Who was the best old school MMA fighter?
I’m thinking it may have been Igor Vovchanchyn.
By Old School, I mean the early day of MMA. So don’t bring up the likes of Anderson Silva or Georges St. Pierre, or even Fedor Emelianenko.
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Igor was middle school.
old school was ruas
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Igor had his first MMA fight in like either 1995 or 1996. That was around the same time Marco Ruas first fought in the UFC.
I do recall hearing that Ruas had some MMA fights in Brazil prior to this, so that may well predate Igor.
Ruas had a lot of hype, but he was a bit of an underachiever, whereas Igor was a big of an overachiever. Not many people expected a 5’8" pudgy guy like Igor to do as well as he did, especially considering that he mostly fought heavyweights.
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Igor will always be the old school GOAT to me. He leads everyone when you compare number or fights, number of KO's, and the level of competition for the time that be faced. Went on like a 32-0 win streak at one point. Won three 8 man tournaments in a month or something. It's a shame he was kind of already on the decline when he debuted in Pride and really stepped up in competition. I think he would have thrashed everyone in the early UFC if he had ever fought there.
“It’s a shame he was kind of already on the decline when he debuted in Pride and really stepped up in competition.”
Igor did pretty well in PRIDE for awhile. He may well have beaten Mark Coleman in the PRIDE Grand Prix if not for the fact that Igor had two fights earlier that night, against Gary Goodridge and Kazushi Sakuraba, while Coleman fought Akira Shoji, but then basically got a bye in the 2nd round when Kazuyuki Fujita came in and immediately had the towel thrown in before he and Coleman even started fighting, due to Fujita having been worn out from his victory over Mark Kerr.
It is too bad that we never got to see Mark Coleman against a fresh Kazuyuki Fujita. That could have been a good fight.
Rickson :-)
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Royce then Ken.
Frank Dux
Royce
Will always be Frank Shamrock to me.
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Pele
Bill Mahoney - Royce
Agreed. Can’t get more old-school than Royce.
Agree with Ruas
I’d also throw in Don Frye.
Flame away, but Steve Jennum also beat a top 10 boxer.
Coleman with headbutts was a whole lot to deal with.
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Kirik -Rickson :-)
Only because he never ran into Mark The Hammer Coleman.
jgiveshead -Kirik -Rickson :-)
Only because he never ran into Mark The Hammer Coleman.
I think Vitor would have starched him.
All due hespect.
theshooter - Igor had his first MMA fight in like either 1995 or 1996. That was around the same time Marco Ruas first fought in the UFC.I do recall hearing that Ruas had some MMA fights in Brazil prior to this, so that may well predate Igor.
Ruas had a lot of hype, but he was a bit of an underachiever, whereas Igor was a big of an overachiever. Not many people expected a 5’8" pudgy guy like Igor to do as well as he did, especially considering that he mostly fought heavyweights.
Ruas fought Pinduka in 1984…1984!
Ruas is old school and was past his prime by the time he came to the UFC.
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Choked72 -theshooter - Igor had his first MMA fight in like either 1995 or 1996. That was around the same time Marco Ruas first fought in the UFC.I do recall hearing that Ruas had some MMA fights in Brazil prior to this, so that may well predate Igor.
Ruas had a lot of hype, but he was a bit of an underachiever, whereas Igor was a big of an overachiever. Not many people expected a 5’8" pudgy guy like Igor to do as well as he did, especially considering that he mostly fought heavyweights.
Ruas fought Pinduka in 1984…1984!
Ruas is old school and was past his prime by the time he came to the UFC.
Ruas was 36 when he debuted in UFC 7. Marco in his Prime would have been amazing. Having said that, I’ve always kind of been confused why he came into that event with so much hype. He had two total fights previous to that and they were several years earlier. I guess the fact that he was Brazilian like Royce and he seemed to have some reputation that followed him from Brazil.
Captain 'Murica - Agree with RuasI’d also throw in Don Frye.
Flame away, but Steve Jennum also beat a top 10 boxer.
Hard to make any kind of argument for Jennum. He beat a clueless boxer with possibly the sloppiest armbar ever seen in MMA, and he was totally dismal in all his next fights.
Kerr.