Igor Vovchanchyn the unsung GOAT....?

To be fair I think Ilyukhin (sp) cheated to win the fight with a chin to the eye.

If it was allowed back then, you can't call it cheating. I assume it was legal unless the ref didn't see it and thought Ilyukhin used some other submission. Mark Kerr beat Dan Bobish by the same chin-to-eye submission. After that, the UFC made the move illegal. It's kind of like all the headbutting Coleman and Kerr did back in the day...none of it would work now.
 
If Fedor didn't exist, Igor might very well be the GOAT at HW
 
Was watching the first Absolute MMA championship on Youtube when I noticed a very young Igor Vovchanchyn competing in the tournament.
That got me to look up Igor's record ( http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Igor-Vovchanchyn-300 ). The dude went on 36 fight unbeaten streak(32 straight wins before a NC to Mark fckin Kerr), impressive no matter which way you cut it. Igor was only 5'8 205lbs fighting mostly heavyweights. Had he cut to/fought in his natural weight class(WW maybe?) and competed in a division with guys his size we might be talking about Igor as GOAT..

With the nauseating amount of "Goat threads" on sherdog, how come Igor is rarely or never mentioned?

Side note - I find it funny BJ gets all kind of props on here for fighting a HW Machida when Igor did it his whole career. And Igor's opponents were TRUE heavyweights, not some blown up middleweight..

War Igor!!

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Amazing fighter.

In my top 5 GOATs.
 
I don't think he could have made 185. He was 5'9 but was fucking thick. I think LHW would be more suited to him. He always looked like he had to eat a lot & keep extra fat on to stay a heavyweight.

He could have made 205 just by cutting weight.

Had he had a phenomenal diet and leaned out a bit, I feel he could have made 185 imo.

Yoel is huge for 185 and was shredded at 205. I feel if he cut the fat and kept it off year round he could have made it.

Either way, neither would have suited him well. His style is built on a speed advantage and being more explosive than his opponents. HW is where his build and style would have done best.
 
Yeah, Igor is an underappreciated legend.
27:00 forgot about that one, brutal.

That chin in the eye tho.
 
Yeah, but in hindsight we're talking about juiced to the gills Mark Coleman who was way bigger/stronger than Igor. that'd be like Stipe beating up Woodley..
I mean, you can say that...

But in reality, we have no idea if Igor could have fought effectively at 170. At best, we saw Igor as a good, not great 205er.

There's no saying Igor wasn't as juiced up as Coleman either, unfortunately.

I don't like posting like this, as I'm a huge Igor fan, but it's clearly the truth...
 
Yeah, but in hindsight we're talking about juiced to the gills Mark Coleman who was way bigger/stronger than Igor. that'd be like Stipe beating up Woodley..

Coleman also got gifted his spot in the finals.

not only that, but his road to the finals was far easier. Coleman fought Masaki Sataake, Akira Shoji, and then he was supposed to fight Fujita, but Fujita was injured. instead of pull out with injury and allow an alternate to take his spot, Fujita continued into the fight with Coleman and immediately forfeited the match.


so basically Coleman got a bye, while Igor had to fight bloody Gary Goodridge in a war and then Sakuraba who forfeited after the 1st rd because he just had a 90 min match with Royce.

rumors are Pride did this as a favor to Coleman for throwing his match against Takada.
 
not the GOAT, but he is my all time favorite fighter and I can't even begin to imagine what somebody would have to do to surpass him in that department.
 
Well, at least you highlighted the most tedious debate in MMA.

This infatuation with who is the GOAT is like a disease.........and an infatuation.

You could call it a disease.. or a valid discussion on a sports forum?

I mean what the fuck is up with hating on GOAT discussion? This is MMA, guys fight each other and we get to say who's better.

Igor was great but not at the level of Fedor/GSP so i'd disagree TS.
 
Truly a man amongst legends. Hope he is successful in all that he does.

WAR “THE UKRAINE FREIGHT TRAIN” “ICE COLD” IGOR VOVCHANCHYN!!!

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would hate to get hit by one of his jackhammers, regularly threw so hard he'd shatter his own hand even with gloves on
 
Igor was a mans man, Conor crying about a few inches and 10 pounds Nate had over him mean meanwhile fighting for a few mil then you have Igor, a 5'8" heavyweight fighting 6'5, 250lb goliaths bareknuckle, multiple times in one night for an average honest wage.

Those were prize fighters.
 
Both fighters had the luxury of fighting in their weight class. Igor was fighting giants...

Fedor was also undersized for his weight class but that's a legit point. Even taking that into consideration i can't quite put Igor at that level.

Like i said he was undoubtedly great, but not quite in that GOAT category.
 
igor at ww ts? only if he cut off both legs,my friends dad is exactly the same build and height as igor,when you shake hands with him you can just feel how heavy his bones are.
 
Penn fought way, way, way superior competition. Like, its an embarrassment to compare their records. The two used to get compared a lot back in the day. Cringeworthy stuff

Penn fought bigger guys like Machida and GSP. Igor fought freak shows like Paul Varelens. And yes later he fought Kerr and Coleman, but competition during his early win streak was really weak for the most part.
 
fanbois are always adjusting their parameters for GOAT. No point in even asking.

If you think GOATness is determined by greatness above your landscape of competition, Igor should be in the discussions. He was great and ahead of his time.

But you slip that guy into the future, he's behind a few steps.
 
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