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Fight Songs Pt. 2: The Worst In Boxing/MMA Ring Entrance Music

In our previous article we examined some of the best uses of fighter ring entrance music. In the 2nd installment of this series we'll look at the nadir of this genre. We're going to set the bar high--er...low--in this article. A cliche alone won't get it done, such as the use of bad rap and "nu-metal" in the UFC. Nor will I penalize a fighter just because he enters the ring to a song I don't personally like. And merely choosing a strange or incongruant song won't be enough to be considered among the "worst ring entrance music" example. In fact, we'll examine some of the downright bizarre choices of ring entrance music in the final part of this series.

Fighter/Fight: Yuki Kondo, vs. Wanderlei Silva at PRIDE Final Conflict 2004
Song: "Only Time" by Enya

Veteran Japanese fighter Yuki Kondo has been competing in MMA for over a decade, and has fought a veritable "who's who" of the sport. He's probably on the downside of his career, and of late has been essentially a "jobber" for the big stars in PRIDE. In the past two years he's been beaten by Akihiro Gono, Dan Henderson, Phil Baroni, Kazuhiro Nakamura and in the fight we're featuring here, Wanderlei Silva. Kondo is one of the countless earnest, clean cut and hard working Japanese native fighters that compete in PRIDE, and that, along with his years of dedication to the sport have made him a fan favorite despite his competitive struggles in recent years

With two straight KO losses--to Mirko Cro Cop in the PRIDE Open Weight GP semi finals and this past weekend to Dan Henderson--there's some questions about Wanderlei Silva's future as a top tier fighter. In 2004, however, he was one of the most feared fighters in the sport and his nickname--"the Ax Murderer" seemed completely appropriate. Entering this fight, Silva was on a sixteen fight undefeated streak (14 wins, 1 draw, 1 NC) and was expected to dominate PRIDE's designated journeyman opponent. .

Silva isn't an easy guy to intimidate, and maybe Kondo knew that. That's really the only rationale for his choice of Enya's mellow and ethereal "Only Time" as his ring entrance music. Perhaps Kondo thought it would lull Silva into some sort of peaceful state where he'd be more interested in doing pilates and sipping herbal tea than in unleashing his arsenal of punches and knee strikes. How else to explain these lyrics:

Who can say where the road goes,
Where the day flows? Only time...
And who can say if your love grows,
As your heart chose? Only time...

If lulling Silva into complacency was Kondo's plan, it was an utter and complete failure. "The Ax Murderer" made his way to the ring to what sounded like some bad but up-tempoBrazilian techno music, and proceeded to stomp his opponent--literally, as the coup de grace in his KO victory was a couple of brutal stomps to the head. Kondo's inexplicable choice of a ring entrance song better suited for a yoga or massage studio in the Pacific Northwest didn't lose the fight for him, but it sure didn't help.

Fighter/Fight: Travis Lutter, vs. Anderson Silva at UFC 67
Song: "Two Tribes Go To War" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Full disclosure here--I've always been a big fan of the quintessential 80's band "Frankie Goes to Hollywood". I'd go so far as to consider their debut CD "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" as one of the best of the decade. "Pleasuredome" was chock full of so many great songs its not even funny--in addition to the huge hit "Relax", the downtempo love song "The Power of Love", and the driving title song, "Two Tribes" is one of the highlights. It's Cold War subject matter--the video had Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Chernenko mud wrestling--might be a little dated now, but it was a perfect fit for the time.

Yet as good a band as FGTH was, there's one little problem about using "Two Tribes" as a ring entrance song: the band, as anyone knowledgeable about their 80's music knows, was very openly gay. In fact their biggest hit "Relax" is chocked to the brim with sexually suggestive lyrical content. The original video for the song--banned by both the BBC and MTV--A blurb from their Wikipedia entry sums it up nicely:

"Observers of FGTH's era state that despite the presence of openly gay members and suggestive lyrics and sleeves, the band's raw, aggressive sound avoided alienating a heterosexual male audience."

Again, its hard to argue that FGTH had a significant impact on the entertainment industry--their acceptance by mainstream audiences trod the path for openly gay artists like Erasure--its still not something I'd use as I entered the ring hoping to take another man to the mat and roll around with him.

It's hard to put my finger on why this song just seemed so wrong--its not just the fact that it was performed by an openly gay artist. To illustrate this conundrum, consider the case of Judas Priest and their openly gay lead singer Rob Halford. I can't think of any fighters that have used a Priest song as ring entrance music, but any number would be excellent--"Breaking the Law", "Metal Gods", "Painkiller", "Judas Rising". I do know of at least one pro wrestling tag team that used a Judas Priest song--that would be the legendary AWA tag team of Shawn Michaels and Marty Janetty, aka "The Midnight Rockers", who came to the ring to "Living After Midnight". It might have something to do with the general credibility that Halford has as a vocalist--he's considered one of the best metal vocalists in history, and he sounds just as good now as he ever did. On the other hand, watching Travis Lutter enter the ring to "Two Tribes" all I could think about was the San Fran leather boys in the original "Relax" video. Lutter, like Yuki Kondo in the previous example, was thrashed in the matchup. Hopefully, he'll learn from his mistake and not use another "Frankie Goes to Hollywood" song in the future.

GENERALLY BAD TREND:

A dishonorable mention goes to fighters that sing or rap their own ring entrance music. Oscar De La Hoya received a Grammy nomination for his CD of Latino pop music. Nevertheless, he falls into this category for using it as his own ring entrance music. Roy Jones, Jr. was one of the best "pound for pound" fighters to ever grace the boxing ring, and really not a bad rapper. He certainly had good people around him, with Scarface from The Geto Boys producing and working with him in the studio. The partnership produced the excellent "Y'all Must Have Forgot", but once again RJ made the mistake of entering the ring to his own raps on a number of occasions. Even Floyd Mayweather, Jr.--who received props in part #1 of this article for his use of Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed"--has made this mistake. Over in the world of pro wrestling, John Cena enters the ring to his own pathetic raps which puts him in the less than illustrious company of PN News and the Insane Clown Posse. Cena spends his time outside the ring doing commercials with formerly fat Subway flak Jared Fogel, and that should tell you all you need to know about him.

MISCELLANEOUS BADNESS:

Even among the bad hip hop and "nu-metal" that infests the UFC there's a few really bad ring entrance themes that stand out. Tito Ortiz scraped the bottom of the "nu-metal" barrel early in his UFC career by repeatedly using Limp Bizkit ("Rollin" and "Break Stuff). He's since used less wretched, but still pretty cliched, artists including Korn, P. Diddy and Eminem. Carlos Newton used a couple of questionable songs for his UFC appearances including Will Smith's "Men in Black" and "Bootylicious" by Destiny's Child. Unfortunately, his UFC career ended before he could use the "Theme from Ghostbusters". BJ Penn is one of my favorite fighters, but using any Phil Collins song--even "In The Air Tonight" is pretty bad. He should have waited and used the updated version recorded by Nonpoint that appeared in the 2006 "Miami Vice" remake. Forrest Griffin is one of my favorite fighters, but he deserves some abuse for using theunctuous Insane Clown Posse as his entrance music at UFC 55.

NEXT TIME: We'll conclude our series on fighter ring entrance music with some of the most bizarre entrances in boxing and MMA. 

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