The sport of MMA and the rise of the UFC have led to some amazing moments. With the UFC becoming mainstream and having weekly events, it's started to have a sort of repetitive feeling, where everything kind of feels the same.There's one thing, however, that no matter what promotion, or what class it happens in, that always feels special, and that's when a tournament occurs. Some of the greatest moments within the history of the sport have occurred within tournaments, and they always feel special as a whole anytime they actually happen. However, in the end, some tournaments were better than others.
10 UFC 1
The big one, when fans think of MMA tournaments we all generally think of UFC 1 as one of our first thoughts. In terms of competition or pure talent, this is near the bottom of the barrel. However, it still was extremely important and influential for the rise of the sport.
The one-night tournament was essentially an advertisement for Brazilian jiu-jitsu, as Gracie quickly submitted Art Jimmerson, Ken Shamrock, and Gerard Gordeau in order to become the first-ever UFC tournament champion.
9 King of Pancrase Tournament
The Japan-based Pancrase promotion looked to answer to the UFC's tournaments with an insane two-day tournament in 1994 that featured 16 fighters, and multiple Hall of Famers. Filling out the field saw Bas Rutten, Frank and Ken Shamrock, Vernon White, Maurice Smith, and Matt Hume among others.
In the end, Ken Shamrock outlasted the 15 other combatants, defeating Manabu Yamada in the finals after 30 minutes. In the process, he became the first-ever champion of Pancrase.
8 Bellator 2018 Heavyweight Grand Prix
In 2018, Bellator decided to organize a heavyweight tournament to crown a new heavyweight champion following Vitaly Minakov vacating the title. The field was 8 deep, and it had loads of star power. Among the field were then light-heavyweight champion Ryan Bader, former PRIDE champion Fedor Emelianenko, former UFC champions in Frank Mir and Rampage Jackson, and other notable stars such as Chael Sonnen, Roy Nelson, Matt Mitrione, and King Mo.
Bader dominated the tournament, scoring a knockout win over Mo and a dominating decision win over Mitrione to meet Emelianenko in the finals. Despite Emelinaneko turning back the clock with back-to-back knockouts in the previous rounds, Bader knocked out the legend in the first round to become a dual weight champion.
7 DREAM 2009 Super Hulk Tournament
No way around it, the 2009 DREAM Super Hulk tournament is arguably the most outrageous thing to ever occured in MMA. Happening in Japan because it obviously wouldn't be allowed anywhere else, the "Super Hulk" tournament featured some of the most colorful freakshow fight characters in MMA such as Bob Sapp, Hong Man Choi, Jan Nortje, and Ikuhisa Minowa. They also had legitimately world-class talents such as Gegard Mousasi, Mark Hunt, and Sokoudjou. They also had former baseball star Jose Canseco in there, for some reason.
In the end, Minowa wound up winning the tournament after defeating Sokoudjou in the finals. Other memorable moments saw the middleweight in Mousasi knocking out Hunt, Choi destroying Canseco, and Sapp losing twice in the tournament.
6 RIZIN 2016 Openweight Grand Prix
RIZIN's first full year as a promotion decided to end with an insane tournament that was a homage to the promotion that it was seen as a spiritual successor of in PRIDE. The 16 man field featured Mirko Cro Cop, King Mo, Heath Herring, Kazuyuki Fujita, and JiÅ™í Procházka among others.
Cro Cop despite entering the tournament off a rough UFC stint, turned back the clock with four straight finishes to win the whole tournament. Last defeating Amir Aliakbari to cap off an insane tournament.
5 DREAM 2008 Middleweight Grand Prix
DREAM's 2008 middleweight Grand Prix featured some of the absolute best talent that was not in the UFC at the time. The promotion featured the likes of Gegard Mousasi, Jacare Souza, Mayhem Miller, Melvin Manhoef, and Dennis Kang among others, which filled out the 14 fighter field.
After a couple of insane bouts, Mousasi was crowned the middleweight champion after knocking out Jacare in the finals with a crazy upkick finish, defeating Jacare the same day that he defeated Manhoef via submission. Not a bad day for the Dutchman.
4 Strikeforce 2011 Heavyweight Grand Prix
The Strikeforce 2011 Heavyweight Grand Prix had arguably the greatest field of fighters to ever be a part of a tournament. Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Bigfoot Silva, Andrei Arlovski, Sergei Kharitonov, and Brett Rogers filled out the tournament.
The tournament was fun and chaotic, however, nothing was crazier than a young and unknown Daniel Cormier stepping for an injured Alistair Overeem to win the whole tournament. Knocking out Silva, and then dominating Barnett to cement his place as one of the greatest fighters on the planet.
3 PRIDE 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix
There's no other way to describe the PRIDE 2005 middleweight Grand Prix than to say that it was the coming-out party for Shogun Rua. Rua was a part of a field of legends, such as Wanderlei Silva, Rampage Jackson, Vitor Belfort, Antonio Rogério Nogueira and Alistair Overeem among others. Despite this, Rua went on to put together one of the most impressive runs in MMA history.
Rua despite being one of the least favored fighters in the tournament, knocked out Jackson in the first round, dominated Nogueira in the second round, knocked out Overeem in the third round, and then knocked out Ricardo Arona to cap off an incredible run to become the PRIDE Grand Prix champion.
2 PRIDE 2000 Openweight Grand Prix
The PRIDE 2000's Openweight Grand Prix was full of legends. Royce Gracie, Kazushi Sakuraba, Mark Coleman, Mark Kerr, and Igor Vovchanchyn helped fill out the field of 16 fighters. Most notable in the tournament was Sakuraba and Gracie's meeting in the second round that lasted 90 minutes and ended with Sakuraba winning via TKO.
Sakuraba went on to via TKO'd by Vorchanchyn, and Coleman wound up winning the whole tournament after finishing Vorchanchyn to be crowned tournament champion.
1 PRIDE 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix
There's only one way to describe the PRIDE 2003 middleweight Grand Prix: Chaos. Opening up the first round saw Rampage Jackson going to war with Murillo Bustamante, Chuck Liddell knocking out Alistair Overeem, Wanderlei Silva murdering Kazushi Sakuraba, and Hidehiko Yoshida defeating Kiyoshi Tamura. The second round was where things really kicked off, however, as Jackson upset Liddell by knocking him out in the second round, and Silva going to war with Yoshida, where he won by decision.
The finals of the tournament gave us an incredible slugfest between Silva and Jackson, where Silva knocked out Jackson to kick off one of the greatest rivalries in MMA history.