Biggest MMA fight where both fighters never fought in the UFC neither before nor after the fight.

[codfather]

I'm thinking Fedor vs Brett Rogers

 

[AimedWithV]

I'm thinking Fedor vs Brett Rogers

Still thinking about the answer, but if the biggest fight DOES involve Brett "1 punch to Arlovski hype" Rogers, then it's quite sad.

 

[AimedWithV]

I'm thinking Fedor vs Brett Rogers

OK, I got 3 right answers for you!!!

Shinya Aoki vs Joachim Hansen!

 

[EndlessCritic]

Askren vs Koreshkov/Lima
Freire vs Straus/Weichel/Curran
Caldwell vs Dantas

Countless JMMA and ONE fights.

 

[justbetter]

gina carano and kaityn young

 

[Setsuna]

Biggest in tickets sold? Rickson vs. Takada/Funaki

Biggest that would still be somewhat relevant today? The above responses look good, especially Hansen-Aoki and the Askren fights.

There's not a ton of relevant fights where neither guy goes on to the UFC. Probably some stuff in the early flyweight/bantamweight (Pequeno v. Saito/Tokoro/Abe?) divisions from Shooto and I guess anything from strawweight but most people don't follow those divisions.

Edit :

Rua/Sperry for igniting the Chute Box/BTT feud?
Kawamura/Silva was hyped back in the day but not exactly high level even for the time.
Horodecki/Schultz?

 

[KOskater]

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

Biggest maybe Sapp vs Fujita or LeBanner?


Edit: it's Sapp vs LeBanner, highest rated MMA fight ever in Japan, although it was mixed rules.

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

Just checking this list. Several of the biggest MMA fights in Japan featured guys who never fought in the UFC
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ten-highest-rated-japanese-mma-182200552--spt.html

Other than Sapp vs LeBanner, the one that stands out in my memory as being huge is Yoshida vs Ogawa

 

[MrFeeny]

Aleks vs Sergei

 

[manboy<3]

Just heavyweight division alone and including modern MMA only

based on skills

Fedor vs Arona
Fedor vs Fujita
Sergei vs Aleks
Igor V vs Illukhine

based on name

Maeda vs Karelin (could never ascertain to what degree it was staged, it looked like part of the fight was real)
Sapp vs Fujita
Sapp vs Lebanner
Takada's fights
Giant Silva's fights
Svetlana Goundarenko fights
Shinobu Kandori fights
Alexander Otsuka fights
Akebono fights

and many many many more

Biggest fight based on fighter tonnage, name value and ratings but also with the lowest level of skill involved has to be

Akebono vs bob sapp

The formula for that fight is max(TV ratings)+Max(name value) + 1/MAX(skills)

 

[Noxcho18]

I mean Mankowski-Khalidov had over 57.000 people in the arena in Poland. The fight was huge there as two of their biggest stars fought each other. Not a big fight in MMA overall though.

 

[Falconkick]

Hm....good question. Maybe Kazuo Misaki - Melvin Manhoef at a Dynamite event?? Big event... 46000 people, conclusion of SuperHulk tournament and a DREAM vs Sengoku theme

 

[Setsuna]

Just checking this list. Several of the biggest MMA fights in Japan featured guys who never fought in the UFC
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ten-highest-rated-japanese-mma-182200552--spt.html

Other than Sapp vs LeBanner, the one that stands out in my memory as being huge is Yoshida vs Ogawa

This is the fight that made me first worried about mma's longevity in Japan. I was traveling to SEA and was able to get a stopover in Japan for a few days to watch the NYE show.

Of the few people I met who watched mma, they only wanted to talk about this fight or the Akebono/Sapp fight going down the same night. Was not a great show overall but holy crap were those two over huge. Yoshida was good and I always enjoyed his fights but Ogawa?

 

[MMALOPEZ]

Rickson vs takada

Hansen vs aoki

Fedor vs Brett

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

This is the fight that made me first worried about mma's longevity in Japan. I was traveling to SEA and was able to get a stopover in Japan for a few days to watch the NYE show.

Of the few people I met who watched mma, they only wanted to talk about this fight or the Akebono/Sapp fight going down the same night. Was not a great show overall but holy crap were those two over huge. Yoshida was good and I always enjoyed his fights but Ogawa?

Ogawa vs Yoshida was a grudge match. It was also the highest combined purse for an MMA fight at the time.

Ogawa never really took to mma like Yoshida did, he looked decent against freaks but other than that he was a disappoinment.

His judo accomplishments are undeniable though. He's GOAT tier in that sport.

 

[Fluffernutter]

Askren Sapo 2 (in fairness it didn't happen in ONE FC either)

Warren Caldwell

 

[codfather]

Nemkov vs McGeary was notable.