The 10 best fighters to never fight in the UFC

#2 Rickson Gracie

In his prime, Rickson Gracie's reputation was second to none

There has probably never been an MMA fighter with as big a legend surrounding them as Rickson Gracie. In the early days of the sport – the mid 1990’s – the Gracie family were the most feared competitors of them all, as Royce easily won three of the first four UFC tournaments while the likes of Renzo and Royler saw success in Brazil and Japan. But it was Rickson who most people – including his relatives – claimed was the best fighter in the family.

Rickson’s official MMA record shows 11 wins and 0 losses, but his legend actually claims he had somewhere around 400 bouts in various forms of combat – from jiu-jitsu tournaments to outright street fights – and never lost a single one.

Most of this wildly extensive career remains unseen in terms of existing video footage, but his skills were certainly on show in the early PRIDE events, where he comfortably defeated Nobuhiko Takada on two occasions. In the end, Rickson retired in 2000 at the age of 42, but as recently as 2008 he still claimed he could potentially defeat the sport’s best fighters.

Could he have succeeded in the UFC? There’s simply no question about it. The myth usually states that Rickson was originally the Gracie family’s choice to compete in the early UFC shows, but a disagreement with his half-brother Rorion resulted in Royce being chosen instead. And given Rickson was supposedly a far superior fighter to Royce, it seems likely he would’ve cleaned up just as Royce did in those early shows.

In the end, exactly how much of Rickson's reputation is legitimate, and how much is myth is somewhat unknown. But for the sheer respect offered to him by people far more qualified to judge than me, he’s clearly one of the best to never fight in the UFC.