All successful current and past UFC fighters are athletic. Depending on the style, some rely on their exceptional striking speed and endurance to overwhelm opponents like Demetrious Johnson, while others like Brock Lesnar might use sheer strength, explosiveness, and agility to land powerful blows and takedowns. And there are genetically gifted who have it all.
MMAchannel.com Staff
BKFC is a promotion that organizes bare-knuckle boxing events where the rules are similar to boxing using only handstrikes, but without gloves. In contrast, the UFC promotes MMA matches in which fighters can strike with all limbs, wrestle, and fight on the ground.
Most MMA fighters consider “dirty fighting” highly frowned upon, despite some occasionally resorting to it for an advantage in a match. As you guessed, some fighters are notoriously known for fighting dirty more than others.
Muay Thai is a combat sport that originated in Thailand and has been around since the 19th century. As a concept, Muay Thai primarily focuses on standup fighting and striking using eight points of contact: hands, legs, knees, and elbows.
In fact, some of the fighters the MMA community considers among the best in history never set foot inside the UFC octagon. So, in this article, we are bringing you these 14 best fighters who never fought for the UFC that you should know about. We will take a closer look at their impressive careers that should have led them to the UFC, but somehow, it never happened.
The most important difference is that Karate originated in Japan and involves striking with punches and kicks in equal balance, whereas Taekwondo originated in Korea and primarily focuses on kicking with limited punching.