Igor “Ice Cold” Vovchanchyn is one of the all-time greats that most people have never heard of. He’s a Ukrainian kickboxing and sambo expert that’s fought in numerous companies including Pride, he’s won countless competitions and has a tournament named after him in Ukraine, the Igor Vovchanchyn Cup. One of the interesting things about this fighter is his record, it’s extremely hard to get an accurate, definitive figure on how many fights he’s won and lost. Wikipedia has it at 59-10, Sherdog has it at 55-10, Fight Matrix has it at 61-9. So no one really knows the exact number, but in any case, it’s a great record. According to Fight Matrix’s list of fighters with the most wins in MMA, Igor is sitting at 6th. That’s one hell of an accomplishment.

During his first fight for Pride (his Pride days were arguably the high point of his career) he fought the legend, Gary Goodridge and knocked him out in round 1. Which is a massive accomplishment. This wasn’t the last time the two met up in Pride, the two met up in the Pride Openweight Grand Prix where Igor won by TKO 10 minutes into the first round.

Igor took part in an unofficial superfight for the title of #1 Heavyweight in the world, with former UFC 2 time champion and at the time undefeated fighter Mark Kerr. Mark Kerr was considered the best Heavyweight and pound for pound fighter in the world, when the two met up it was a spectacle. Finally the world would know, who’s the true best fighter on the planet. Igor was cut early in the fight by Kerr’s strikes, in the last round Igor exploded on Kerr who was extremely tired from the gruelling fight. Igor won the fight by knee strikes while the two were on the ground. Igor was declared the winner but later the fight was ruled a no contest because just before the fight knees to an opponent with 4 points of contact with the ground was deemed illegal, however most fans still consider Igor the winner.

It wasn’t all Pride and glory for the Ukrainian however, he fought Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipović once and…it didn’t end well…

Credit: Pride FC

However, this blip doesn’t over shadow the rest of what is considered one of the greatest careers in MMA history. This man has won numerous awards and conquered some of the fiercest competitors in history.

This is Igor Vovchanchyn, one of the greatest fighters you’ve never heard of.