A number of fighters who paved the way for the modern era were included in our ranking of the 30 greatest UFC fighters, but was it enough?
The UFC’s 30th anniversary date has come and gone, and in the build-up to the milestone date, MMA Junkie counted down its 30 greatest fighters of all time to compete for the promotion.
There was plenty of debate about the entire list from top to bottom, and one of our big talking points was the inclusion of pioneers.
The final list was tabulated through a points system after voting from MMA Junkie’s 12-person staff. Guys considered to be pioneers who made our list were [autotag]Randy Couture[/autotag] (No. 11), [autotag]B.J. Penn[/autotag] (No. 12), [autotag]Royce Gracie[/autotag] (No. 14), [autotag]Chuck Liddell[/autotag] (No. 18), [autotag]Matt Hughes[/autotag] (No. 21), and [autotag]Tito Ortiz[/autotag] (No. 25).
On a special edition of “Spinning Back Clique,” the majority of our staff members came together to discuss and debate the finer points of the list. Did enough fighters who paved the way for the modern era make our list?
Check out the discussion in the video above, or watch the entire 30 greatest UFC fighters of all time podcast below.
Royce Gracie’s impact on the UFC is undeniable, but comparing him to modern fighters on a list of greats proved challenging.
The UFC’s 30th anniversary date has come and gone, and in the build-up to the milestone date, MMA Junkie counted down its 30 greatest fighters of all time to compete for the promotion.
There was plenty of debate about the entire list from top to bottom, and one of the major discussion points was [autotag]Royce Gracie[/autotag]’s ranking.
The final list was tabulated through a points system after voting from MMA Junkie’s 12-person staff. Gracie, the winner of UFC 1 and two other tournaments in 1993 and 1994, came in at No. 14, a major point of conversation on MMA Junkie’s special edition of “Spinning Back Clique,” where the majority of our staff came together to discuss and debate the finer points of the list. Just how difficult was it to rank Gracie?
Check out the discussion in the video above, or watch the entire 30 greatest UFC fighters of all time podcast below.
UFC fights looked a lot different at the promotion’s conception in 1993.
UFC 295 marked the 30th anniversary of the promotion.
Over three decades, the UFC – and the sport of MMA as a whole – has evolved tremendously. If evidence is needed, go back and watch the promotion’s first event ever – which is now available in full, for free.
UFC 1 took place Nov. 12, 1993, at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver with a reported 7,800 fans in attendance. The one-night tournament-style fight card filled with openweight matchups featured eight fights. [autotag]Royce Gracie[/autotag] defeated [autotag]Gerard Gordeau[/autotag] to win the tournament championship.
Relive the full fight card in the video above. Tournament participants include Gracie, Gordeau, [autotag]Ken Shamrock[/autotag], [autotag]Kevin Rosier[/autotag], [autotag]Art Jimmerson[/autotag], [autotag]Zane Frazier[/autotag], and [autotag]Teila Tuli[/autotag].
The six living UFC 1 tournament participants recently reunited for dinner and the filming of a segment called Fighters of the Roundtable. Watch that reunion here.
To commemorate the UFC’s 30th anniversary, this is our definitive list of the promotion’s 30 greatest fighters of all time.
To commemorate the UFC’s 30th anniversary, MMA Junkie has compiled its definitive list of the 30 greatest UFC fighters of all time. We revealed one every day until the anniversary of UFC 1, which took place Nov. 12, 1993.
Our complete rankings, along with videos for each fighter, can be viewed below.
About the list: All 12 members of our staff submitted their own individual 30 greatest UFC fighters list. Each fighter was assigned a corresponding numerical value based on where they were ranked on an individual’s list, i.e. No. 1 = 30, No. 2 = 29, etc. We took those numbers and added them up to get a total number for each fighter to determine the composite ranking of MMA Junkie’s 30 greatest UFC fighters of all time.
On Nov. 12, 1993, a no-rules cage fighting tournament among martial arts masters took place in Denver – and the rest is history.
(Editor’s note: This story originally published on Nov. 12, 2018.)
To those who bought the pay-per-view and took the ride on Nov. 12, 1993, it must have seemed like a wild gamble. Here was this brand new event, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which claimed that it would deliver “no rules” fights between a hodgepodge of various martial arts masters until only one champion remained.
Also the fights would take place in an eight-sided cage, and football great Jim Brown would be there for some reason, so why not call up your cable company (pretty much the only way to order a pay-per-view event back then) and take your chances?
Still, savvy viewers must have had questions. At a time when most viewers had to choose between boxing and WWF pro wrestling as their only pay-per-view options in the combat sports realm, what were the odds that this would be a legitimate contest? And if it did mean to deliver exactly what it promised – trained martial artists beating each other in a cage until someone quit or lost consciousness – would it even be allowed on TV?
But then the time came and there it was, a broadcast from the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver that opened with karate champ Bill “Superfoot” Wallace incorrectly identifying it as the Ultimate Fighting Challenge – right before he burped on live TV.
The fact that they’d even made it to fight night was a relief to the event’s organizers. As explained in the excellent 30 for 30 podcast, “No Rules – The Birth of the UFC,” a disagreement at the rules meeting threatened to derail the entire event. According to several sources, it was only when sumo wrestler Teila Tuli signed his agreement and informed his colleagues that he “came to party” that the other fighters fell in line.
Tuli was the first man to make the walk on the broadcast that night, facing Dutch savate champion Gerard Gordeau in the opening round. Gordeau had reportedly whiled away the time backstage by smoking cigarettes and casting menacing stares at his fellow fighters. When he got his chance in the cage against the 420-pound Tuli, it took him just 26 seconds to sidestep Tuli’s bull rush, topple him to the mat, and then kick him directly in the mouth.
The commentators later joked about Tuli’s tooth flying out of the cage and landing somewhere under the broadcast table. What they didn’t realize until later was that another one of his teeth was embedded in Gordeau’s foot, where it would stay until he returned home to the Netherlands and got it removed.
The swift, violent end to the fight was something of a wake-up call. For one, it demonstrated just how serious these fights could get, and just how quickly someone could get hurt. It was also something of a shocking visual. A large man being kicked in the face as he sat on the ground? That wasn’t the kind of thing you saw every day.
Then there was the confusion after the kick. The bout was stopped almost immediately, but at first it appeared as though Tuli might get a quick check from the doctor and be allowed to continue. But as modern MMA fans know, that’s not how it works. Once you stop a bout in a moment like that, you’ve irrevocably changed it.
This is how Tuli’s night ended early, and how the UFC’s first tournament bout ended with a protested stoppage.
If fighters were shook up by seeing the level of human carnage possible in this form of fighting, they didn’t show it. In the next bout, Zane Frazier started fast against Kevin Rosier, battering him against the fence before running out of gas in the thin Denver air and eventually collapsing on the mat, earning himself a couple head stomps before his corner finally threw the towel.
Next came [autotag]Royce Gracie[/autotag], the chosen representative of the family that played an instrumental role in putting the event together. Royce was far from the most ferocious member of the Gracie clan, which was kind of the point. One of the goals of this event was to showcase the power of Gracie jiu-jitsu as a martial arts discipline. If the family had chosen Rickson Gracie, a pitbull of a man with a physique seemingly carved out of marble, viewers may have attributed his success to athleticism and other natural gifts rather than the art form itself.
Royce, on the other hand, was skinny and shaggy-headed, looking more like a surf bum than a world champion fighter. If he could stand alone among this tournament of monstrous men, the thinking went, it would really prove something.
Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock at UFC 1. (Holly Stein-Getty Images)
Gracie didn’t exactly face the toughest test in the opening round. Art Jimmerson, a mid-level boxer who chose to wear one glove on his lead hand, ostensibly in order to leave the other free for grabbing and grappling, clearly did not know what he was in for. After being taken down and then easily mounted by Gracie, he tapped out before he could even be placed in a submission hold. The ground game seemed to be just that foreign to him.
The biggest potential challenge to Gracie came in the form of [autotag]Ken Shamrock[/autotag], a heavily muscled and intensely angry man who by then had already begun making a name for himself on the mixed rules fighting scene in Japan. Like Gracie, Shamrock knew a thing or two about submissions. As he demonstrated in his opening-round bout against Patrick Smith, his specialty was leg locks – especially the heel hook.
But after a quick and fiery win over Smith, Shamrock was submitted with even greater speed by Gracie, who managed to use his gi sleeve to add leverage to a sort of modified bulldog choke in the opening minute of the bout. Shamrock tapped, prompting Gracie to release him, even if the referee missed it. This prompted Gracie to angrily insist that Shamrock admit to tapping out, which he did, with a somewhat surprising graciousness.
With Gordeau easily downing Rosier via strikes, the finals were set. But lest anyone get confused about the limits of impartiality, the event also saw a pause to honor the martial arts contributions of Helio Gracie, the patriarch of the Gracie family.
Royce Gracie holds his $50,000 check after winning UFC 1. ( Markus Boesch-Getty Images)
Maybe then it shouldn’t have been such a surprise to see Royce take Gordeau down, move to his back, and then finish him with a rear-naked choke in the finals. This was always the end that the event organizers envisioned, after all. And as a method of spreading the gospel of jiu-jitsu, it worked remarkably well. The tournament produced the desired visual, with the physically unimpressive Gracie jiu-jitsu fighter conquering a series of larger, more intimidating foes until he alone stood as the winner of the $50,000 grand prize.
Just as importantly, the tournament itself had gone surprisingly well. No one was seriously maimed or unreasonably injured, as it seemed early on that they very well might be. While the broadcast had its share of hiccups (and one burp), viewers were mostly too glued to the unusual action to care.
What was pitched as a bloody, barely legal curiosity suddenly started to seem like a potentially viable new entity. There might be a future in this after all. But as the crowd filtered out of the McNichols Sports Arena and the fighters headed for the hotel bar, no one could have possibly known just how much it would grow and change in the next quarter-century. Back then, who could have even guessed it would last so long?
“Today in MMA History” is an MMAjunkie series created in association with MMA History Today, the social media outlet dedicated to reliving “a daily journey through our sport’s history.”
The six remaining living UFC 1 tournament members reunited for a 30th anniversary dinner to reflect on their pioneering night in 1993.
It was a reunion 30 years in the making.
The UFC celebrates its 30th anniversary Nov. 12 and the promotion recently organized a get-together for the six remaining living tournament participants.
The six pioneers met over dinner at an undisclosed location and shared drinks, food, laughs, and memories. The gathering was recorded and released in a video segment published Saturday entitled “Fighter of the Roundtable.”
On hand were [autotag]Gerard Gordeau[/autotag] and Taylor Wily (known as [autotag]Teila Tuli[/autotag] during his fighting days), the two fighters from the first-ever UFC bout. UFC Hall of Famers [autotag]Ken Shamrock[/autotag] and [autotag]Royce Gracie[/autotag] were also on hand, as were [autotag]Art Jimmerson[/autotag] and [autotag]Zane Frazier[/autotag].
UFC 1 took place Nov. 12, 1993 at McNichols Sports Arena. The tournament-style competition was won by Gracie, who defeated Jimmerson, Shamrock, and Gordeau all the in the same night.
Absent from the meal were the late [autotag]Kevin Rosier[/autotag] and [autotag]Patrick Smith[/autotag], who died in 2015 and 2019 respectively. An in memoriam graphic dedicated to the two deceased pioneers ran prior to the video’s closing credits.
Check out the full 42-minute production of the UFC 1 reunion dinner in the video above.
Royce Gracie, the most revered member of the most revered family in MMA history, made our list of the 30 greatest UFC fighters of all time.
The UFC is celebrating its 30th year and to commemorate the milestone, MMA Junkie has compiled its 30 greatest UFC fighters of all time. Every day until the anniversary of UFC 1 on Nov. 12 (1993), we will reveal one fighter on our list.
Today, MMA Junkie Radio host “Gorgeous” George Garcia brings you No. 14: [autotag]Royce Gracie[/autotag].
You can watch Garcia’s career retrospective on Gracie above; video produced by Abbey Subhan.
About the list: All 12 members of our staff submitted their own individual 30 greatest UFC fighters list. Each fighter was assigned a corresponding numerical value based on where they were ranked on an individual’s list, i.e. No. 1 = 30, No. 2 = 29, etc. We took those numbers and added them up to get a total number for each fighter to determine the composite ranking of MMA Junkie’s 30 greatest UFC fighters of all time.
The Gracies discuss their family philosophy and system of jiu-jitsu, creating the UFC, and much more.
As the former UFC event coordinator, Burt Watson has seen it all. A beloved figure among fighters past and present, he can tell stories nobody else can. What can we say? He’s a legend.
That’s why he’s got this show, “Legend 2 Legend,” an MMA Junkie feature where Burt and another legend shoot the breeze and peel back the curtain – at least just a little bit.
In Episode 7, Burt sits down with UFC Hall of Famer [autotag]Royce Gracie[/autotag] and legend [autotag]Renzo Gracie[/autotag] as they discuss:
The Gracie philosophy and Gracie system of Brazilian jiu-jitsu
The the Gracie family’s creation of “ultimate fighting” (UFC)
The significance of Royce Gracie winning UFC 1
Renzo Gracie’s contribution to MMA
Their worst and greatest moments of their careers
And more!
You can watch the full episode in the video above.
John McCarthy went for an old-school theme when naming his MMA Mount Rushmore but included the biggest star in women’s MMA history.
John McCarthy went for an old-school theme when naming his MMA Mount Rushmore.
McCarthy, a former official who now works as a fight analyst and commentator for Bellator, focused on pioneers of the sport when creating his list.
He started out with [autotag]Royce Gracie[/autotag], whom both UFC president Dana White and UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten included in their lists. He credits Gracie for introducing grappling into the world of MMA as well as his ability to submit opponents time and time again.
“I agree totally with Dana in his one of Royce Gracie,” McCarthy told MMA Junkie. “You can’t have a Mount Rushmore without the guy that made people go, ‘Whoa, who is that guy? What is he doing?’ Because back then, I was maybe one of 120 students of Gracie jiu-jitsu and everyone back then, it was all about kicking and punching, standup fighting – that was it. If you were a grappler, you were an idiot. So what Royce did in winning the first couple of UFCs is he changed the martial arts world.”
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Also on his list is former UFC bantamweight queen [autotag]Ronda Rousey[/autotag]. While McCarthy acknowledged that current UFC featherweight and bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes is one of the greatest female fighters of all time, he thinks few have had the impact that Rousey has had in changing the perception of women’s MMA.
“If I was going to put a female fighter, I have to put the female fighter that changed the sport,” McCarthy said. “Who was it that all of a sudden made it to where people were interested in women’s fighting? You can put Gina Carano. Gina was absolutely responsible for people starting to tune into female fighting and if you take it one step further, who made it cool to be a female fighter? Who made it mainstream for women? Who made it to where everyone wanted to put their eyes on it? It’s Ronda Rousey.
“You cannot like her, you cannot like the way she ended her career or whatever – it doesn’t matter. She changed the sport of MMA for women fighters, so that’s what I look at.”
The third fighter McCarthy included is former UFC light heavyweight and two-time heavyweight champion Randy Couture, whom McCarthy praised for his fight IQ.
“He changed the sport as far as he was the first guy to bring in game planning,” McCarthy said. “He was the one to bring in the entire package. The cardio like Frank Shamrock did and the game planning and everything, but the difference between Frank and Randy is that Randy went and won the heavyweight championship. He won the light heavyweight championship and he won those multiple times.
“It was his progression in the sport and again, a person that started to bring the attention of mainstream onto our sport.”
Finally, McCarthy included one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, Fedor Emelianenko. Emelianenko went on an incredible 27-fight unbeaten run, which included capturing the PRIDE heavyweight title.
“Based upon the fact that he was so good for so long, so unbeaten for so long and in a different promotion in PRIDE, he created a system of fighting,” McCarthy said. “Mark Coleman is the guy we give credit to as the godfather of ground and pound. Fedor was the one that perfected it. He was the one that learned how to hit not only just shots, but heavy shots that damaged the opponent and made them have to quit.”
