50 Facts About Igor Vovchanchyn

Igor Yaroslavovych Vovchanchyn is a retired Ukrainian mixed martial artist and kickboxer, who competed in early no holds barred MMA contests.

The son of Kladiya and Yaroslav Iosifovich Vovchanchyn, Igor Yaroslavovych Vovchanchyn was born in the settlement of Fesky, in the Zolochevsky district of Soviet Ukraine.

Igor Vovchanchyn later stated that this story was just a joke, although there was a bell in the center of town.

Igor Vovchanchyn won the Commonwealth of Independent States kickboxing championship in 1994.

In late 1995, Igor Vovchanchyn transitioned from a successful kickboxing career to MMA after being invited to participate at Honour of the Warrior in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

Igor Vovchanchyn then fought a month later in a 32-man tournament held at Moscow's Luzhniki Palace of Sports, performing impressively at the inaugural International Absolute Fighting Council event, where he TKO'd Sergei Akinen before defeating Adilson Lima, a Gracie Jiu Jitsu black belt who trained with Ryan Gracie.

Igor Vovchanchyn won by knockout via soccer kick 56 seconds into the fight, but Lima's cornerman Renzo Gracie argued to the tournament organisers, complaining that kicks to a downed opponent were unfair and demanded an instant rematch.

In March 1996, Igor Vovchanchyn fought in and won 3 different tournaments: the DNRF: Ukrainian Octagon, the UCMAL: Ukrainian No Rules Championship, and the first ever IFC event: IFC 1: Kombat in Kyiv.

Igor Vovchanchyn was invited to fight at UFC 11 in September 1996, but could not participate due to visa issues as well as dissatisfaction with the offer.

In one of these opportunities, Igor Vovchanchyn mounted Rodrigues and forced his Brazilian opponent to submit to a barrage of punches.

Igor Vovchanchyn won eight MMA tournaments during this stage of his career, and was considered arguably the best heavyweight in the world for several years to come.

Igor Vovchanchyn returned to the WVC the following year, knocking out Edson Carvalho, a member of the Brazilian national judo team and a Carlson Gracie black belt.

Igor Vovchanchyn was taken down twice by the larger Goodridge and was left behind on points, but he dominated Goodridge during the stand-up exchanges and knocked him out with two left hooks, 5:58 into the first round.

Igor Vovchanchyn returned to the World Vale Tudo Championship, winning two superfights against Aloisio Freitas Neto and Edson Carvalho.

Once again in PRIDE, Igor Vovchanchyn then fought Japanese fighter Akira Shoji.

The decision was given to Igor Vovchanchyn, which was met with a certain controversy.

Igor Vovchanchyn was declared the winner, but the result was later overturned and the result declared a no contest.

Igor Vovchanchyn knocked Bueno out with a vicious combination, Bueno literally falling face first as he was being punched in the face.

Igor Vovchanchyn had been considered the top fighter in the sport for some years, and as commentators Stephen Quadros and Bas Rutten stated, he was likely the favorite to win the tournament.

Igor Vovchanchyn reached the final of the PRIDE 2000 Openweight Grand Prix.

Igor Vovchanchyn then faced the number one pound for pound fighter in the world, Kazushi Sakuraba of Japan, who had beaten Royce Gracie earlier that night in a 90-minute bout, the longest in recent competitive fighting history.

Igor Vovchanchyn won the fight via TKO and advanced to the last round.

Igor Vovchanchyn met powerhouse American wrestler Mark Coleman in the final.

Igor Vovchanchyn later said that Coleman was the toughest opponent he faced up to that point.

Igor Vovchanchyn then fought Enson Inoue at PRIDE 10 in what was one of the most one sided fights in MMA history, which resulted in a doctor stoppage after the end of the 1st round.

Igor Vovchanchyn was taken down and met leg kicks and some resistance, but he finished him on the second round via ground and pound.

Igor Vovchanchyn cited both of his fights against Mark Kerr as the most difficult wins of his career.

Igor Vovchanchyn later faced another feared striker, former RINGS Openweight champion Gilbert Yvel at PRIDE 14.

However, sensing Gilbert was weaker than him on the ground, Igor Vovchanchyn took him down, putting his sambo skills to use and choking Yvel out.

Igor Vovchanchyn would go to defeat another striker, beating world karate champion Masaaki Satake by decision at PRIDE 15.

In PRIDE 17, Igor Vovchanchyn suffered another upset when was submitted in under three minutes by Brazilian Top Team trainer Mario Sperry.

At the start of 2002, Igor Vovchanchyn considered moving down to the Middleweight division, and stated he thought he had a good chance to become a champion in that weight class.

In 2005, Igor Vovchanchyn moved down a weight division - beating former Pancrase Heavyweight champion Yoshiki Takahashi.

PRIDE commentator Bas Rutten believed that Igor Vovchanchyn was a favorite to win the tournament.

Igor Vovchanchyn then fought Alistair Overeem in the quarter-finals and lost via submission.

Igor Vovchanchyn received a second chance to progress when offered a fight against Kazuhiro Nakamura in PRIDE Final Conflict 2005, with the winner earning the right to be an alternate in the finals of the tournament.

Some experts say that Igor Vovchanchyn ideally should have fought at the Welterweight division that PRIDE had, and that he was an undersized heavyweight.

Igor Vovchanchyn is considered one of MMA's hardest punchers, one of the best fighters in history to have never competed in the UFC, one of the greatest European mixed martial artists ever, and one of the best mixed martial artists of the 1990s.

Igor Vovchanchyn was a top 10 heavyweight from April 1996 to January 2001 according to FightMatrix.

In 2011 and in 2017, Igor Vovchanchyn received several votes on Sherdog's 'MMA's All-Time Heavyweights' list.

In July 2009, Igor Vovchanchyn was linked to making his return in MMA at the Fighting Mixed Combative event in South Korea, which was scheduled for September 29,2009.

The event took place and Igor Vovchanchyn did not appear on the card.

Primarily a striker, Igor Vovchanchyn based his MMA game around his punching power, which made him to be considered one of the most devastating strikers of his time.

Igor Vovchanchyn's Kickboxing utilized an ample pattern of looping punches, among them the casting punch, and he specialized in an aggressive counterpunching style in order to make up for his short reach.

Igor Vovchanchyn displayed significant grappling skills, utilizing his sambo background, and would work a vicious ground and pound offense with short and hard strikes from the top.

Igor Vovchanchyn was able to surprise many with his defensive guard and dexterity on the ground despite being known primarily as a striker, and displayed this ability against submission fighters such as Carlos Barreto, Mark Kerr and Valentijn Overeem among others.

Igor Vovchanchyn never invited any famous fighters to spar and train with him as he did not see the point in copying their styles.

Igor Vovchanchyn trained with many of the same coaches his entire career.

Igor Vovchanchyn was known to take on any challenger, despite size or rules, even fighting in prison when he was not even a prisoner himself.

Igor Vovchanchyn identifies himself as neither Russian nor Ukrainian, but as a Slav.