The UFC for men caps out at the heavyweight limit of 265 pounds, and for women caps out at the featherweight limit of 145 pounds. With such a weight cap, fans of MMA have missed out on some of the more interesting and colorful characters throughout the history of the sport. Some fighters just never got the chance to step into the UFC's octagon due to the weight limits.So let's take a look back and pay tribute to the big boys (and girls), who were never able to step into the UFC and fight for the biggest promotion on the planet due to their frames and sizes while fighting.
10 Baruto Kaito: 403 Pounds
There is nothing more the Japanese love to mix than MMA and under-qualified Sumo wrestlers, which is exactly how Baruto Kaito got his start in MMA. Kaito was signed to the upstart RIZIN promotion in 2015 and was able to defeat kickboxing legend Peter Aerts in his first appearance. The following year he was sent in to participate in the 2016 RIZIN open weight Grand Prix.
Kaito was able to defeat Japanese MMA relics in Kazuyuki Fujita in the first round, and Tsuyoshi Kosaka in the second. However, Kaito's cinderella run came to an end in the penultimate round, as he got knocked out by Mirko Cro Cop.
9 Alexandru Lungu: 352 Pounds
Standing at 6 feet tall and weighing 352 pounds, Alexandru Lungu has been an MMA competitor since 2005. Originally a successful Judoka, Lungu signed to PRIDE in 2005 and while he came up short against James Thompson, he went on to have a successful career as a fighter.
Lungu most recently has been fighting in the RXC and Road FC promotions, however, he hasn't fought in MMA since 2018 due to his recent move to kickboxing.
8 Zuluzinho: 390 Pounds
Zuluzinho was a successful Vale Tudo fighter in Brazil, allegedly racking up a record of 38-0. Once promotions got word of his size and success, he was a layup for PRIDE and the Japanese market. However, Zuluzinho's PRIDE run didn't go to expectations, going 0-3 with losses to Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Nogueira, and Butterbean.
Retiring in 2010, Zuluzhino actually returned to the sport of MMA and has gone a surprising 3-2 since. However, with his massive frame, it's a guarantee we'll never see the Brazilian big man in the UFC's cage.
7 Choi Hong-man: 352 Pounds
Choi Hong-man is one of the most successful big men to have fought in MMA. Originally a well-accomplished kickboxer, he actually won the K-1 Seoul Grand-Prix in 2005 and went over to MMA the following year. His record of 4-5 in MMA isn't the most impressive, but that's not acknowledging that he fought the likes of Fedor Emelianenko, Mirko Cro Cop, and Ikushia Minowa.
An interesting fun fact about the 7'2' fighter is that he was actually scheduled to fight Brock Lesnar in the latter's MMA debut for Dynamite USA in 2007. Oh, what could've been.
6 Giant Silva: 385 Pounds
Giant Silva is mostly known for his run in the WWE (f.k.a WWF) as a part of The Oddities in the late 90s. However, what is forgotten is that after Silva's NJPW run he was offered a big contract by PRIDE to compete. Although he later admitted he had only gotten a crash course in jiu-jitsu before making his debut, he always gave his best.
Sadly for Silva, his best wasn't always enough. He went 1-6 in his PRIDE career, however, he did end his MMA career on a win. Fighting in K-1 against fellow giant Akebono Taro, he submitted the Japanese fighter in the first to end his career at 2-6.
5 Gabi Garcia: 265 Pounds
Gabi Garcia is actually one of the greatest female jiu-jitsu players on the planet, however, the only issue for her in regards to her MMA career is that she's the size of a heavyweight. Garcia, as a result hasn't been able to fight in America and has been held entirely to Asia.
Garcia is currently sitting at a perfect 6-0 in MMA, mostly fighting in PRIDE and Road FC. However, she's since turned her attention back to her jiu-jitsu career and as a result, hasn't fought since 2018.
4 Butterbean: 378 Pounds
Eric "Butterbean" Esch is somewhat of a combat sports folk-hero. Sitting at 378 pounds, he entered a tough man contest on a dare from friends and soon took up fighting as a career after discovering that he's actually really good at it, to put it lightly.
After a very successful boxing career, Esch turned his attention towards MMA in 2003. Over the next eight years, Butterbean compiled a 17-10-1 record inside of the cage. Having fought in promotions such as PRIDE, Cage Rage, and KSW, he actually got more submissions inside the cage than knockouts. Not bad for a boxer.
3 Akebono Taro: 514 Pounds
Akebono Taro was one of the greatest Sumo wrestlers of the 90s and he parlayed that success into an MMA and kickboxing career. Taro didn't have much success in MMA, going 0-4 from 2004 to 2006, and his kickboxing career didn't fare much better either. As he went 1-9 inside the rings of K-1 and RIZIN.
While not a great fighter, Akebono is ingrained in Japanese combat sports history. His first kickboxing match with fellow giant Bob Sapp drew a record 54 million viewers in the country, as Sapp scored a first-round knockout.
2 Bob Sapp: 329 Pounds
Bob Sapp is arguably the biggest star of the giants to have never fought in the UFC. Sapp was a staple of Japanese MMA and kickboxing in the 2000s, and he actually began his MMA career in PRIDE and K-1 compiling a 9-2-1 record inside of MMA. However, his kickboxing career was even better, having started by knocking out legend Ernesto Hoost twice in his first four fights.
Sadly for Sapp, somewhere around 2011 he began losing nearly every fight. Typically going down at the first sight of danger, Sapp has been turned into somewhat of a joke as he's been accused of fight-fixing. On the bright side, he did defeat Akebono in a rematch of their 2003 showdown in a kickboxing brawl at RIZIN in 2015. The win snapped a then 12-fight losing streak across MMA and kickboxing.
1 Mariusz Pudzianowski: 313 Pounds
Mariusz Pudzianowski is the current face of the freak-fight market. Having previously been a strongman, he transitioned to MMA in 2009 and has had nearly all of his bouts in the KSW promotion.
Pudzianowski has actually turned into somewhat of a decent fighter over the years and is currently riding a four-fight knockout streak. He's also lost weight from his previous 300+ pound frame, and most recently weighed in at 265 pounds for his recent bout against Serigne Ousmane Dia this year. While he previously was too big for the UFC, we can now dare to dream.