As the decade draws to a close, we took a look back at the Top 20 must-see UFC fights of the past 10 years. These bouts ranged from high-stakes title fights that lived up to the hype through to some of the moet exciting back-and-forth wars ever witnessed inside the Octagon.
Enjoy the list as we admire what was possibly MMA’s most influential decade.
20. Wanderlei Silva vs. Brian Stann
As a real-life American war hero, Stann was never going to back down from ‘Axe-Murderer’ Wanderlei Silva in his return to Japan. That set the stage for a classic slugfest at UFC On Fuel TV 8 in 2013. By the minute mark, Silva had already been dropped to his knees after a furious exchange of uppercuts and hooks in the clinch. Stann was bleeding from the nose. Silva waved Stann on and went on the attack, only to be rocked again by a big flurry of punches.
In the final minute of the round, Silva was again down momentarily from a crushing step-in elbow followed by a right hook. But he immediately rose to unleash a salvo of left and right hooks that sent Stann cartwheeling to the canvas in a heap. Not to be outdone, it was Stann’s turn to rise and put Silva back down with hooks. Who knows how both men made it out of that crazy round. There was a more cautious approach in the second until a right and left from Silva eventually toppled Stann. Ground and pound sealed the stoppage.
