The 10 best fighters to never fight in the UFC

#4 Igor Vovchanchyn

Igor Vovchanchyn was once the world's most feared Heavyweight

Before Mirko Cro Cop became the sport’s most feared Heavyweight striker in the early 2000’s, the name that terrified most fighters was Igor Vovchanchyn. Known as ‘Ice Cold’, Vovchanchyn’s MMA career actually began way back in 1995, in small Russian promotions like Absolute Fighting Championship. By the time he made his way to Japan with a burgeoning PRIDE in 1998, he’d already put together an incredible record – 31-2.

It was in PRIDE where Igor really cemented himself – for a time at least – as the top Heavyweight on the planet, though. The Ukrainian striker took out the likes of Gary Goodridge and Akira Shoji before being matched with Mark Kerr at PRIDE 7, and at the time, Kerr – fresh off a UFC tournament win – was seen as the best big man in the sport, particularly as the UFC title was then vacant.

Nobody had been able to stop Kerr’s takedowns, ground-and-pound and submissions – but Igor did, eventually finishing ‘The Smashing Machine’ with a series of knees to the head, and although he didn’t win a title for his efforts – PRIDE didn’t have them at that point – it was hard to deny that he was the sport’s top Heavyweight until his loss to Mark Coleman in the 2000 PRIDE Grand Prix.

Some disappointing losses would come for Vovchanchyn later down the line, but you can’t really hold those against him given his length of time in the sport by that point. In the end he retired in 2005 – a decade after starting up. Strangely enough, he almost signed with the UFC in 1996 for UFC 11, but couldn’t get a Visa in time – meaning that he’s definitely one of the best fighters to never make it to the world’s biggest promotion.