5. Igor Vovchanchyn
The legendary Ukrainian fighter, who tied for 10th on the list of the top Pride Fighting Championships fighters as well as fighters of the 90s, finishes substantially higher here. Vovchanchyn is a fascinating figure and I once wrote an entire article about him that goes into much greater depth. Standing only 5-foot-8 and weighing no more than 220 pounds in the 90s, Vovchanchyn would take on giants as large as Fred Floyd (6' 4”, 380 pounds) and Paul Varelans (6' 8”, 350 pounds), face three or more foes in a single night, and emerge victorious every time, turning most opponents into battered, bloody messes. Competing in MMA for the first time as a 22-year-old, Vovchanchyn was already a good kickboxer but gradually became better and better at wrestling and submissions. After two submission losses shortly after his debut in late 1995, one due to blatant cheating by Mikhail Ilyukhin, Vovchanchyn would never lose again in the 90s, winning 33 fights and drawing one, finishing the decade with an amazing 38-2-1 record. Again, considering how often he was facing much larger opponents and fighting multiple times in a single night, this is astonishing. Many consider Maurice Smith and Bas Rutten to be the first strikers to attain high-level success in MMA, but Vovchanchyn deserves a mention as well. The only reason he isn't higher is due to his lack of competition. Vovchanchyn's biggest wins during the decade were a fantastic knockout of Gary Goodridge at Pride 4 in just under 6 minutes, a decision over largely forgotten, but highly talented Brazilian Carlos Barreto at Pride 6 and a decision over Akira Shoji at Pride 5. Not bad, but not on the same level as the fighters ahead of him. Interestingly, Vovchanchyn's biggest win would have been at Pride 7 against then unbeaten, goliath wrestler Mark Kerr, but he used knees in the four-point position to stop the American, which had been explicitly banned at the rules meeting, as detailed in the classic documentary “The Smashing Machine.” Vovchanchyn, while only 26 when the new decade began, found the 2000s much harder due to MMAs rapid evolution, finishing his career 17-8. He had some triumphs, like brutalizing Enson Inoue with ground-and-pound en route to a stoppage after the 10-minute opening round, submitting dangerous kickboxer Gilbert Yvel in just under two minutes, and emphatically decisioning Kerr in their rematch in late 2000. However, he suffered devastating knockout losses to the likes of Mirko Filipovic and Quinton Jackson, and more surprisingly, was quickly tapped by Mario Sperry and outpointed by Tra Telligman. Vovchanchyn made a last-ditch effort to revitalize his career by dropping down to 205 pounds but found the competition even harder, winning a decision against Yuki Kondo before being guillotined in 80 seconds by Alistair Overeem and then beaten by Kazuhiro Nakamura. At that point, despite being only 32 years old but suffering from a number of injuries to his hands from the brutal bare-knuckle MMA fights of the 90s, the great Vovchanchyn retired.
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