MMA is a fickle mistress. More than any other sport, it giveth and taketh away seemingly on a whim. Fights are booked and unbooked based on injuries or drug test failures or pretty much all the things that have happened to Jon Jones. There have just been so many times and reasons to be excited—and so many times and reasons that such excitement was over before it reached its proper crescendo.
The end result for fans is that they’re often left wanting for fights that get pushed into the distance indefinitely or canceled entirely. Maybe they’re never booked in the first place, and those fans find themselves complaining that matchmakers could not get two athletes in the cage together to throw down.
It’s happened countless times, even if many of the matchups that fans and pundits craved were blocked by pesky things such as fighter contracts with other organizations or the limits of their very imaginations. As the UFC has expanded and grown in its share of the MMA market, it seems to be happening less often, but there are plenty of fights have slipped through the cracks over the years.
Making the biggest fights between the biggest names is the best outcome for everyone: Fans see what they want, the UFC makes a fortune, and fighters increase their income and exposure—it’s the classic example of a rising tide lifting all boats. And still, so many have been lost.
This list looks at seven of the biggest, most influential fights that we’ve all missed out on over the years.