Gary Goodridge is a famous Canadian mixed martial artist and professional kickboxer. Throughout his career he performed in the category of heavyweights. He gained fame and won the love of the public thanks to victories over such strong opponents as Valentine Overeem, Oleg Taktarov, Don Fry.
early years
Gary Henry Goodridge was born January 17, 1966 in the city of Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago. From early childhood, the boy was distinguished by good physical characteristics. In his youth, he became interested in martial arts. In addition, he was also engaged in arm wrestling, in which he achieved considerable success. Later, the guy's family decided to leave Trinidad and Tobago, moving to Canada. The home of the young man was the city of Barry, which is located in Ontario. It was here that the guy became interested in mixed martial arts, deciding to become a professional athlete.
Career at UFC
Gary Goodridge began performing in mixed martial arts in the late 90s. The athlete immediately managed to impress the audience with his fearlessness before more experienced opponents. The guy had impressive dimensions, for which he received the nickname Big Daddy. Gary Goodridge won several debut fights. His fight against the famous fighter Paul Herrera to this day has the status of one of the most brutal in this type of competition. The fight ended after Gary Goodridge blocked the opponent’s hands and began to strike him one after another in the head for 13 seconds. However, our hero never managed to win the championship. Indeed, in the final battle, he met with a more artful rival Don Fry, who inflicted his first defeat in his career.
Gary Goodridge lost the next fight against Fry. However, he did not stop speaking at a professional level. The fighter decided to change the UFC league and move on to participate in the Pride Fighting Championships series tournaments. The main achievement in these competitions for him was the victory over a more experienced opponent - Oleg Taktarov. By the way, after a knockout from Gary Goodridge, the Russian athlete was forced to leave the ring straight to the hospital.
The athlete’s career has somewhat declined since 2003. During this period, he suffered an insulting defeat from the famous knockout Fedor Emelianenko. However, shortly before this, our hero managed to take revenge from his old offender Don Fry.
Since 2008, the fights of Gary Goodridge have had only a negative result. The athlete lost the fights one by one. One of the meetings ended in a real scandal. Fighting with an experienced fighter Gabor Nemeth, he expressed dissatisfaction with the decisions of the judge. Goodridge decided to leave the ring at the end of the first round. This behavior led to the disqualification of the athlete.
Kickboxing performances
In parallel with participating in mixed martial arts fights, Harry Goodridge decided to prove himself in kickboxing. The first fight in this sport for him took place in 1999. The rival of our hero was the Japanese Musashi. This fight ended for Goodridge not only a loss, but also a disqualification.
Gary celebrated his first kickboxing victory in 2002, defeating American athlete Michael Bernardo. The meeting, which took place in the city of Las Vegas, ended with a technical knockout.
Goodridge managed to achieve the highest successes in his entire career in 2005 while participating in several tournaments under the auspices of the K-1 organization, which were held in the United States. Gary reached the final stage of the competition. Only in the final meeting he had to leave the ring defeated after a knockout from the Brazilian champion Glaube Feytoza.
A few months later, Goodridge won the kickboxing tournament in Honolulu. The dividends received allowed him to take part in a series of world championship matches. Here Gary again met with his offender Feitosa, whom he lost already at the start of the competition.
Health Issues and Retirement
In 2010, Goodridge began to feel unwell. Soon, doctors made the athlete a disappointing diagnosis. Neurologists have discovered the development of dementia in Gary. The reason was constant head injuries, which caused irreversible degenerative changes in the brain tissue. On this, Goodridge’s career in big sport was actually over, because there was no question of returning to the ring. Currently, the former fighter is training beginner athletes, conducts educational activities among young people.