Best Events in the history of MMA

Surprised by the absense of wec events in this thread. Surely at least a few of them are top 20 worthy.

WEC was very entertaining, but at that time their main divisions FW and BW were still not as strong as today. LW was very talented, but none of them were ranked in top 10 at that time.

The best WEC is ranked at #70 (WEC 48 - Aldo vs. Faber).

If you want to see all WEC Events go to Event Rankings and type WEC in the search box.
 
What's more important big names or big fights? All the people saying 92 or 100 seem to be counting names over actual fights a little bit imo. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

For me, it's always gonna be 134. Silva vs Okami was a pretty relevant tile fight. Shogun vs Griffin II was probably the last great victory of Shogun's legendary career, and Minotauro knocking out Schaub is just, it's just the greatest. Plus the Barboza kick lol. I mean what could ever beat that card? Plus the whole Rio atmosphere, the history of it all. Nothing can beat that for a long long time in my opinion.
 
I have that as #4.

Here is my top 20 list:

1. PRIDE - Shockwave 2005 - ( 2005-12-31 )
2. PRIDE - Shockwave 2004 - ( 2004-12-31 )
3. UFC 100 - Lesnar vs. Mir 2 - ( 2009-07-11 )
4. PRIDE - Final Conflict 2005 - ( 2005-08-28 )
5. PRIDE - Shockwave 2006 - ( 2006-12-31 )
6. PRIDE - Final Conflict 2003 - ( 2003-11-09 )
7. PRIDE - Bushido 9 - ( 2005-09-25 )
8. UFC 129 - St. Pierre vs. Shields - ( 2011-04-30 )
9. PRIDE - Final Conflict 2004 - ( 2004-08-15 )
10. UFC 126 - Silva vs. Belfort - ( 2011-02-05 )
11. UFC 134 - Silva vs. Okami - ( 2011-08-27 )
12. UFC 117 - Silva vs. Sonnen - ( 2010-08-07 )
13. PRIDE - Final Conflict Absolute - ( 2006-09-10 )
14. UFC 94 - St. Pierre vs. Penn 2 - ( 2009-01-31 )
15. UFC 82 - Pride of a Champion - ( 2008-03-01 )
16. PRIDE 33 - Second Coming - ( 2007-02-24 )
17. Rings - King of Kings 2000 Final - ( 2001-02-24 )
18. PRIDE - Total Elimination 2003 - ( 2003-08-10 )
19. UFC 44 - Undisputed - ( 2003-09-26 )
20. Pancrase - King of Pancrase Tournament Opening Round - ( 1994-12-16 )

Interesting how nobody is complaining about having too many PRIDE events on this list?


Or having Rings - King of Kings 2000

or Pancrase - King of Pancrase Tournamen on that top 20 list.
 
I haven't really watched full events of UFC prior to UFC 100 or Pride events that happened before 2002 but here are some of my personal favorites from Pride in chronological order.

Pride 23
Pride 25
Pride Total Elimination 2003
Pride Final Conflict 2003
Pride Total Elimination 2004
Pride Critical Countdown 2004
Pride Final Conflict 2004
Pride 28
Pride Shockwave 2004
Pride Critical Countdown 2005
Pride Final Conflict 2005
Pride Bushido 9
Pride Final Conflict Absolute
Pride Shockwave 2006
Pride 33
 
for me the best events is not done yet what i like to see is all the title Holders put there belt on the line in one main mega events that would be awsome dont you think?

Bad idea...then we as fans would have months of no title fights to headline events, unless Edgar was involved in 1 then we get a rematch in a ppv or 2 lol
 
Don't see UFC 84 mentioned, that card was pretty sick. UFC 146 with all the heavies was really good, though could have been better with Overeem.
 
I haven't really watched full events of UFC prior to UFC 100 or Pride events that happened before 2002 but here are some of my personal favorites from Pride in chronological order.

Pride 23
Pride 25
Pride Total Elimination 2003
Pride Final Conflict 2003
Pride Total Elimination 2004
Pride Critical Countdown 2004
Pride Final Conflict 2004
Pride 28
Pride Shockwave 2004
Pride Critical Countdown 2005
Pride Final Conflict 2005
Pride Bushido 9
Pride Final Conflict Absolute
Pride Shockwave 2006
Pride 33

Yes, most of the top Events are from Pride.
They knew how to stack their events (that is why they spent all the money and went broke).
UFC has much more events (223 compared to 68 Pride), but they distribute their best fighters over multiple events.

It is interesting to compare how many good events have Pride compared to UFC.

I have created score for each event and the best event has 325 points.
If we define following based on that Event Total score:

great event >300
excellent >250
very good >200
good >150
average >100


Then here is the count for each group


>300 >250 >200 >150 >100
_ 1 ; 40 ; 71 ; 65 ; 45 - UFC
_ 5 ; 13 ; 20 ; 18 ; 7 - PRIDE
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
 
Mir vs CroCop


oh wait, you said best....
 
One event, one night: Shockwave 2004; honorable mention to UFC 100.

One event as a whole: Pride 2003 GP. Yoshida shocking everyone by hanging with a prime murderous Wanderlei Silva; the drama of UFC's Liddell; Liddell v Rampage was insane; Wanderlei's infinite knees on Rampage was brutal.
 

Yes, most of the top Events are from Pride.
They knew how to stack their events (that is why they spent all the money and went broke).
UFC has much more events (223 compared to 68 Pride), but they distribute their best fighters over multiple events.

It is interesting to compare how many good events have Pride compared to UFC.

I have created score for each event and the best event has 325 points.
If we define following based on that Event Total score:

great event >300
excellent >250
very good >200
good >150
average >100


Then here is the count for each group


>300 >250 >200 >150 >100
_ 1 ; 40 ; 71 ; 65 ; 45 - UFC
_ 5 ; 13 ; 20 ; 18 ; 7 - PRIDE
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

Well in 2000-2005 they had about as many events/year. AFAIK Pride's financial troubles began when yakuza connections became public and they lost their lucrative deal with Fuji TV.
 
Well in 2000-2005 they had about as many events/year. AFAIK Pride's financial troubles began when yakuza connections became public and they lost their lucrative deal with Fuji TV.

You are right about reason of Pride demise.
But they did spend a lot of money.
They were paying better then UFC and putting a lot of expensive fighters on one card.

You are also correct about same amount of events per year.
UFC just lasted much longer.

yr - PRIDE - UFC
1993 - 0 - 1
1994 - 0 - 3
1995 -
0 - 4
1996 -
0 - 5
1997 - 1 - 5
1998 - 3 - 3
1999 - 4 - 6
2000 - 6 - 6
2001 - 6 - 5
2002 - 10 - 7
2003 - 6 - 5
2004 - 10 - 5
2005 - 10 - 10
2006 - 10 - 18
2007 - 2 - 19
2008 -
0 - 20
2009 -
0 - 20
2010 -
0 - 24
2011 -
0 - 27
2012 -
0 - 30
 

Yes, most of the top Events are from Pride.
They knew how to stack their events (that is why they spent all the money and went broke).
UFC has much more events (223 compared to 68 Pride), but they distribute their best fighters over multiple events.

It is interesting to compare how many good events have Pride compared to UFC.

I have created score for each event and the best event has 325 points.
If we define following based on that Event Total score:

great event >300
excellent >250
very good >200
good >150
average >100


Then here is the count for each group


>300 >250 >200 >150 >100
_ 1 ; 40 ; 71 ; 65 ; 45 - UFC
_ 5 ; 13 ; 20 ; 18 ; 7 - PRIDE
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

Using same grouping of Events, here are the counts for some other Promotions:

>200 >150 >100
- 10 / 11
/ 16 - WEC
-. 1 / 12 / 25 - Strikeforce
-. 2 / __ / _ - Affliction
-. 1 / 13 / 6 - DREAM
- __ / 1 / 18 - IFL
- __ / 4 / 12 - Sengoku
- __ / _ / 15 - Bellator
- __ / 9 / 55 - Shooto
- __ / 2 / 4 - ROTR
- __ / _ / 3 - OneFC


very good >200
good >150
average >100
 
If you are just looking for UFC Events, then this is my top 20:

1. UFC 100 - Lesnar vs. Mir 2 - ( 2009-07-11 )
2. UFC 129 - St. Pierre vs. Shields - ( 2011-04-30 )
3. UFC 126 - Silva vs. Belfort - ( 2011-02-05 )
4. UFC 117 - Silva vs. Sonnen - ( 2010-08-07 )
5. UFC 134 - Silva vs. Okami - ( 2011-08-27 )
6. UFC 94 - St. Pierre vs. Penn 2 - ( 2009-01-31 )
7. UFC 82 - Pride of a Champion - ( 2008-03-01 )
8. UFC 44 - Undisputed - ( 2003-09-26 )
9. UFC 46 - Supernatural - ( 2004-01-31 )
10. UFC 144 - Edgar vs. Henderson - ( 2012-02-26 )
11. UFC 152 - Jones vs. Belfort - ( 2012-09-22 )
12. UFC 52 - Couture vs Liddell 2 - ( 2005-04-16 )
13. UFC 36 - Worlds Collide - ( 2002-03-22 )
14. UFC 136 - Edgar vs. Maynard 3 - ( 2011-10-08 )
15. UFC 148 - Silva vs. Sonnen 2 - ( 2012-07-07 )
16. UFC 111 - St. Pierre vs. Hardy - ( 2010-03-27 )
17. UFC 128 - Shogun vs. Jones - ( 2011-03-19 )
18. UFC 34 - High Voltage - ( 2001-11-02 )
19. UFC 92 - The Ultimate 2008 - ( 2008-12-27 )
20. UFC 90 - Silva vs. Cote - ( 2008-10-25 )


Never thought I'd see a top 20 UFC list without UFC 84

That's my go to event when introducing people to the sport

UFC 146 was pretty sick as well
 
Never thought I'd see a top 20 UFC list without UFC 84

That's my go to event when introducing people to the sport

UFC 146 was pretty sick as well


There are just a few points difference between UFC 146 (257 points) and #20 UFC 90 (264 points) on the UFC Event list.
You can see a complete list by going to Event Rankings and selecting UFC.

Both of them (UFC 146 and UFC 84) had more than 75% finishes and number of fights that we flagged as exciting. So, that is good.


Most of the events that are in front of them have multiple title bouts, and these two have only 1 title bout.
Also, to be in top 20 UFC fights, they have to have almost all fights with fighters ranked high at that time.


In UFC 84 we have
Christian Wellisch, Terry Etim, Ivan Salaverry, Antonio Mendes, War Machine, Jason Tan, Goran Reljic

They are all not bad, but to have a perfect Event you need to have most of the fighters with a superb rating.
 
I have that as #4.

Here is my top 20 list:

1. PRIDE - Shockwave 2005 - ( 2005-12-31 )
2. PRIDE - Shockwave 2004 - ( 2004-12-31 )
3. UFC 100 - Lesnar vs. Mir 2 - ( 2009-07-11 )
4. PRIDE - Final Conflict 2005 - ( 2005-08-28 )
5. PRIDE - Shockwave 2006 - ( 2006-12-31 )
6. PRIDE - Final Conflict 2003 - ( 2003-11-09 )
7. PRIDE - Bushido 9 - ( 2005-09-25 )
8. UFC 129 - St. Pierre vs. Shields - ( 2011-04-30 )
9. PRIDE - Final Conflict 2004 - ( 2004-08-15 )
10. UFC 126 - Silva vs. Belfort - ( 2011-02-05 )
11. UFC 134 - Silva vs. Okami - ( 2011-08-27 )
12. UFC 117 - Silva vs. Sonnen - ( 2010-08-07 )
13. PRIDE - Final Conflict Absolute - ( 2006-09-10 )
14. UFC 94 - St. Pierre vs. Penn 2 - ( 2009-01-31 )
15. UFC 82 - Pride of a Champion - ( 2008-03-01 )
16. PRIDE 33 - Second Coming - ( 2007-02-24 )
17. Rings - King of Kings 2000 Final - ( 2001-02-24 )
18. PRIDE - Total Elimination 2003 - ( 2003-08-10 )
19. UFC 44 - Undisputed - ( 2003-09-26 )
20. Pancrase - King of Pancrase Tournament Opening Round - ( 1994-12-16 )

nice to see pancrase getting some love!
 
pride 10, 17, 25, 28,33

final conflict 05

shockwave 05

ufc 6, uu96, 47, 52, 117, 134
 
nice to see pancrase getting some love!

Quite a few Pancrase Events are ranked high on this list. Not as much as UFC and Pride, but they had a high level fighters in the previous century.
Rings had few as well.

>250 >200 >150 >100
_ 6 - 15 - 36 - 64 - Pancrase
_ 1 - 3 - 10 - 27 - Rings


This is defined based on that Event Total score as:
great event >300
excellent >250
very good >200
good >150
average >100
 
Quite a few Pancrase Events are ranked high on this list. Not as much as UFC and Pride, but they had a high level fighters in the previous century.
Rings had few as well.

>250 >200 >150 >100
_ 6 - 15 - 36 - 64 - Pancrase
_ 1 - 3 - 10 - 27 - Rings


This is defined based on that Event Total score as:
great event >300
excellent >250
very good >200
good >150
average >100

yeah pancrase was great, they had the better fighters at one point..

road to the championship 3 i liked a lot as well.
 
Back
Top