10 MMA Fights That Created Instant Legends

2. Conor McGregor Vs. Jose Aldo - UFC 194

After amassing an eight-fight win streak to take his career record to 12-2, Conor McGregor made an immediate impact in his UFC debut – winning Knockout of the Night as he swept past Marcus Brimage at a 2013 UFC on Fuel TV event.

From there, McGregor spent the next two years notching up win after win, including victories over big names such as Max Holloway and Dustin Poirier.

Of course, Notorious eventually beat Chad Mendes to become interim UFC Featherweight Champion at UFC 189 – a fight that was his fourth Performance of the Night gong in a row – but it was Conor’s UFC 194 demolition of Jose Aldo that truly marked the Irishman out as undeniably one of the best fighters around.

Going into that December 2015 fight, the doubters all thought that Aldo would finally be the one to put a stop to McGregor’s ever-increasing dominance of the featherweight division. But boy, were those doubters wrong, with ‘Big’ John McCarthy being forced to stop the fight after just 13 seconds as the Irishman handed the Brazilian his first defeat in ten years.

Not only was Conor’s stunning victory the fastest finish in a UFC title fight and netted him yet another Performance of the Night award, but UFC 194 broke the live gate record for a US-held MMA event with $10.1 million, set a Nevada attendance record with a crowd of 16,516, and had the second highest PPV buys in UFC history at the time – only behind UFC 100.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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 dayjob, 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.