Igor Vovchanchyn

easily one of my favorite fighters of all time. such a beast inside the ring and a real class act outside.

true pioneer and legend of this sport and one of the most underrated en underappreciated fighters out there.
 
So... you're not a legit kickboxer unless you've faced #1 in the world?

You're not a legit kickboxer if you've never fought under full kickboxing rules or faced nameable opposition of any kind (Daniels became sorta legit years after they faced off).
 
Legend of the mixfight. And not like the UFC throw that word around. Real legend.
 
Another one that the beyond overrated fedor ducked.

Idiotic.

So Fedor ducked Igor by fighting guys that beat him like Cro Cop and Herring, and by fighting Nog 3 times when Nog was ranked #1, #2, #2?

Anyway...Igor was the man. I saw all of his Pride fights and always was excited to see his name on a card.
 
The town bell story about him is still the all-time GOAT legend.
 
What town bell story?

"Vovchanchyn grew up in a small village. Although his early youth was relatively uneventful, during his teens he developed an insatiable appetite for brawling. 'I enjoyed street fights and got tremendously excited,' he says. 'Sometimes I became really aggressive, which was dangerous for my fellow villagers.' As Vovchanchyn grew older, his aggressive streak prompted the villagers to hang a metal rail from a tree in the center of town; whenever young Igor would fly into one of his rages, someone would bang on the rail. Hearing the alarm, the villagers would drop what they were doing, hurry home, lock their doors, and remain inside until the hot-headed teen cooled down and it was once again safe to venture outside"

from the book Brawl by Erich Krauss & Bret Aita

Now, I doubted the veracity of the story when I read the book years ago or perhaps, Igor was joking and that was lost in translation to the authors. However, they roll a different way on that side of the world where he comes from so I guess he was like the Frankenstein monster terrorizing these poor villagers? :)
 
If the kickboxing numbers are accurate (probably impossible to actually verify based on where they would have gone down) then that's 134 fights (and a guy like that has definitely been in more fights than what went on his record).

Another thing: in March '96, alone, he won THREE 8-man tournaments in a single night. The first two were 8 days apart. That's fucking insane. Can anyone else name one fighter who won three 8-man tournaments in a single month?
 
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He was a monster before his right hand & body started deteriorating. He also seemed better suited to fights involving as few rules as possible. In addition he was widely considered one of the friendliest fighters in MMA. He's probably the most beloved fighter on sherdog.
 
what i remember is how rampage was worried about fighting Igor.

Igor's striking looked so sharp during that fight. I think he'd have won that fight if he hadn't made the tactical mistake of trying to pull guard up high for the guillotine. It was interesting because I think Quadros or Bas was saying that they thought that the fight would come down to one of the fighters making a single mistake.
 
Igor's striking looked so sharp during that fight. I think he'd have won that fight if he hadn't made the tactical mistake of trying to pull guard up high for the guillotine. It was interesting because I think Quadros or Bas was saying that they thought that the fight would come down to one of the fighters making a single mistake.
Quadros\Rutten was the best commentary team we ever had IMHO.
Also i think main problem with Igor was the fact that he didn't had a dedicated team behind him.dude never trained specifically for a difficult adversary.
Guys like Crocop,Quinton or Mark are very hard to beat just on basic tactics and being to tough.
 
Before he lost to Coleman in the GP final he was on a 37-fight winning-streak. He's one of the HW goats whose legacy would've been different if PRIDE had a HW strap during its first 4 years.

Where the hell is his sister, Inga? Where you at, @IngaVovchanchyn? Where you at, Motherfucker?

Agreed. Bear in mind also that much of his NHB career was spent in Eastern European tournaments that lacked the glamour or brand recognition of UFC. So people don’t know him, which is a real shame. Fully belongs in the conversation with Bas, Frank, and Saku as the best fighters of the second-half of the 90s NHB era. And if you look at his early fights in his mid-20s, before he piled on the fat to compete at HW, you see that Igor was really a MW.
 
Agreed. Bear in mind also that much of his NHB career was spent in Eastern European tournaments that lacked the glamour or brand recognition of UFC. So people don’t know him, which is a real shame. Fully belongs in the conversation with Bas, Frank, and Saku as the best fighters of the second-half of the 90s NHB era. And if you look at his early fights in his mid-20s, before he piled on the fat to compete at HW, you see that Igor was really a MW.
Yeah, just about every fight of his that I've seen outside of PRIDE didn't look glamorous at all. He's very underappreciated all-time.

Igor was no true HW. He was naturally thick, but he was still 5'8. Heavyweights aren't 5'8. When he cut down to LHW, he was still the short guy.
 
"Vovchanchyn grew up in a small village. Although his early youth was relatively uneventful, during his teens he developed an insatiable appetite for brawling. 'I enjoyed street fights and got tremendously excited,' he says. 'Sometimes I became really aggressive, which was dangerous for my fellow villagers.' As Vovchanchyn grew older, his aggressive streak prompted the villagers to hang a metal rail from a tree in the center of town; whenever young Igor would fly into one of his rages, someone would bang on the rail. Hearing the alarm, the villagers would drop what they were doing, hurry home, lock their doors, and remain inside until the hot-headed teen cooled down and it was once again safe to venture outside"

from the book Brawl by Erich Krauss & Bret Aita

Now, I doubted the veracity of the story when I read the book years ago or perhaps, Igor was joking and that was lost in translation to the authors. However, they roll a different way on that side of the world where he comes from so I guess he was like the Frankenstein monster terrorizing these poor villagers? :)

Those poor villagers. That is some medieval cold blooded shit. Sounds like there was a stone pommel horse in the center of town and if you heard the alarm, it meant Vovchanchyn was out there doing his thing again.

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