Across all promotions, across borders, across continents, music has been constant; not just in MMA, but virtually all sports. We're talking walkouts here; these days, everyone from fighters to baseball players gets their moment with a song.
Music creates emotion. Casual and hardcore fans pop when they recognize a song or decide the tone of a track matches the mood of a fighter. We all imagine we've learned something about a fighter by the choice of music they've made.
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I Probably Started Watching MMA Before You
This isn't to brag (mostly.)
I was tape trading Japanese shoot-style (pro wrestling) in the early 90s on blurry VHS—back then we were arguing whether any of it was 'real'.
One of the tapes had some Shooto matches mixed in, and that was a total eye-opener.
It was clearly a legit competition, but we didn't know exactly what we were watching. This was well before the sport was called MMA—Shooto to this day insist they're their own sport but we also had vale tudo, no-holds barred, 'ultimate fighting' and even that weird period in the months leading up to The Ultimate Fighter where the UFC called it "reality combat" (yes I'm making little air quotes).
My point is that pro wrestling is the strongest style I've been watching for a really long time.
It's turned me into a bit of a snob.
I had some help with this playlist, but it features a lot of tracks from walkouts that I still remember and think about to this day.
Full Track Listing
- Enae Volare Mezzo - ERA
- Eminence Front - The Who
- Kick in the Door - 2008 Remaster - The Notorious B.I.G.
- Time To Say Goodbye - Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli
- Hold On, I'm Coming - Sam & Dave
- The Wild Boys - Duran Duran
- Sandstorm (Radio Edit) - Darude
- Bad Reputation - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
- No Sunshine - DMX
- Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Nina Simone
- Champion - Keznamdi
- Right Above It (Edited) - Lil Wayne & Drake
- Speed Tk Re-Mix - Niyari
- Rusty Cage - Johnny Cash
- Run This Town (feat. Rihanna & Kanye West) - JAY-Z
- Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
- Main Title (Last of the Mohicans) - Trevor Jones
- Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough - Michael Jackson
- Lava Lava - Boys Noize
- Numéro 1 - Sans Pression
- Genesis - Justice
- Ratamahatta - Sepultura
- Ain't Stoppin Me - Al Kapone
- Ai Wo Torimodose!! - Crystal King
- Battle Without Honor Or Humanity - Hotei
- Simon Says - Pharoahe Monarch
- Baka Survivor - Ulfuls
- SCARY - The Mad Capsule Markets â€
†- you can only pretend you're Takanori Gomi walking out at PRIDE FC on Spotify
Best Walkouts
The Japanese cornered the market here.
They hit the sweet spot between talent and production and created an aura around the fighters were about to watch compete.
WWE and their overproduced, nuance-free, boring walkouts can fuck off—nothing will match the K-1 and PrideFC walkouts from 20+ years ago (the UFC even had better walkouts back in the day—see below).
Let's look at a few!
Yoshihiro Akiyama - K-1 HERO's Premium Dynamite 2003
Opera for MMA.
Akiyama walks out to Time To Say Goodbye (the duet version with Sarah Brightman, not the original Italian Con Te Partirò sung solo by Andrea Bocelli). The choice was unexpected, but perfectly suited to the spectacle of K-1's elaborate staging, that it transformed him from another fighter on the card into someone to pay attention to forever after.
It was the moment casual viewers became Akiyama fans. Twenty years later, he still uses the same song and themes from this walkout, and fans of a certain vintage still consider this the gold standard of entrance theatrics.
The sweeping orchestral drama didn't just set the stage for the fight, but also the drama that followed.
Josh Barnett - PRIDE Final Conflict Absolute 2006
The subtitles make this.
Barnett is walking out to "Ai Wo Torimodose!!" and the commentators explain how Barnett is planning to meet Noguiera's BJJ with the Fist of the North Star.
Genki Sudo - UFC 42
This was his walkout when he fought Duane Ludwig to a controversial decision loss.
The walkout? No controversy here—it's awesome.
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