Many mixed martial arts (MMA) combats are characterized by impressing and making an impact on those who have the opportunity to witness them, especially for the harshness of some of these combats. 

Undoubtedly, there are many fights that have remained for the history of MMA because of the rivalry between the fighters, because of the brutality of the exchanges of blows, because they are legendary rematches or because they offer something that fans were not expecting.

That is why today we want to present in this article 5 fights that we consider historical for MMA.  

1. Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva: a lengedary duel of strikers

This duel was highly anticipated by the fans as both "The Iceman" Chuck Liddell and "the axe killer" Wanderlei Silva were very aggressive fighters and at a great moment in their sports careers.

The match was held at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 79 Nemesis on December 29, 2007 in Las Vegas, United States and was the return to the UFC of the Brazilian who in the last 7 years had made all his fights in the Japanese organization Pride FC.

Silva and Liddell entered with "everything" to measure themselves against each other and as expected it was a fight with a lot of aggressiveness, blood and punch on the part of the two, although finally Liddell managed to prevail and win the fight by unanimous decision of the judges.

The match received of course the "Fight Of The Night" award and was later determined to be the best match of the whole year 2007.

As an additional curiosity, this was the last victory of Chuck Liddell, who subsequently lost his next 3 fights and after that he retired from the competition in 2010.

2. Conor McGregor vs Nate Díaz 2: the most watched rematch in MMA

The rematch between MMA's most famous Irishman, Conor McGregor and Stockton, California, bad boy Nate Diaz took place in the summer of 2016 at UFC 202.

In the first match Conor gained weight to challenge Nate Diaz, and the American managed to impose himself and subdue the Irishman who got more tired than usual and ended up paying for the promotion to another division.

Conor did not stop until he got the rematch and once he got the fight organised, he learnt from the mistakes made on the first occasion and trained very seriously so as not to get tired again.

The first round was reminiscent of the previous duel between these two fighters since Nate Diaz managed to fit a lion-killer again, but this time Conor was able to go out and continue the fight with an intelligent punch and that ended up giving him the victory by decision of the judges although very tight: 48-47, 47-47 and 48-47.

The match was considered one of the bloodiest of the year and still many fans expect a third fight between the two that will serve to tiebreak.

3. Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche: the debut of women in UFC

UFC had for years refused to conduct women's bouts. I didn't see them as interesting and although there was a female star who stood out earlier, Gina Carano, it wasn't until Ronda Rousey made a name for herself for winning all her amateur and professional bouts in the first round.

In addition, this fighter came with a plus, she had been the first Olympic Judo medal in the history of the United States.

Prior to this match, Rousey had played a total of 9 bouts (3 amateur and 6 professional) and all had finished with an arm wrench, 8 of them lasted less than a minute.

This was something that had not been seen to date in MMA and was enough reason for Dana White to decide to finally introduce a women's category in UFC.

To inaugurate the women's category in style, Ronda Rousey was chosen of course and her rival would be another Olympic medalist, Liz Carmouche.

The bout would be with Rousey defending the belt for the UFC women's bantamweight category. As Ronda Rousey was the Strikeforce champion and UFC had acquired that organization, she turned this Strikeforce belt into the UFC belt.

The fight took place in 2013 at UFC 157 and despite Olympic medalist Carmouche getting to Rousey's back and attacking a lion-killer, Ronda was spared and ended up winning the fight.

Again by arm wrench and again in the first round and increasing his fame to stratospheric levels. Today (2020) he has more than 13 million followers on Instagram.

The fight was so exciting that it received the ovation of the audience and the awards for "submission of the night" and "fight of the night" and since then we continue to enjoy women's fights in UFC.

4. Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mirco Crocop: the match of the decade

At the time it was considered by many as the most important fight that could be done in MMA.

Both Fedor and Crocop were 2 real machines to destroy rivals in Pride FC.

Fedor had 11 consecutive victories at Pride, sweeping all rivals.

Crocop on his side had frightened the staff with his powerful high kick with his left leg that even had a motto: "right leg, hospital, left leg, cemetery". 
In his 16 fights played in Pride (he also did 2 fights at the beginning but with special rules) before the fight with Fedor, Mirko had only known defeat twice and had knocked out 11 of his rivals.

The match took place at Pride Conflict 2005 in August of that year, at japan's Saitama Super Arena and with Fedor defending his Pride heavyweight title at stake.

Finally and from the second round, Fedor managed to prevail and ended up winning by unanimous decision of the judges and maintaining the belt of heavyweight champion of the Pride.

This is considered by many to be the best fight of the decade from 2000 to 2010.

5. Nick Díaz vs Paul Daley: the best round in MMA's history

This fight took place as a stellar bout for the Strikeforce event on April 9, 2011 in San Diego, California.

The match pitted two very aggressive and controversial wrestlers, Nick Diaz and Paul Daley.

Brothers Nick and Nate Diaz have always been controversial because of their gang past and because they have no hair on their tongues and are very provocative.
That's why Nick's brother, Nate, had the option to fight recently for the BMF title that UFC invented to determine who was the "baddest" in MMA.

There was no time to blink in this round and the exchanges of blows were constant, with brutal blows and in a round where both fighters were about to lose.

A few seconds from the end, Nate Diaz manages to prevail and ends up winning by technical KO just three seconds before the bell rang.

As we have said before this is considered by many to be the best round ever seen in a mixed martial arts match.

If you are interested in watching these matches you can find them all in the UFC Fight Pass, since over time UFC acquired first Pride FC, and later Strikeforce.

Therefore, with a Fight Pass subscription you can relive these 5 battles that we have remembered today.