10 Great UFC Matchups... of Nicknames

1. Superman vs. Doomsday
The good guys are supposed to win in the end, but after three solid rounds of being controlled on the ground, John "Doomsday" Howard surged to earn a final-seconds TKO over Dennis "Superman" Hallman at the TUF 10 Finale.

2. El Dirte vs. Filthy
The referee tells fighters to keep it clean, but there was no chance of that happening when Joe "El Dirte" Doerksen met "Filthy" Tom Lawlor at UFC 113. Doerksen pulled out the win via the equally-uncouth-sounding rear-naked choke.

3. Lightning vs. Thunder
These two weather-related phenomena usually go hand in hand, but on Saturday night they'll go head-to-head as Yushin "Thunder" Okami faces Hector "Lightning" Lombard at UFC on FUEL TV 8.

4. Tiger vs. The Gazelle
The Octagon has hosted plenty of animal-kingdom-themed matchups, like The Hippo vs. The Snake and Big Dog vs. the Sabretooth. Yet no pairing was a more perfect metaphor for MMA's predator-and-prey nature than Yves "Tiger" Jabouin's UFC 140 win over Walel "The Gazelle" Watson.

5. The Machine vs. The Korean Zombie
In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, will robots rise or will the undead rule the earth? No way to know -- yet -- but a UFC 140 sneak peek saw "The Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung quickly dispense with Mark "The Machine" Hominick.

6. The Doberman vs. The Messenger
Score one for the mailman as Jared "The Messenger" Hamman defeated CB "The Doberman" Dollaway in a UFC Live 5 clash built on this decades-old, cross-species rivalry.

7. The Polish Experiment vs. The American Psycho
Each country-claiming weirdo went 1-1 during Stephan "The American Psycho" Bonnar and Krzysztof "The Polish Experiment" Soszynski's duo of bouts at UFC 110 and UFC 116.

8. Hitman vs. Natural Born Killer
Martin "Hitman" Kampmann took on the "Natural Born Killer" Carlos Condit in the April 2009 UFN 18 main event between two career murderers. Kampmann got that decision win, but the NBK went on a tear,  scored the division's welterweight belt and has only lost once since then, to welterweight king GSP.

9. The Immortal vs. Lights Out
Matt "The Immortal" Brown and Chris "Lights Out" Lytle's nicknames represent opposite states of human consciousness. And while Brown didn't go lights out, he did tap out at the hands of Lytle twice during their careers, most recently at UFC 116.

10. Bang vs. The Damage
An injury stoppage was the unfortunate -- if foreshadowed -- outcome of the UFC Live matchup between Duane "Bang" Ludwig and Darren "The Damage" Elkins, which left Ludwig with a broken ankle.