On the Fourth of July, America normally rolls out flags, fireworks, and sufficient grilled meat to make a heart specialist stare into the center distance. Within the battle sport, although, one picture matches the vacation higher than the remainder: Don Frye strolling ahead just like the nationwide anthem grew a mustache and determined to throw palms. Frye’s place in MMA historical past is safe as a result of he arrived within the UFC in 1996, gained UFC 8, then got here again and gained Final Final 96, giving him two event titles in the identical yr and prompt standing as one of many sport’s defining early names.
Don Frye – Final American
That alone would earn him a seat on the desk. Frye did greater than accumulate trophies, although. UFC states that in his run he turned the primary athlete in promotion historical past to complete three opponents in lower than one minute, the primary to attain each a knockout and a submission in lower than one minute, and the primary to beat 5 straight opponents by knockout.
What made Frye totally different was the way in which he regarded and felt in that period. Whereas early MMA nonetheless had one foot in style-versus-style chaos, Frye got here off like a person in-built a machine store who understood the right way to wrestle, field, clinch, and make each alternate ugly for the opposite man. UFC has described him as “the UFC’s first true combined martial artist,” and the label matches as a result of he was one of many clearest indicators that the game was shifting towards fighters who might do a little bit of the whole lot, then do it whereas obvious by a horseshoe mustache.
If this all sounds very American, that’s as a result of Frye leaned into it with out disgrace and with out polish. UFC referred to as him “the quintessential American” and pointed to certainly one of his most remembered entrances, the stroll to the ring at PRIDE 16 with an American flag in hand. That second nonetheless lives as a result of it hit the precise candy spot Frye at all times carried: half patriot, half outlaw, half man who regarded like he might repair your truck and knock out a heavyweight earlier than dinner.
The humorous half is that Frye by no means wanted a lot packaging. He already regarded like a casting director’s first draft for “former Marine who now owns a roadside steakhouse and settles disputes by staring.” He later labored in professional wrestling and performing, however the enchantment was the identical in each setting. The Nationwide Wrestling Corridor of Fame notes that he constructed his base in collegiate wrestling at Arizona State and Oklahoma State earlier than shifting into MMA, then professional wrestling, a path that helped make him one of many uncommon figures who felt at house in each type of fight leisure with out seeming pretend in any of them.
Fourth of July
And sure, there’s a cause followers nonetheless move round Don Frye clips like treasured household property. The look, the stroll, the punches, the stare, the flag, the sense that he had been dropped into fashionable MMA from a time when males in motion motion pictures routinely punched by doorways. Some fighters turn out to be champions. Some turn out to be memes. Frye turned folklore, which is more durable to do and normally much more enjoyable.
So on the Fourth of July, if fight sports activities wants an “Final American,” Don Frye is a simple choose. He gained massive within the UFC, crossed into PRIDE and professional wrestling, entered the Corridor of Fame, and left behind a picture that also feels inconceivable to enhance on: a fighter with a flag in a single hand, violence within the different, and completely little interest in making both one refined.
