1. Royce Gracie
Naturally, Royce Gracie is the guy who tops this list. There is nobody who played a bigger role in MMA’s tournament era than he did.
At UFC 1, Royce defeated Art “One Punch” Jimmerson, Ken Shamrock and Gerard Gordeau on the same night. The victories showed the world how effective jiu-jitsu was against other fighting disciplines. At UFC 2, Royce fought and won 4x on the same night. He defeated Minoki Ichihara, Jason DeLucia, Remco Pardoel and Patrick Smith on that night.
He was forced to withdraw from UFC 3 before the start of the second round, but he’d be back again at UFC 4. In his final UFC tournament, Royce defeated Ron van Clief, Keith Hackney and finally Dan Severn to recapture his thrown as the king of UFC tournaments.
