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Thousands of fighters have come and gone from the highest levels of mixed martial arts over the last two decades, but only a few have left their marks on it over the long term, forever influencing those who came after them.

The latest installment of the Sherdog Top 10 series takes a look at some of the fighters who dictated the future of the sport, whether that was the result of technical developments, advances in training methods, coaching or something more intangible and harder to define.

MMA would never be the same after these 10 fighters came and went:

Number 10 » Prior to the 1-5 stretch with which he ended his career, he was one of the “baddest” men on the face of the planet. He was a brick-fisted sprawl-and-brawler who made his name by stuffing his opponents’ takedowns and putting hard leather on their faces, crushing them under a relentless but cleverly applied rain of counterstriking terror.