Issue 155

June 2017

The five most successful and eventful years in mixed martial arts.

2019 was by no means a quiet year for MMA. The sport saw a number of impressive fights, from Kelvin Gastelum vs. Israel Adesanya – UFC 236, to one of the most anticipated bouts of the year between Max Holloway and Dustin Poirier II also UFC 236, which saw Poirier take the Interim Title.

But can these 12 months stack up with the most unforgettable periods we’ve seen in the last quarter of a century? Lets take a look through the archives to find five calendar years when MMA flourished.

Legendary Fighters, Legendary Fights:

#5 2011:

Key events

  • Brock Lesnar completes MMA’s most incredible comeback
  • Jon Jones strikes gold with victories against four elite opponents
  • Dan Henderson tops ‘Shogun’ Rua in a fight for the ages
  • Fedor Emelianenko’s undefeated run is finally stopped
  • Michael Chandler and Eddie Alvarez wage Bellator’s greatest war

Eight years is forever in MMA, where a fighter’s shelf life is short, and the still-nascent sport continues to evolve rapidly. Yet the fighters making big news in 2011 are still quite relevant in the sport. Brock Lesnar, Jon Jones, Eddie Alvarez, Dan Henderson and Fedor Emelianenko were still the subjects of some of the biggest headlines in the last year. The more things change, the more they stay the same... But back then, they were all doing great things.

This was quite the year for a spry 41-year-old Dan Henderson, who won the Strikeforce light heavyweight championship, TKO’d heavyweight great Fedor Emelianenko, and then ended the year by winning an all-time classic against Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua that earned him a title shot – though he wouldn’t get to fight for UFC gold for another six years.



On the very same night as that UFC 139, Bellator produced its best fight ever, but the year overall belonged to Jon ‘Bones’ Jones, who, after submitting Ryan Bader, went on to finish three MMA legends – the aforementioned Shogun, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and Lyoto Machida – becoming the youngest champion in UFC history and beginning a 205lb reign.

#4 2009:

Blockbuster shows from the UFC and its big rivals:

Key events

  • UFC 100: a landmark occasion Kimbo Slice gives The Ultimate Fighter a boost
  • Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos dethrones Gina Carano for Strikeforce gold
  • The sport returns to network TV thanks to Strikeforce
  • Bellator begins

It’s been almost 10 years, but MMA hasn’t been able to put on a fight card that captured fans’ imagination from top to bottom like UFC 100. Going down July 11, 2009 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, the event drew an estimated 1.6 million pay-per-view buys, which was streets ahead of anything seen in the sport before, a record held until 2015 when Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquaio fight attracted 4.6 million pay-per-view customers. Brock Lesnar, Frank Mir, Georges St-Pierre, Dan Henderson, Michael Bisping, Mark Coleman, and Jon Jones all fought in Mandalay Bay that night on a card is still yet to be bested in star power and fight quality. Add in the fact that a couple of bouts were intense grudge matches and one ended in a legendary knockout, and you have yourself an event that stands the test of time.



Meanwhile, the UFC’s strongest competitor of the day, Strikeforce, had a memorable year in its own right. It brought the sport back to network TV in the US via CBS and sent women’s MMA into the stratosphere as Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos squashed golden girl Gina Carano. Another promotional force also emerged this year as Bellator, took its first steps with nine action-packed events.

#3 1993:

MMA’s big bang:

Key events

  • UFC 1
  • Pancrase debuts in Japan

There wasn’t too much that really happened in MMA in 1993. Events were pretty thin on the ground. But the ones that did take place were monumental. They signaled the birth of the sport. There’s no way to list the five biggest years in mixed martial arts history without including this one. While you can trace the roots of the sport back to Ancient Greece and there were variations of fighting throughout the 20th Century, for all intents and purposes ’93 was the year MMA as we know it was born. The UFC carried the torch in America and Pancrase started a movement in Japan.



Actually, if you watch UFC 1, it is nothing like the sport as we know it. The level of brutality, the number of teeth that ended up in the front row and lack of refined skill on display in the cage doesn’t come close to resembling today’s mixed martial arts. But this was a start, and it put Brazilian jiu-jitsu – or more precisely, Gracie jiu-jitsu – on the map, helping to inspire the next generation of stars. Not to be outdone, Pancrase put on four events, featuring legends like Ken Shamrock and Bas Rutten.

It’s probably sacrilegious to not have 1993 show up as #1 on our list, but we’ll have to take our chances with the MMA gods – the next two years are too big to overlook.

#2 2005:

The resurrection:

Key events

  • The Ultimate Fighter breathes new life into the sport
  • Pride stages 10 events, two of them topping 45,000 gates
  • Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mirko ‘Cro Cop’, finally
  • Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture 2 

If 1993 was the birth of modern MMA, 2005 was its resurrection; the year it was taken off of life support and started to breathe on its own for the first time in years. And it was all thanks, more or less, to two UFC rookies who put on a fight that is still talked about today – Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar. The slobberknocker that capped off the first season of The Ultimate Fighter was so momentous, it wasn’t just both men that earned a contract with the UFC, the UFC earned an extended contract with Spike on cable TV. It also introduced the sport to millions of new fans. The rest, as they say, is history. The Fertittas’ investment had finally started to bear fruit.



On the other side of the world,e sport didn’t need any help from a reality show – business was already booming. Pride FC was into its eighth year in Japan and of the ten events they put on in 2005, two of them topped over 45,000 in attendance. Additionally, the most anticipated fight in the history of heavyweight MMA finally happened after years of waiting, as Fedor Emelianenko faced Mirko Cro Cop.

#1 2016:

About billions:

Key events

  • UFC breaks record of pay-per-view sales in a year thanks to Conor McGregor
  • MMA makes its long-awaited debut in New York
  • Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar provide more boosts to the box office
  • Bellator smashes its TV viewer record

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more significant year in the history of mixed martial arts than 2016. A multi-billion-dollar sale. Conor McGregor’s billionaire strut. Record pay-per-view sales. 2016 was all about the green and all about breaking records. But 2016 wasn’t just all about the UFC – its competitors had historic years too. Bellator got record ratings for its tentpole event that pitted Royce Gracie against Ken Shamrock at Bellator 149. Even WSOF hosted a New Year’s event in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.



The year was so momentous, it’s hard to determine what its biggest moment was. Was it the three ‘Notorious’ PPV shows, which drew close to a combined 4.5 million units? Or Ronda’s dramatic return and even more dramatic defeat? Was it the introduction of multiple fighter unions, with actual active UFC fighters making a stand? Or was it the shocking $4 billion-dollar sale of the UFC? Or how about the sport finally becoming legal in New York State, with UFC 205 going down in the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden and, in the process, breaking the building’s record for gate receipts? There is no wrong answer – they’re all huge happenings. If just one of those things occurred during a calendar year, it would be huge, never mind all of them. 2016 was just that big.

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