The top five most ridiculous TV commercials featuring MMA stars
A Samsung commercial starring Junior dos Santos came out this week and it was cool until it got really weird.
Dos Santos destroying his living room and tearing off his shirt Hulk Hogan-style while watching soccer is fairly entertaining. But when they put his head on a cartoon and had him swimming with piranhas, well, we have no idea how to feel about it. A little kooky.
The ad did get us thinking, though. Was this one of the best commercials starring an MMA fighter ever? Probably not. Because damn, there have been some hilarious ones.
Without further ado, here's the official Haymaker list of the best commercials ever featuring MMA stars:
5. And he didn't even tap
Bob Sapp is so, so massive and him dancing alongside tiny Japanese girls right off the bat is just a ridiculous visual. And let's just be honest here. For a man that size, Sapp has some serious rhythm and grace. He's just so darn gentle in this commercial, too. He's like a big, muscle-bound teddy bear. It's sad that he's now been reduced to throwing MMA fights (allegedly) for money. Sapp should have just done more commercials like this. There has to be a market for men this size are who are that light on their feet.
As an aside, Japan has a chain restaurant called LA Pizza? Who the hell wants to eat pizza from LA? Change the name to Brooklyn. You'll thank us later.
4. Lesnar pimping lead
The best part about deer, at least if you're Brock Lesnar, is that they don't throw punches. But this ad is so bizarre. It shows an absolutely yolked Lesnar just being a savage training, even knocking out his coach (or so it appears). The man is such a terror, just an incredible bad ass. Yet he needs to wield a gum with ammo to kill some poor defenseless deer. We bet he wishes had some Fusion against Alistair Overeem or Cain Velasquez.
We don’t know what's more cringeworthy about this ad -- Lesnar posing with a dead deer at the end or the horrendous thud sound effects they used during the training montage.
3. "Ace" in the hole
Rich Franklin is the best. He's one of the nicest guys, not just in MMA, but basically on the entire planet. And, as far as fighters go, he doesn't look super threatening. The guy did used to be a high school math teacher after all. That's why choosing him for this Boost Mobile ad was odd. They couldn’t find some tatted monster with a Mohawk? In other words, was Chuck Liddell not available? Franklin just looks so clean cut and not scary. It looks like he'd rather talk things out with your jerk co-workers than beat them up.
Also, Boost Mobile actually ran a "Bring a UFC Fighter to Work" sweepstakes in 2011. Did that ever go down? If so, who won and which fighter showed up at his or her job? We need to know this, Boost!
2. "Spider" soprano
We all know Anderson Silva has a good sense of humor. Apparently, he doesn't have whole lot of shame either. Good for "The Spider," because he probably got paid handsomely for this ad. Maybe he got to take home the white suit, too. That's pretty pimp.
In this commercial, Silva lip-syncs "Lovin' You" by Minnie Rimperton. He's singing, of course, to a Burger King Mega BK Stacker. Silva and Burger King is one of those endorsement deals we've just never gotten. Georges St-Pierre and Under Armour? Sure. Jon Jones and Gatorade? Absolutely. Call us crazy, but we don't think Silva is a frequent patron of Burger King in Brazil. Then again, you never know with him. He could be a Whopper kind of dude.
1. Holy Schick
It's pretty clear they have different sensibilities in Japan. In the United States, a commercial featuring two shirtless, ripped men rubbing shaving cream on each other's cheeks would be, well, you know exactly what it would be. Maybe a tad inappropriate. Or very appropriate, depending on the razor company's target audience.
Anyway, Mark Coleman and Wanderlei Silva were incredibly good sports about this one. We wonder how many takes it took for them to shave each other without busting out into awkward laughter. We won't even go into the cream being squirted into their hands or them rubbing each other's faces toward the end of the ad. Just watch. And laugh while you squirm in your chair.
It's going to be a long time before some demented company tops this commercial.
