Igor Yaroslavovych Vovchanchyn (, ; born August 6, 1973) is a retired Ukrainian mixed martial artist and kickboxer, who competed in early no holds barred MMA contests. After making his professional MMA debut in 1995, he won nine openweight mixed martial arts tournaments (back when tournament format required 3 to 4 consecutive bare-knuckle fights during the same night) and 3 superfights. As of July 2024, Vovchanchyn holds the longest unbeaten streak in MMA history (at 40 fights, shared with Travis Fulton) and is the second most successful MMA fighter ever by number of wins achieved by way of knockout. Vovchanchyn has an MMA tournament named after him, the Igor Vovchanchyn Cup.
Biography The son of Klavdiya Michaylovna and Yaroslav Iosifovich Vovchanchyn, Igor Yaroslavovych Vovchanchyn was born in the settlement of Fesky, in the Zolochivsky district of Soviet Ukraine. Vovchanchyn said that growing up, he caused trouble and got into street fights and different kinds of mischief. Due to his antics, there was a popular story in circulation that whenever Vovchanchyn became upset the villagers would ring a bell in the center of town which would alarm everyone to stay in their houses until he had calmed down. Vovchanchyn later stated that this story was just a joke, although there was a bell in the center of town. At age 17, he moved to Kharkiv and began competing in Track and Field, running the 100m dash and throwing the discus. Due to his love for fighting, he later moved to Boxing under trainer Oleg Ermakov. In 1993, he met Eugenia Borschevskaya, general secretary of the All Eurasian Kickboxing Federation. After taking up Kickboxing, he later went to Denmark to compete at the World Kickboxing Amateur Championships with the Ukrainian national team, where he became the world champion that same year. Vovchanchyn also won the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) kickboxing championship in 1994.
Mixed martial arts career
Early career
Honour of the Warrior In late 1995, Vovchanchyn transitioned from a successful kickboxing career to MMA after being invited to participate at Honour of the Warrior in Kharkiv, Ukraine. In this 8-man tournament, Vovchanchyn knocked out his first two opponents before losing via submission to Ukrainian Sambist/Kickboxer Andrey Besedin in the final.
International Absolute Fighting Council He then fought a month later in a 32-man tournament held at Moscow's Luzhniki Palace of Sports, performing impressively at the inaugural International Absolute Fighting Council event, where he TKO'd Sergei Akinen before defeating Adilson Lima, a Gracie Jiu Jitsu black belt who trained with Ryan Gracie. Vovchanchyn won by knockout via soccer kick 56 seconds into the fight, but Lima's cornerman Renzo Gracie argued to the tournament organisers, complaining that kicks to a downed opponent were unfair and demanded an instant rematch. Unusually, an immediate rematch was granted, and the fight began again only to be stopped a second time after Lima's nose was broken by a punch, giving Vovchanchyn the win by TKO. Vovchanchyn advanced to the quarterfinal, in which he was submitted by Russian sambo champion Mikhail Ilyukhin.
Mr. Strongman SEKAI With his dominant kickboxing style, Vovchanchyn became famed for being one of the few strictly stand-up fighters to overcome grappling-based opponents, exemplified in his victory in the 8-man Mr. Strongman Sekai tournament in Minsk, Belarus on January 23, 1996, where he knocked out three opponents.
March 1996 In March 1996, Vovchanchyn fought in and won 3 different tournaments: the DNRF: Ukrainian Octagon, the UCMAL: Ukrainian No Rules Championship, and the first ever IFC event: IFC 1: Kombat in Kyiv. Across these three tournaments, he won nine fights (seven KO/TKOs and two submissions) with none of them going past the first round. At the IFC tournament, all three men he faced in the same night (Fred Floyd, Paul Varelans and John Dixon) weighed over 300 pounds/136 kilograms. The fight against Paul Varelans was considered one of the greatest fights in European MMA history. In attendance at this event, was former heavyweight boxing champion Leon Spinks, who was a 'guest of honor'.
UFC Invitation Vovchanchyn was invited to fight at UFC 11 in September 1996, but could not participate due to visa issues as well as dissatisfaction with the offer.
Subsequent victories Having achieved much success competing in the former Soviet Union, Vovchanchyn then won the 1st Absolute Fighting World Cup Pankration tournament in Tel Aviv, Israel on 12 November 1997. In the tournament final, Vovchanchyn faced Nick Nutter, an NCAA All-American Wrestler from Ohio State and a protégé of Mark Coleman. Nutter dominated the fight for approximately 25 minutes, until he was stunned by a head butt from Vovchanchyn. Bleeding heavily, Nutter submitted.‘Ice Cold’ in the Tropical Heat: Igor Vovchanchyn at WVC 5 Marcelo Alonso, Sherdog.com (January 31, 2022)
World Vale Tudo Championship As a seven-time winner of various tournaments, Vovchanchyn was invited to compete in the fifth edition of the World Vale Tudo Championship (WVC), organised by Brazilian promoter Frederico Lapenda and hosted by the Fun House Night Club in Recife, northeast Brazil on 3 February 1998. The event featured an elimination tournament of eight fighters – three Americans, four Brazilians, and Vovchanchyn as the sole Ukrainian representative – without gloves and with 10-minute rounds. After forcing Chinese boxing stylist Tulio Palhares to submit to strikes in the quarterfinals, Vovchanchyn was scheduled to face Patrick Smith at the semifinal stage. Smith withdrew, however, after breaking his hand against Marco Selva, and he was replaced by local fighter Elias Rodrigues, also known as Demonio Negro ("Black Devil"). In a back-and-forth encounter that lasted over ten minutes, Vovchanchyn and Rodrigues traded strikes, although the Ukrainian was able to score four takedowns. In one of these opportunities, Vovchanchyn mounted Rodrigues and forced his Brazilian opponent to submit to a barrage of punches. Advancing to the final, he faced the American wrestler Nick Nutter in a rematch and scored a brutal 14-second knockout when he countered a takedown attempt with a well-timed knee strike.
Vovchanchyn won eight MMA tournaments during this stage of his career, and was considered arguably the best heavyweight in the world for several years to come. He returned to the WVC the following year, knocking out Edson Carvalho, a member of the Brazilian national judo team and a Carlson Gracie black belt. Carvalho was a disciple of Sebastião "Master of Death" Lacerda, a wealthy man from the north of Brazil who appeared in Rio de Janeiro in 1996 claiming to have spent a long period of time in Japan learning "the deadly art of yawara." Despite his dubious credentials, Lacerda was able to recruit some established competitors into his sect, including Carvalho and Marco Ruas. While Ruas ultimately parted ways with Lacerda, Carvalho continued to challenge other fighting styles on behalf of Lacerda and his "deadly technique" of yawara.
PRIDE FC
Early PRIDE career After winning at World Vale Tudo Championship 5, Vovchanchyn was invited to Japanese promotion PRIDE, fighting Gary Goodridge in his debut. Vovchanchyn was taken down twice by the larger Goodridge and was left behind on points, but he dominated Goodridge during the stand-up exchanges and knocked him out with two left hooks, 5:58 into the first round.
Vovchanchyn returned to the World Vale Tudo Championship, winning two superfights against Aloisio Freitas Neto and Edson Carvalho.
Once again in PRIDE, Vovchanchyn then fought Japanese fighter Akira Shoji. Most of the fight stayed in the standing position, with Vovchanchyn damaging a wary Shoji and throwing him down, while the Japanese circled him and lay on the mat to avoid his hits. At the end Vovchanchyn won the judges' decision by damaging Shoji badly with strikes.
In what was Vovchanchyn's last venture for some time outside of PRIDE, he participated in another 4-man tournament called 'InterPride' in his home country of Ukraine, winning the first fight via TKO and the final by submission.
Coming back to PRIDE, he fought Carlos "Carlão" Barreto, a Carlson Gracie team member and reigning IVC Heavyweight Champion. Despite the greater height of Barreto, Vovchanchyn countered him with punches and leg kicks and shut down his takedown attempts for the first two rounds, but action was slow and often saw Barreto as the most active fighter. In overtime they traded hits and Barreto managed to take Vovchanchyn down, ending the fight working ground and pound on him. The decision was given to Vovchanchyn, which was met with a certain controversy.
After the Barreto match, Vovchanchyn made a special appearance in K-1 for a kickboxing rules match, facing multiple champion and established star Ernesto Hoost. The format hindered Vovchanchyn, who often found himself going for takedowns, while Hoost kept attacking his left leg with low kicks. At the end, the Ukrainian fighter fell down three times due to the damage to his leg, which cost him the match by knockout.
Unofficial #1 Heavyweight Superfight Vovchanchyn was next matched up with American wrestler Mark Kerr for the unofficial title of #1 heavyweight in the world. Nearly all outlets that covered mixed martial arts considered either Vovchanchyn or the unbeaten two-time UFC Champion and ADCC Champion Mark Kerr as the best heavyweight fighter in the world. Early in the fight, Kerr cut Vovchanchyn with a knee strike to the right eye and secured several takedowns, but he was unable to pass Vovchanchyn's guard or do any more significant damage. In the last round, Vovchanchyn pounced on the now-exhausted Kerr and dominated him with strikes, eventually knocking him out with a series of knees. Vovchanchyn was declared the winner, but the result was later overturned and the result declared a no contest. Knees to the head of a grounded opponent in the four points position had been banned just prior to the event. This fight was also the first time Vovchanchyn's manager, Eugenia Borschevskaya, was seen in his corner.
Bueno knockout In his next fight, Vovchanchyn fought Brazilian jiu-jitsu master Francisco Bueno. Vovchanchyn knocked Bueno out with a vicious combination, Bueno literally falling face first as he was being punched in the face. The knockout is to this day considered one of the most brutal knockouts in the history of MMA – it even prompted the promoters of K-1 to give Vovchanchyn $1,000 cash in the locker room and propose that he fought K-1 Champion Ernesto Hoost. After this string of victories, Vovchanchyn became a huge favorite going into the Pride Grand Prix 2000.
PRIDE Openweight Grand Prix 2000 Vovchanchyn had been considered the top fighter in the sport for some years, and as commentators Stephen Quadros and Bas Rutten stated, he was likely the favorite to win the tournament. In the opening round he defeated Japanese professional wrestler Alexander Otsuka by decision and, in a rematch with Gary Goodridge, decisively won by knockout in an entirely stand-up fight. He reached the final of the PRIDE 2000 Openweight Grand Prix.
Vovchanchyn then faced the number one pound for pound fighter in the world, Kazushi Sakuraba of Japan, who had beaten Royce Gracie earlier that night in a 90-minute bout, the longest in recent competitive fighting history. Though Sakuraba took him down and punched him, Vovchanchyn eventually grabbed a waist lock takedown and controlled the Japanese with strikes while Sakuraba covered up. After the fight was declared a draw and needed a second round to determine a finalist, Sakuraba's corner threw in the towel as he had just fought for 105 minutes and could not physically continue. Vovchanchyn won the fight via TKO (corner stoppage) and advanced to the last round.