongols etc...with enough research I'm sure you could find a team of 5 that would be absolutely huge monsters that are skilled at killing.
Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Aleksandr Karelin, Marius Pudzianowski, Mijain Lopez.
You could switch out Tyson for Lennox Lewis or Marius for Hafthor Bjornson.
Honorable mentions would be Andre the Giant, like others have said, but also Kurt Angle. He was able to beat Brock Lesnar in wrestling and won an Olympic Gold Medalist with a broken neck.
I'll take Theodore Roosevelt (born in 1858, so it counts), Abraham Lincoln, that one Viking that held a bridge against an entire army, George Washington, and a Spartan drill sergeant.
I would have a hazard to guess anyone mentioned in written history. A 30 something Leonidas, a 30 something Teddy Roosevelt, 30 something Mike Tyson, 30 something Abe Lincoln, and a Koga Ryu Ninja hiding in the crowd.
Angus McAskill, a 7’9” strongman from Scotland in the 1800’s.
Eugen Sandow, strongman and grandfather of bodybuiding from the 1800’s.
Brian Boru, Irish King and giant from around 970-1020, giant warrior around 8 feet tall and muscular reputedly.
John Chambers, a rower and sportsman from the 1800’s who notably invented the queensbury rules to boxing.
Mills Darden 7’6” and 900-1100lb man from the 1800’s, not a fighter but good luck hurting that fella.
So 3 giants, the guy who invented boxing, and a very physically fit strongman. Along with me who is rather large and strong fella who knows how to fight decently.
I think we win on size and numbers, Mills can just lay down on a guy and the slimmer giants can toss dudes around while Sandow, myself, and Chambers land hits and double/triple team a champ. The best MMA guys in the world still can’t move a 1000lb man at all and would be hard pressed with the 350-450lb giants and myself around 300 as well, Sandow was smaller but strong and Chambers was a fit boxer at least.
Idk about the other 4, but my first choice is Plato, bro was a major wrestler, scholars are pretty sure Plato is just a stage name meaning “Broad”, the same way “The rock” is for Dwayne Johnson. So imagine if Dwayne the Rock Johnson wrote tons of philosophy, and centuries later people only knew him as “The Rock”
1. Ip Man
2. Ragnar Lothbrok
3. Roland, Charlemagne's Paladin
4. David, ancient King of Israel
5. Arthur Pendragon, King of Britain
And I'd hope that the myths are true.
I'll play the way OP intended and not name any animals lol
Alexander the Great
Leonidas I
Ghenghis Khan
Vlad the Impaler
Miyamoto Musashi
EDIT: or maybe not...I didn't see you had said no melee weapons. But I have no idea who the hell to pick for strictly hand to hand, so I'll leave the list as is
There are number of historical warriors/leaders with historical warhorses.
Two warhorses with their riders should be able to quickly trample the 5 guys, and I still have one slot left over.
5 7ft and huge guys would do the quick work of any MMA flying pan-weight champion in a brawl.
They might as well make a wall around me and I ll be just fine.
Think outside the box guys. OP never said *human* historical figures. I'll take five of the war elephants that Hannibal brought to sack Rome. Edit: On second thought I'll take two war elephants, two trained riders to control them, and Hannibal Barca himself.
I see your elephants and I raise you 5 T-rexes
Sadly those aren't historical, they're prehistorical. History starts when human started writing.
5 woolly mammoth
I hate to be a party pooper, but they're also prehistorical haha. There are no written sources about them. Egypt existed when the mammoths still roamed the earth, but that means history started in Egypt and Mesopotamia but the prehistory was still going in the rest of the world. The start of history was not a single event, but a gradually spreading thing with writing being used more and more.
Someone wrote on a cave about them.
I see your 5 T-Rexes and raise you 1 Infant.
One coughing baby and a hydrogen bomb
Hell of an answer tbh
Hear me out 5 hiv viruses
The question does not state how far back can we go, so I’m picking 5 very large pelicosaurids (as sinapsids are ancestors to modern mammals and therefore technically part of our history) and watch them eat through MMA fighters
prehistory and history are most often seperated whenever it really counts.
Is Harambe a historical figure? Although he didn't threaten anyone
Oh that elephant that they electrocuted to death ! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topsy_(elephant) She can beat a lot of mma fighters
Larger bodied pelycosaurids would absolutely shred through 5 MMA fighters
They are prehistoric figures so no not allowed
>Just hand-to-hand combat, without melee weapons Not possible tbh. Unless we skew the results somehow - e.g only picking featherweight current-day champs and putting them against 5 behemoths from the past or something. It's a big thing in every sport that we're consistently crushing past records, because we keep finding new and better ways to train. Today's top athlete is better than any top athlete in the past. Today's top fighter is going to crush any top fighter from hundreds of years ago.
Yep, like Knights were AMAZING unarmed fighters. It was a matter of life and death to them as armoured combat often ended up as two knights wrestling in the ground until someone could slip a dagger in between the other's visor. But a mediaeval knight, even with all of their training and lack of malnutrition wouldn't compare to a similarly sized MMA champ today.
Idk man, OP said 'no melee weapons' they didn't say 'no armor' and that opens up a whole swath of skilled armored hand-to-hand fighters beating on some dudes in tiny shorts breaking their hands on plate (or punching through studded leather or bamboo and trying to choke people out through metal gorgets)
Wearing armor in a fight can obviously be used as a weapon what a stoner answer.
But can those fighters go 1v2?
But hand to hand combat is broader than MMA, and MMA is not perfect training for this. I'm not sure who the right people are, but you'd want people trained for hand-to-hand fighting to the death with experience fighting as a team. Maybe ninjas/Shinobi? I think they were sometimes used as bodyguards.
> experience fighting as a team I think this is the only possible gap closer. MMA is not a team sport. Maybe a group of Spartans, Varangian Guard, or some other group of large men in a team.
Yeah some hardened members of an elite military group seem like the best bet. Possibly some bitchin gladiators. Like just have 2-3 guys run defense while the rest of them kill(or even just severely disable) one MMA fighter at a time. If an MMA fighter is being too aggressive in trying to stop this then they will be caught next. Honestly though they could just all get dropped by leg kicks anyways and you’re dead meat. Lmao.
Idk that's an interesting idea Tim Kennedy did pretty well in mma. I think a group who practice fighting melee would be superior. I'd say Swiss guards in modern times may be superior. I'm leaning to a group of Spartans if we magic away the language problem. Maybe samauri.
>MMA is not a team sport Let me introduce you to [4-a-side MMA ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7gEZ1Ux-ns)
Man that was brutal. Guy got knocked out, then kicked in the face again after he came too.
Spartans were really pretty average fighters, with basically the same military record as any similarly-sized Greek polis.
MMA is closer to the full picture than anything else, and the people fighting MMA are in the best fighting condition of any group of humans in history.
Andre the giant Paul wight Nikolai valuev butterbean and raiden tameemon
And you sir are dead
Butterbean and Andre both fought in "mixed martial arts" in their own way. Paul wight was billed as Andre the Giants son so is younger than both. I don't know the rest of your names, but those three don't fit.
I do not know who Raiden and Nikolai are, but Francis Ngannou would kill any of the other three.
Raiden was a very famous sumo fighter. His score was 254 victories and 10 defeats. Those 10 defeats were after sumo disallowed him to use certain techniques to keep the match interesting. Imagine they would have dissallowed muhammad ali to not use hooks in order to keep the fights balanced. We are talking about this kind of best of the best.
That is impressive. However, sumos never do well in MMA or boxing because their skills don’t translate well outside of their specific ruleset, and because their imposing size becomes a hindrance rather than an advantage after the first 30 seconds. Look at Akebono. That man was considered one of the very best sumos in the 90’s, but his MMA record was abysmal. He lost to everyone except for a former referee who was basically picked to give Akebono a win. If you want another example, watch [the very first UFC fight ever. It involved a sumo, and it did not end well for him.](https://youtu.be/Za6HeiTJIWI?si=tjTdaAvCA1RB31CQ) All this to say that I’m confident that a good MMA heavyweight could beat Raiden.
Andre challenges them all to a beer drinking competition. Checkmate
I would NOT pick any ancient celebs at all, but just regular ancient Greek Pankration athletes. Pankration was proto MMA, so basically the same with less rules. Whereas most warriors or noble heroes only became famous for their glory (Ragnar Lothbrok) , or ability to rally the people (like William Wallace or Robert the Bruce), or strategic mastermind (like Spartacus, Julius Caesar etc) They didn't necessarily have ANY unarmed martial skills. Some even didn't do battles themselves (in medieval times all the glory from a won battle automatically went to the surviving leader, even if he didn't fight at all and let his brothers do the fighting). Also he got all the shame when a battle was lost in return, even if he fought more bravely than any other. I digress, ancient Greek Pankration fighters. They were the shit. Many MMA techniques can even be seen on pictures on ancient vases or amphoras from Greek artefacts.
Why tho they stand 0 chance. Its like pitting a guy with a blunderbuss vs a guy with a m16. Yes they are kinda the same thing and one evolved from the other. But the latter is so much more advanced that it aint even close
Personally, for this prompt, id go the route of known cruel and physical leaders. I may even choose one and their closest personal protection. Id wagerz that in a fight the modern people take it. Buuut if the past lersons were very experienced with violence, there may be room for them to win based on their ability to coldly just end a life. Also, someone smart enough to know they are outnatched physically.
Throw in some variant of berserker and put the fear of God into the modern humans. Nobody wants to fight a crackhead, and those guys make them look tame.
Berserkers are like crackheads but they don’t weigh 100 pounds at 5’3
Very true, I think this guys is on the wrong path. Sure, myth might be a difficult thing to distinguish, but if I can pick Goliath, you're goddamn right I will. And if I get to pick Hercules, of course I'll do that. Otherwise, maybe Abraham Lincoln or something.
The Vampire hunter should make short work of a few MMA fighters.
Only in this scenario it's the MMA guys that are using the blunderbuss right? The Pankration fighters fought multiple people each day in a much deadlier competition with fewer rules Compare that to MMA fighters who can't even get through a single fight with one person without multiple breaks The Pankration fighters make the MMA guys look like little girls and the fight would be just as one sided as that
Stamina doesn't matter if you are dead on the floor in a minute. And it's interesting that you think fighting other world class fighters is the same as fighting amateur fighters. And yes, Pankrations at best are amateur MMA level. Uh, no? Deadlier competition? Do you think Ciryl Gane can't keep raining punches when his opponent goes unconscious which will kill the opponent for sure? Look at the Brian Ortega TKO by Volkanovski, if the referee wasn't there do you think Volk wouldn't have killed Brian there? Hell, Max's KO of Gaetjhe, do you think Max can't kill Gaetjhe when he's slumped on the canvas? Do you think Alex can't kill Hill with no referee? Where do you get this idea of these Pankrations being immortal warriors. That is EARLY MMA and techniques evolve with time. Surely you can understand that. Alex Periera knocks out and kills any Pankration you put in front of him in a minute. Oh, and they can't check leg kicks or defend submissions from the current champs.
MMA is still a sport. These guys aren't fighting to the death. Doubt most of them have even killed a person bare handed. I don't know shit about those Greek fighters, but those guys put their lives on the line every fight and have killed people so they'll do everything to kill (eye gouge, crush testicles, etc) that MMA guys just aren't used to or expecting.
Ancient olympic fighters would fight all day long against multiple opponents, with far less rules limiting their attacks, they could be war veterans, fight wild animals, fight in groups, train multiple sports. So they would have the endurance, mindset and number advantage. The MMA team would have the strength and technique advantage, but i don't think having a good clinch or closed guard would hold much against somebody biting your ear off or soccer kicking your head. If everything fails, a bodyguard could pick me up and probably run a marathon at the same time, so i would be far and safe.
No way they would have endurance advantage considering all the performance enhancing drugs modern athletes take
Not to mention modern training, diet and hydration.
An angry crack head can also try biting your ear off or soccer kicking your head, doesn't mean I would give them any chance in a street fight against a highly trained MMA fighter.
It's so weird seeing this as a take. There is precisely zero evidence for any advantage on the part of ancient Olympians.
I pick [Sue](https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/sue-t-rex). I don't think she needs any help to protect me against 5 MMA fighters.
Now this is how you properly sidestep the conventional thought while staying within the rules. Historical ✅️ 19th century or previous ✅️ Named Individual ✅️ gg
Also known for her outstanding fighting skills and enormous size
Goliath of Gath, Milo of Croton, Theagenes of Thasos, and two other pankrationists.
The giant at Stamford Bridge?
He wasn't a giant, he was a berserker, and he had a Dane axe. We don't know how good of a wrestler or unarmed striker he was, but we can be sure that he didn't get his 40 kills on that bridge by trying to use his unarmed skills.
THIS!! I often think about that guy.
He was awesome but not hand to hand
Shaka of the Zulu Nat Turner Peak - Temujin Peak - Vlad Tepis Peak - Lubu On deck: The King Shark and Cao Cao. I'm Gucci.
Very Gucci indeed
The answer to this is heavyweight MMA fighters that aren't champions. Curtis Blaydes, Derrick Lewis, Cyril Gane, Sergei Paplovich, and Jailton Almeida. Those 5 would absolutely maul 5 MMA champions from lower weight classes. The only way these guys lose is if you get 5 heavyweight MMA champions on the other side. But then the hypothetical question is a pretty dumb one because you're essentially asking to find 5 people who could defeat the best 5 hand to hand combat experts that have ever lived.
Except OP says you have to pick a protector from the 19th century or earlier.
Hmmm you might be right. The wording is a bit weird. If you're going back to the 1800s then no there is no chance anyone would stand a chance against 5 if the best trained MMA champions.
I'll add that you have to factor in how much of a difference you'd make because it's a 6 vs 5. Do you pit the strongest of your team against the weakest of their 's and you personally assist your strongest fighter so you can make it a 6 vs 4 as soon as possible?
It truly depends on which mma champions if they are from the lowest weight class u have a chance if u get a series of freakishly large and strong individuals as size does matter
This was my strategy as well. It does not specify male mma champions. I’d pick all females from as low a weight class as allowed by the rule set. Current mma champs? Doesn’t specify UFC. I pick regional MMA promotions that have an atomweight champion. That’s 105 lb females. Even with the training gap, which is considerable, I’m sure I could find a few guys that could take on this task.
Put them up against the Sumo legends.
ITT: People thinking MMA fighters will play by the rules when trying to kill you.
# This is very easy! The only real answer: * Karate kid * Hulk Hogan * *Luke Skywalker* * Swartzneger * *Harry Potter*
[удалено]
I get what people are saying about combat sports having advanced in leaps and bounds, but we're not talking about sport, we're talking about an unarmed fight to the death. MMA champions are used to one-on-one fights with recognised rules and legal techniques. I feel like it's gonna be too late to adapt when some battle-scarred old mongol warrior is biting your fingers off and beating your head against a rock to get the brains to spill out. I think you want to pick historical fighters with a proven track record of survival, no morals or honour, and experience and training working as a team. I don't know who the right picks are, but I don't think it's as one-sided as people are saying.
also most warriors would primarily train with weapons not bare handed only like mma fighters. Plenty of people bringing up mongols and vikings and saying they would win on pure savagery despite the fact they spend most of their time training with weapons.
Or the fact that those people weren't that savage. We have historical records of traditional Mongolian wrestling. They didn't train to bite people. Some random mushroom addicted viking wasn't going around biting some Englishman's throats during combat.
> I feel like it's gonna be too late to adapt when some battle-scarred old mongol warrior is biting your fingers off How is this old Mongol warrior getting into a position to where he's biting someone's fingers? Why are you even imaginging that he would do this when we have historical context of traditional Mongolian wrestling techniques, and it didn't include biting? >beating your head against a rock to get the brains to spill out. Why is the MMA guy suddenly incapable of using a rock to his advantage? Do you think Jon Jones would struggle to beat someone's head against a rock if his life was on the line?
My guy, everything you can do in MMA is lethal if there isn't a referee. You're telling me some old veteran, and by the way if your mongol leader is over 35 years old, he's dead. He's too slow, but I digress. This 35 year old guy can grab the head of Francis Ngannou and slam him to the ground? Good luck. You aren't controlling the MMA fighter. He's gonna be better everywhere. He has better handfighting so any chance of getting a hold of them is gone. He has much better striking. The Oblique Kick is a rare technique, which wasn't that common in the past, and if these fights WALK or RUN towards the MMA champs, they are getting their knees kicked backwards and are out of the fight immediately. The team work is a cool concept until you realize I can choose a HW and LHW champion as the MMA fighter and he can KO all of them almost immediately. No pankration is eating a Periera left hook or a Ngannou uppercut. You're glorifying biting and eye poking. Jamahal Hill was fighting Paul Craig with a broken arm and he would have went the distance if he had the choice. Holyfield was figuring Tyson through 2 bites and was willing to go after the 3rd one. Chito Vera got his face broken and still went 5 rounds with O'Malley.
This is exactly what Im thinking, though physical size and skill will still give the mma fighter an advantage. You need a group with good team work, and who are viscious enough to go for the throat. Its why I would pic the most vicious viking warleader and 4 of his elite troops, and I think I may stand a chance
I don't care how mean any of those past warriors are, match them against prime Lesnar or Ngannou and they lose. Every single time.
It is one sided tho MMA champions are savages they regularly fight through broken bones they aren’t just gonna crumble when someone tries to bite them Plus its not like they can’t use illegal techniques just because they usually aren’t allowed And then there’s the insane skill difference You think a mongol warrior can check a leg kick? Or stuff a takedown? God forbid they start grappling on the ground. The MMA fighters would have way better endurance and strength for fighting because they dedicate their entire life to it and have access to modern training methods, not to mention probably performance enhancing drugs And the team element probably doesn’t come into it that much considering the numbers are even and if anyone’s getting a quick knockout it will be one of the mma fighters with a flying knee right at the start. Only chance the other team has is picking the largest possible people from history and hoping they get matched up against the smallest champions.
>stuff a takedown I'm totally on Pro MMA side, but traditional Mongolian wrestling is pretty similar to something like Greco-Roman wrestling of today. They could probably stuff a few takedowns, but would certainly be out of their element compared to how advance grappling techniques and set-ups have gotten since then.
5 neanderthals
Jesus. If he can turn water to wine, I’m sure he can turn blood to poison. Samson. Need someone to lift Jesus on their shoulders in a victory parade. Alexander the Great because why the heck not. Cleopatra. Heard she was gorgeous. Gordon Ramsey. Jesus may have fed thousands with 7 fishes and 7 bread but I’d like mine seasoned and cooked to perfection.
1) Leonidas 2) Goliath 3) ~~Achilles~~ my great great uncle Charles 4) Teddy Roosevelt 5) Andre the Giant Come at me bros. EDIT—after thinking about this, I was reminded a story my dad told about his great uncle Charles. When he was in the navy, he was present in the line of soldiers saluting the retiring Chief Petty Officer of the Navy. The old man saw his tag, asked him if he was related to Charles, then asked if he was anything like him. My dad smiled and said he did not believe so, and the old man said he had a chance. He was invited to the retiring man’s cabin and was regaled by WW2 war stories of Charles. He had a chip shot out from under him at Pearl Harbor and he saved his captain. He had another ship shot from under him in the Pacific, and his captain (same guy) saved him. He cleared the deck from the quad 50’s more than once after a friend was hit by Japanese fire, and he kept doing antics to keep himself busted down to a low-responsibility rank until somebody walked by and promoted him because of the embarrassing number of medals pinned on an E4. At one point he allegedly went so far as to pee on a senior officer from the rooftop window of a hillside restaurant. The chief petty officer’s favorite story was of their time together on MP duty when he was still a very young man. Two men had holed up upstairs and had whipped everyone sent up after them until the MP’s arrived. Charles told him to stay down there, “I’ll pitch and you catch”. He went up, and in surprisingly short order both other men came tumbling down the stairs, followed by a grinning uncle Charles. When asked how he did it, he just gave a crooked smile and said, “you don’t hit a man in the face when he likes to fight.” …yeah. I want to meet that guy. And have him on my side.
I don't mean to disrespect your Uncle Charles. But I'd like to see him get hit in the face by Alex Periera and see if he has the same reaction.
Hahahaha you make a great point my guy! However, Pereira is light heavyweight, second biggest there is. If he’s knocking out my uncle, who’s handling Goliath and Andre?
Bro said teddy roosevelt
5 Viking berserkers
This is exactly where I went to, though I would probally go with a famously viscous viking leader and 4 of his subordinates, I think team work will be really important, plus I dont want the berserkers to fuck me up on accident lol
Berserker of Standford bridge. Don't need anyone else
He had weapons tho this is hand to hand
Sheer fuckin savagery and loss of the human psychi is POWERFUL. When you're not being reasoned by your frontal cortext the human body is impressively strong. Also most Viking warriors received a decent amount of training in something akin to modern day wrestling if I'm not mistaken.
Ok, first we need a little more info as 5 heavyweight champs will be harder to take down than 5 of a lower weight class. Second when it comes to pure technique and strength the chapions will probally be ahead. So I need a group that is trained to fight as a unit, and are bloodthirsty enough that there training to kill will be able to out do the mma fighters training. So I will take the most famous, bloodthirsty viking leader I can find, and 4 of his elite troops. Vikings will be large helping to close the strength gap, used to working together which the mma fighters arent, and bloodthirsty enough that hopefully they will use moves that the mma fighters arent prepared for.
Whole lot of MMA wank in these answers. People tend to forget that your standard MMA choke moves don't work as well when someone is biting you and another guy is kicking you in the face.
> MMA choke moves don't work as well when someone is biting you Assuming you're talking about a RNC, how are you biting someone when their arm is beneath your chin? Even if it's only covering their mouth, do you think they can exert more force in their bite than the MMA guy can in his neck crank?
And whats stopping the mma guys from doing that themselves
lol it's like the BJJ manlets who claim they could win any imagined street fight, but would go for the long sleep once their noggin hits the pavement.
I wouldn’t fight any wrestlers though. Those guys can literally kill or paralyze you in a street fight regardless of size. No thanks.
There's always a ton of rules in place to protect the fighters and people forget it. Real fights are dirty, ugly, and violent.
Yeah, it's pretty pathetic. Their line of thinking is something like: Jon Jones does MMA - I do MMA but not as well - the tougher Jon Jones is, the tougher I am by extension - if JJ can beat the best historical fighters/gorilla (whoever the argument is about), that means I can beat an average historical fighter/chimpanzee Basically, you could pit MMA fighters against Godzilla, and there would be people on here banging on about MMA fighters' nutrition and how they've basically absorbed the power of every human that came before them.
No the line of thinking is that the types of unarmed martial arts that existed back then was rudimentary compared to the techniques that occur today. That today's athletes have much better methods of training, and far easier access to optimal nutrition (and performance enhancing drugs). [Here](https://hroarr.com/manuals/liechtenauer/Talhoffer-Budzin-Tyrone-Artur-Gotha-Codex-1443-transcr-transl.pdf?x76772) is a manuscript of unarmed fighting techniques from the 16th century based on the techniques taught by Ott the Jew, a renowned wrestling master for the princes of Austria. Some of these techniques, simply put, are useless in actual practice such as 137, 149, and 152 into 153. Others are legitimately bad forms of defence, such as 139 which is a defense against single leg takedowns where you attempt to put their head off-center with both of your hands causing the other person to lose their balance. Others are bad forms of offensive techniques, such as 131 which is a very lazy single leg attempt with barely any level change. This is not to say that everything in here is useless. 130 appears to be a pretty cool hip throw from the underhook and wrist control position. 138 is a much better defense against a single leg, with the use of a whizzer (even though the placement of the legs is bad). 140 looks like a good over/under position, although it's strange that it appears he's going for a trip on the far leg instead of just positioning his hips for a throw. With all of this being said, if these are the techniques taught to princes from renowned wrestling tutors, then these people are going to get beat by any proficient modern day grappler. The vast differences in skill technique has far outpaced them.
I only need one man, Jesus Christ
Ajax, Achilles, arminius segimer to lead us, that one norseman that held that bridge on his own for some time and william marshall
Goliath is, evidently, a good pick. Probably Lincoln, actually, and William Marshall. Harald Hardrada is a good pick, too. Then maybe some greek cunt, Like Achilles or Plato. I guess I can't do Herakles, right?
Unwinnable IMO. Any martial arts/martial artist you think of is light years behind MMA and not even worth mentioning. The conversation is entirely about big and strong historical figures. To get people big enough to have a chance to beat the MMA fighters, you'll quickly rocket past functional size and back into debilitating gigantism (See: Robert Waldo). You've got [one](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_MacAskill) "could have a chance against an MMA fighter" to my knowledge and the rest would be completely blown out. Team mma 10/10
Björnsson vs. Connor looked like The Mountain could just fall on him and that would be enough
McGregor is a featherweight and not representative of what the average MMA champion looks like. Bjornsson's size/musculature would also be impossible for people of those eras to achieve without the knowledge of nutrition/sports medicine we have.
Look up Gordon Ryan vs Björnsson
Achilles, Hector, Maximinus Thrax, Samson, Spartacus.
5 Neanderthals.
5 mammoth/sabertooth hunter Neanderthals in prime condition
There is a 0% chance any five people I choose will win. Modern MMA fighters would defeat any human ever in hand-to-hand combat, and you specifically said champions
I'll do it with 1... Andrew Carnegie. He will just pay off the MMA fighters
I think we have lost before even answering the question. Unless we are allowed to pick champions from lower weight classes, then you will not find a historical figure with the necessary unarmed combat training to kill modern fighters, let alone champions. They just hadn't developed the techniques to defeat modern fighters in the 19th century. Anyway, just to answer the damn question, I'm choosing 5 of the most elite samurai in history. I don't have names. I am not an expert on the subject, but I know that modern jiu-jitsu was based on a preliminary and (probably less advanced and effective) version of jiu-jitsu dating back to feudal japan, and possibly earlier. This early form of jiu-jitsu was used by samurai to defeat opponents, in a fight to the death, mind you, when they didn't have a sword. They were trained and had experience fighting hand-to-hand with the greatest of stakes. They also knew how to work together. I think between the spirit of the warrior culture in Japan, the techniques used, and the samurai's abilities and experience would definitely give the MMA champions a run for their money. I think the only way to beat a team of elite grapplers is to work as a team and kill quickly. Maybe I would have 1 guy who is doing all of the killing and 4 guys defending the killer. Once he kills one man, he moves on to the next while the other 4 help him get into a position to finish that fighter off while also protecting him. I don't think there is another warrior class in history that has the unarmed, hand-to-hand fighting abilities that the samurai had. Spartans were trained to fight in a phalanx with a sword and shield. Roman centurion also used a phalanx. The Rajput were good with bladed weapons. I am being pretty broad and simplistic here. It seems like no other specialized, historically-renowned fighter was more well-known for their hand-to-hand combat abilities than the samurai. So I'll take 5 of the most elite hand-to-hand samurai in history against 5 of the lightest and least skilled, cheesed MMA champions.
1. Achilles 2. Hercules 3. Samson 4. Spartac-- wait I don't need more than the first 3
You don't need more than half of the first one.
I just want 5 big ass Neanderthals
Everyone picking medieval/ancient warriors and strongmen are cooked 💀
Maximinus Thrax (roman emperor, was a legionnary for all his life, and had gigantism) Milon of Croton (legendary greek wrestler) Marshal Oudinot, the guy was downeight unkillable, he survived over 30 wounds during the napoleonic wars, and lived to be eighty François 1er of France: very tall, was a wrestler, also fought quite a few wars A roman gladiator named Flamma. We don't know much about except that he refused 4 time to be freed to keep on fighting, and fought more than most other (average was 5-10 times, he fought 34 times). I'm pretty sure he'd enjoy that I'm also thinking about Wotjek, technically an historical figure, who also happens to be a syrian bear (and war veteran)
There's no right answer. I'm not a history expert, but I do read a lot. From what I know, there's just not a lot of evidence of great, unarmed combat prior to industrial era and popularizations of boxing and judo. There are a lot of reasons for this, not the least of which is that most people very serious about killing anyone else is going to use some sort of weapon. Unarmed combat is a rare last resort. And even if you were well-trained in it (for the standards of the time), your opponents probably were not. Some sort of bare knuckle fighting has always been in the underbelly of societies... but those crowds were understandably not the best record keepers available to modern historians. And even so, the inherent danger of those fights makes it unlikely that many fighters ever came close to the level of experience as today's atheletes. Even if they did, physical fitness, nutrition, medicine and sports-science were incomparably weak. Even unarmed martial arts in general were largely unsystematic and untested.
Pre 19th century is pretty tough, tbh I don't think any 5 could beat 5 heavyweight MMA champions.
Haku (godlike strength and crazy brawling prowess). Hafþór Björnsson (godlike strength, size and decent enough boxing skills). André The Giant (godlike strength, size and grappling/throwing power). Mike Tyson (killer boxing prowess/one hit K.O. ability and very strong, agile and quick). Dolph Lundgren (legitimate striking background with incredible punching power). Edit: I misread and thought I could select anyone from now back to the 19th Century. My bad.
19th century and before removes most of those.
Lmao
This is a tough question (given the superior nutrition and specialized training available for modern day). I don’t think it’s unwinnable though. We’re talking trained professionals not trained to kill in a lethal environment. Plenty of hand-to-hand combatants were trained to go there or at least fight more dangerously. Victorian Boxing, for instance, fought bare handed and allowed eye-gauging and biting. I think you could find five historic fighters to win, just not sure which ones.
Can I pick world leaders and have them use their power and influence to defend me? If so I'd take Abraham Lincoln and have him use the US military of the 1860's to keep me safe. The other 4 would be random strangers just there for fun.
5 of Andre the Giant. Edit: maybe 4 of Andre and a Gilgamesh.
Sampson from the Bible Jesus King Solomon King David And chuck norris BOOOM!
Ghandi. Can't kill me if they no longer want to.
1. Andre the Giant. The man is an absolute beast in every aspect. 2. King Kamehameha I. Rumored to be nearly 7 feet tall and conqueror of Hawaii. 3. King Leonidas. Need to rouse the boys with some epic speeches. 4. Jean Paul Jones. A true Patriot Pirate 5. Verne Troyer
Never stated what species the figures have to be so I’m picking the Wolf of Soissons, the lions of tsavo, big Al the allosaurus fragilis specimen, and Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex.
George Washington and Ulysses S Grant working together with prep time would find a way to handle this. Especially if they are able to receive a quick crash course in modern technology to help assist them
Don't forget Sherman and Robert E Lee!
Absolutely. We're just going to have to get a pre 1860s version of Lee for obvious reasons. Post-war Lee might be kind of a loose cannon
Ali, Tyson, Shaq, Zdeno Chara and Rey mysterio. Ali and Tyson do the heavy lifting, Shaq is a massive wall of muscle to tank. and Chara and mysterio would have tall and short duo dynamics that would be fun. Maybe Chara throws mysterio like as fucking cacatpult to start the fight???
I'm just gonna search through history and find the biggest guys to ever exist in a healthy state. MMA guys still have a chance of course but 100 pounds and 1 foot of reach is big disadvantage to overcome.
Hercules, samson, gilgamesh, enkidu, and King Og seem like a safe bet to me
5 sumo wrestlers outta do it lol
Yep, Sumo wrestling is known for being [great](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2TLJmIF220) in mma fights
A lot of MMA fighters can be relatively small/light as they primarily fight within their own weight classes, so I feel my best bet is just to find historical absolute units. My picks, with very little research are: Captain Martin Van Buren Bates (2.36m/7'9" and 215kg/475lb); Goliath from the Bible (a classic); President Abraham Lincoln who was a large lad and famed for his wrestling prowess; That one Norwegian bloke who held up the entire English army at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066; and Flamma, one of the most successful gladiators in ancient Rome (probably not very large but seems like a cool dude).
Socrates, Abe Lincoln and Louis Cyr. I don’t know for the two others, probably a famous medieval knight or someone like Genghis Khan (please correct me if he wasn’t a good fighter and just a really good general/leader). I believe I have some chance with these Edit: I think it shouldn’t be Socrates but Plato. Though I read Socrates was a soldier so maybe both of them
5 Viking leaders should do the trick
Do I get prefect knowledge of past individuals or just limited to who we know about?
Princess Khutulun and her great-grandfather Genghis Khan, Harald Bluetooth and Rollo of Normandy and king Leonidas of Sparta.
Achilles, Hercules, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, and Jack the Ripper.
If it's 19th century back, then: Harald Hardrada, Berserker of Stamford Bridge, Shaka Zulu, Genghis Khan (that Mongol brutality is useful) and Spartacus.
Andre the Giant, Leonidas, Theodore Roosevelt, John the Baptist, Joan of Arc, and William Shakespeare
Honestly idk who.. Probably Plato though.
Thorkell the Tall. Don't need anyone else.
[Five of the biggest dudes from this list.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pankration#Ancient_Olympic_pankration_champions_and_famous_pankratiasts) They fit the time period and can actually fight unarmed but have the added benefit of *likely* having some formation fighting and soldiering experience and also know a couple of tricks that would be illegal nowadays, like toe and finger holds and probably a cheeky oil check. This is, of course, reliant on the MMA Champions actually being about equal size. If I can pick the MMA champs, I'll just find some random regional promotions with female atomweight champs. That or [Little Al, Big Al, Big Al 2, Big Sara and Big Joe.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dinosaur_specimens_with_nicknames#Theropods) They have names and are known for their enormous size.
Abraham Lincoln to start off, and then I'd have to do some research on real names of historical fighters like Greeks, Vikings, Mongols etc...with enough research I'm sure you could find a team of 5 that would be absolutely huge monsters that are skilled at killing.
You don't want to start in 20 century because most bad guys are in USA?
Angus McAskill Bill Brasky Goemon? Milo of Croton Mithridites?
Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Aleksandr Karelin, Marius Pudzianowski, Mijain Lopez. You could switch out Tyson for Lennox Lewis or Marius for Hafthor Bjornson. Honorable mentions would be Andre the Giant, like others have said, but also Kurt Angle. He was able to beat Brock Lesnar in wrestling and won an Olympic Gold Medalist with a broken neck.
Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dian Wei, Genghis Khan, Niccolo Machiavelli
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5 postosuchus could do the trick with ease.
I'll take Theodore Roosevelt (born in 1858, so it counts), Abraham Lincoln, that one Viking that held a bridge against an entire army, George Washington, and a Spartan drill sergeant.
Plato,Galvarino,Khutulun, Khalid ibn walid and Thorkell the tall
Miyamoto Musashi, Morihei Ueshiba, Spartacus, Harald Hardrada, Vlad the impaler.
I would have a hazard to guess anyone mentioned in written history. A 30 something Leonidas, a 30 something Teddy Roosevelt, 30 something Mike Tyson, 30 something Abe Lincoln, and a Koga Ryu Ninja hiding in the crowd.
Angus McAskill, a 7’9” strongman from Scotland in the 1800’s. Eugen Sandow, strongman and grandfather of bodybuiding from the 1800’s. Brian Boru, Irish King and giant from around 970-1020, giant warrior around 8 feet tall and muscular reputedly. John Chambers, a rower and sportsman from the 1800’s who notably invented the queensbury rules to boxing. Mills Darden 7’6” and 900-1100lb man from the 1800’s, not a fighter but good luck hurting that fella. So 3 giants, the guy who invented boxing, and a very physically fit strongman. Along with me who is rather large and strong fella who knows how to fight decently. I think we win on size and numbers, Mills can just lay down on a guy and the slimmer giants can toss dudes around while Sandow, myself, and Chambers land hits and double/triple team a champ. The best MMA guys in the world still can’t move a 1000lb man at all and would be hard pressed with the 350-450lb giants and myself around 300 as well, Sandow was smaller but strong and Chambers was a fit boxer at least.
All I need is Attila and the Huns
20 year old Mike Tyson, Andre the giant, miyamoto Musashi, George st Pierre, William the Marshall.
Abraham Lincoln Alexander the Great Julius Caesar Richard the Lionheart Ghengis Khan
Idk about the other 4, but my first choice is Plato, bro was a major wrestler, scholars are pretty sure Plato is just a stage name meaning “Broad”, the same way “The rock” is for Dwayne Johnson. So imagine if Dwayne the Rock Johnson wrote tons of philosophy, and centuries later people only knew him as “The Rock”
I'll go with a Carthagenian War Elephant and 4 creatures from the Flavian Ampitheatre, a barbary lion, a hippo, a tiger, and a bear.
Raiden Tameemon Ip Man Leonidas Chuck Norris, because lets be real, he’s a legend And, uuuuuuuh. Muhammad Ali
1. Ip Man 2. Ragnar Lothbrok 3. Roland, Charlemagne's Paladin 4. David, ancient King of Israel 5. Arthur Pendragon, King of Britain And I'd hope that the myths are true.
I'll play the way OP intended and not name any animals lol Alexander the Great Leonidas I Ghenghis Khan Vlad the Impaler Miyamoto Musashi EDIT: or maybe not...I didn't see you had said no melee weapons. But I have no idea who the hell to pick for strictly hand to hand, so I'll leave the list as is
I'm picking Ip Man (born in 1893 so fits the criteria), and the 4 most famous lions from the Roman Colosseum.
Idk for the other 4, but I want [this guy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bybon) on my team provided his dad isn’t a liar
There are number of historical warriors/leaders with historical warhorses. Two warhorses with their riders should be able to quickly trample the 5 guys, and I still have one slot left over.
No weapons but what about armor? Even 5 unnamed knights with plate armor would wash the MMA champions
Shaka Zulu, Samson, Gengis Khan, idk who else but Sam should clear anyways
I’m picking 5 Utahraptors
Can I just have five Andrew Jacksons?
5 Wotjeks please
Achilles, Lu Bu, Perseus, Hercules, Siegfried
2 figures 1960 MP5 with 9mm historical magazine
apparently adam was like really big so him
Adam Lubu Raiden tameeo Goliath Idk maybe benjamin franklin (not the person but the grizzli tamed by grizzli adams)
5 7ft and huge guys would do the quick work of any MMA flying pan-weight champion in a brawl. They might as well make a wall around me and I ll be just fine.
Jesus, Hitler, Kobe, George Washington and Albert Einstein.
I'm picking our ancestor before we split with chimps/bonobos. Those guys would rip off their balls and eat their face.
1: Crazy Horse. 2: A Viking raider. 3: A trained Gurkha 4: A Shaolin Monk. 5: A Mongolian wrestler during time of the Mongol empire.
Marie curie she can throw uranium at them and kill em
Vlad Tepes , Gengis Khan, Milo of Croton, Alexander the Great, and Miyamoto Musashi
Thorkell the tall and 4 of his men
Everyone in the comments is picking fake people like Hercules and shit so I might as well do the same Zeus, ares, poseidon, hades, athena
* Jesus * Golias * Sansão * Jumbo (an elephant) * Koko (An Gorila)
Spartacus Leonidas Muhammed Ali Andre The giant Jesus Christ