I’m a mark for a good ring entrance. It doesn’t have to be elaborate–some fighters can get away with it, some can’t. It works for King Mo or Yoshihiro Akiyama, not so much for Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller (though the ‘Japanese school girl’ entrance was pretty cool). Here’s an incomplete list of 10 of the all time best MMA ring entrances in no particular order:

1) Fedor Emelianenko vs. Hong Man Choi: Yarannoka 2007

Fedor enters to his PRIDE era entrance music with a great introduction from the inimitable Lene Hardt. The reaction shots of Choi are priceless–he’s got a ‘WTF did I get myself into?’ look on his face:

2) Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia: Affliction Banned

Fedor unveils his forboding new entrance music for his beatdown of Tim Sylvia. Michael Buffer provides the intro. His ‘Day of Reckoning’ entrance was equally cool live, but on the TV broadcast Tito Ortiz won’t shut up and spoils the experience. Yeah, Brett Rogers wants a piece of this:

3) Mirko Cro Cop vs. Eddie Sanchez: UFC 67

Cro Cop had just won the PRIDE Open Weight GP, beating Wanderlei Silva and Josh Barnett on the same night. He made his entrance for his UFC debut to the PRIDE theme song:

4) Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Kazuo Misaki: Yarrenoka 2007

You’d think anyone who made their ring entrance to Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli’s ‘Time To Say Goodbye’ while holding hands with his seconds would be a wuss. You’d be wrong. Here’s legit badass Yoshihiro Akiyama entering to that very song. Props to the UFC for not making ‘Sexyama’ change his entrance music:

5) Shinya Aoki vs. Bu Kyung Jung: Yarrenoka

If I ever get burned out on MMA I watch Shinya Aoki fight. Here’s the preview videos and entrances for his Yarrenoka fight against Bu Kyung Jung. Fast forward to 7:15 for Aoki’s entrance to ‘Baka Survivor’:

6) Josh Barnett: PRIDE

Barnett used Bolt Thrower’s ‘No Guts, No Glory’ as his entrance music for both Affliction fights and that’s a killer song by a great band. For his Japanese entrances, however, he displayed his love for anime by entering to the theme to ‘Fist of the North Star:

7) King Mo vs. Ryo Kawamura: Sengoku 7

It’s good to be the King. It’s even better when you make your ring entrance with an entourage of Japanese hotties:

8 ) Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Oscar De La Hoya:

Yeah, its boxing but Mayweather is one of the best ever. I wanted to find his entrance against the late, great Diego Corrales where Mayweather enters to Stevie Wonder’s ‘Overjoyed’ but couldn’t track it down. Here, Mayweather enters with a backwards sombrero and Fitty Cent rapping live:

9) Akihiro Gono: PRIDE

I could probably do a list of 10 Gono entrances. This one is low key by Gono’s PRIDE era standards, with the ‘DJ Gozma’ wig and some synchronized dancing:

10) Steve Williams/Terry Gordy aka ‘The Miracle Violence Connection’ in All Japan 1990

And we’ve got to include a pro wrestling entrance. Pro wrestling arguably introduced entrance music to the fight game with Gorgeous George entering to ‘Pomp and Circumstance’, and modernized it when Terry Gordy and Michael Hayes became the Fabulous Freebirds and started using the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic as their theme music. The late Terry Gordy was in another iconic tag team, ‘The Miracle Violence Connection’ with Steve ‘Dr. Death’ Williams. Here they are in 1990 entering to ‘I Love It Loud’ by KISS: