10 MMA Fights That Created Instant Legends

With one fight, legendary status was confirmed for these fighters.

by Andrew Pollard
mcgregor khabib
UFC

The word 'legend' gets bandied about far too frequently across all sports these days.

A footballer, NBA player, or NFL star has one good season? Legend. A boxer wins a couple of fights? Legend. A golfer has a good tournament? Legend. A cricketer manages to make cricket not be the most dull and boring sport on the planet? You get the gist...

Like those other sports, the world of MMA is likewise one littered with faux legends and icons, as fans over-exaggerate somebody's legacy or are too quick to throw such prestigious labels around. Of course, that's not to say that there aren't some true revolutionaries and game-changers who fully deserve to be lauded as an MMA legend.

When looking at such legendary figures, there are always those one or two fights that stand out as being defining moments in setting a fighter on their way to superstardom or solidifying them in that top bracket of legendary names.

And here, we're going to take a look at ten such fights which can be pinpointed as being responsible for instantly creating some true legends of the world of Mixed Martial Arts.

10. Georges St-Pierre Vs. Matt Hughes - UFC 65

One of the greatest ever, Georges St-Pierre’s legend-making fight is largely viewed as his UFC 65 win over Matt Hughes to become the UFC Welterweight Champion.

GSP had openly talked up how he was such a huge fan of Hughes’ before they first met at UFC 50, but that fight for the then-vacant Welterweight Championship saw Rush suffer his first professional loss after Hughes tapped him out.

With a record of 7-1 after that UFC 50 fight, many fans wondered whether the bloom was off the rose for GSP – as has so often been the case for fighters after their first loss.

St-Pierre would bounce back with victories over Dave Strasser, Jason Miller, Frank Trigg, Sean Sherk, and B.J. Penn as he found himself in a rematch against Hughes at UFC 65. It was there that the French-Canadian would avenge his first ever loss, taking Hughes’ Welterweight Championship in the process.

To the majority of fight fans, that victory over the likewise legendary Matt Hughes was enough to see GSP taken seriously as having the potential to be an all-time great.

Unfortunately for Georges, his follow-up fight would see him shocked by Matt Sera in a first round TKO loss. In typical GSP fashion however, St-Pierre has won all 13 UFC fights since that Sera defeat – including winning both the UFC Welterweight Championship and the UFC Middleweight Championship, both of which he vacated.

Currently, GSP is officially retired, although a dream match against Khabib Nurmagomedov has recently been teased by St-Pierre, Khabib, and the UFC.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.