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Chalid Arrab

When the first Bushido card aired, I remember hearing about a German boxer named DIE FAUST who knocked out everyone he faced, crossed over to MMA and kickboxing and was a terrifying striking machine out for revenge against Rodney Glunder, the man who was hunting down his Golden Glory teammates one by one. It was set up as a card-opening spectacle--a showdown between two fierce, powerful strikers with a legitimate beef.

There were a lot of takedowns instead. That was my introduction to Chalid Arrab.

Arrab's nickname came from his boxing record--37 wins, 31 by violent knockout. Unfortunately, those fights were all amateur. He didn't actually HAVE any professional boxing fights: He moved into kickboxing and MMA instead. He was reasonably good at it, too. Despite his striking focus, his defensive grappling was reasonably sound: He made his Pride debut off the back of a loss that saw him survive 15 minutes with Jeremy Horn, whose submission prowess is legendary.

But then he had the snoozer with Glunder, and then Pride put him in with Kazuhiro Nakamura, who pretzeled him on the ground. Arrab went over to Hero's, as he had a better relationship with K-1 by that point anyway, and won his last two fights against...less than stellar competition.

That's the knock on Arrab's career: Most of his successes came against less-than-stellar competition. His highest-profile wins were against Glunder, or Yukiya Naito, or Hiromitsu Kanehara. He won the 2006 K-1 Las Vegas GP--which is impressive until you realize that:

-His first-round opponent was the 0-2 pro-wrestler Sean O'Haire
-His second-round opponent was Carter Williams, who beat him but couldn't continue due to injury
-His championship opponent was Gary Goodridge, who was 12-12-1 in kickboxing, 40 years old, had been knocked out ten times, and was lopsidedly winning the fight before Arrab's third-round knockout

Realistically, the most impressive moment of Die Faust's career was his split decision win over Japanese superstar Musashi, qualifying him for the 2006 World Grand Prix--where he fell to Ernesto Hoost and never won a K-1 fight again. Plenty of accomplishments, but unfortunately, breaking into the top ranks always eluded him.

Moveset, stats, logic and four attires (Pride: Bushido 1 vs Glunder / Pride: Bushido 3 vs Nakamura / K-1 Paris GP '03 vs Abidi / K-1 Vegas GP '06 vs Goodridge). I wish there were a good way to do that weird thing with the blonde in the back of his hair.