The most important matches in MMA history

[Dr. Rose]

Forrest-Bonnar is by far the "most important" fight. It's the only fight on the list that meaningfully affected the trajectory of the sport.

Other fights were much bigger in terms of skill, fighter legacy, or any other metric you want to use. But in terms of "most important," Forrest-Bonnar is the obvious choice.

Honorable mention to Royce-Shamrock at UFC 1.

I thought UFC 40 was the first card that made Zuffa money. Wouldn't that count?

 

[fighters_respect]

NONE OF THESE ...


Pereira vs. Adesanya was more important than Khabib / Conor.

Adesanya was an undefeated MW, with multiple title defenses, while Conor had already lost to Nate (by quitting) and never defended a thing.

"Hype-wise," Khabib/Conor sold alot, but IMPORTANCE-WISE ... Pereira dethroning Adesanya was a bigger deal (especially w/ their past history), and Alex' surging success.

None of these

Jose Aldo v Jonathan Martinez.

Martinez was a top 10, Jose Aldo, a 37 year old, beat Martinez to overtake Khabib and become a top 5 GOAT. This changes MMA because it doesn't happen often for a 37YO to nullify a young contender.

 

[BJJ4Tone]

We all know it's Ronda/Carmouche

 

[ultra321]

the title says most important... the poll says biggest...
those are two different things and not the same answer...

 

[Trabaho]

Kimbo vs Dada

Gall vs Punk

 

[Trabaho]

Definitely nothing involving Fail Sonnen

 

[Captain Herb]

Gonna have to go with Conor getting stomped by Khabib as being most important because most of his fans fled the forum after that

 

[AmonTobin]

Out of this list, I have to say GSP-PENN 2 was a game changer for me as a viewer. Witnessed solid demonstration of a fighter’s ability to significantly evolve from fight to fight, successfully modifying tactics. I don’t remember seeing any other fighter up to that point improve so much from fight to fight or change their approach so perfectly. GSP brought so many fresh ideas to the table. Fight 1 & 2 are like night and day. A perfect example of 1 pro fighter truly evolving and another pro fighter staying the same. It was eye opening for me back then. That evolution is common today but back then it was new to me.

 

[Bork Neslar]

Gary Goodridge vs Paul Herrera

 

[kingofthecans]

??????????????

If I'm not mistaken rules were no overtime, but they changed it for that match???

 

[HHJ]

the title says most important... the poll says biggest...
those are two different things and not the same answer...

Tough titty

 

[HavokHarmon]

Voted Griffin/Bonnar with Ortiz/Shamrock coming in at a close second. Gets forgotten about today but Zuffa was bleeding bad and while Griffin/Bonnar was a huge turning point for the company allowing them to partner with Spike for years to come and reach a much wider audience, Ortiz/Shamrock was the first event (as far as I know) that really showed the Fertitta brothers how profitable this business had the potential to be. I think it gets overlooked a lot in terms of it’s historical significance.

 

[VAfan]

lol at all the votes for mcgregor. some serious recency bias there.

 

[kingghidrah]

Tuli vs. Gordeau



Before that one, not even the fighters knew for sure it was going to be "real"

 

[Xanzito]

Fallon Fox x Ashlee Evan-Smith

 

[Khaosan]

Christ I’m old based on these poll results.

 

[Khaosan]

Fallon Fox x Ashlee Evan-Smith

Not my proudest fap.

 

[dildos]

bj vs hughes 1

 

[VinceArch]

GSP vs BJ back in 2009 was absolutely huge.

 

[Paolo Delutis]

Im torn between tito/ken the first real bad blood mega fight or Griffin /Bonnar...

I went griffin Bonnar... because that really changed the game ... And was the modern era catalyst..you could argue the first fight of UFC 1 though because without that this doesn't exist