Igor Vovchanchyn Biography: Igor Yaroslavovych Vovchanchyn is a retired Ukrainian mixed martial artist and kickboxer who participated in early no-holds-barred MMA competitions. After he made his professional MMA debut in 1995, he won nine open-weight mixed martial arts tournaments when the tournament format needed 3 to 4 consecutive bare-knuckle fights at the time of the same night.
Table of Contents
Igor Vovchanchyn Biography
Igor Vovchanchyn Biography: Igor Vovchanchyn was born on August 6, 1973. Vovchanchyn claimed that as a child, he was a troublemaker who got into street fights and different kinds. Because of his antics, there was a famous story that whenever Vovchanchyn became anxious, the villagers would ring a bell in the middle of town, alerting everyone to stay in their houses until he calmed down. Although there was a bell in the city’s heart, Vovchanchyn declared that the story was a jest.
He went to Kharkiv at the age of 17 and began participating in track and field, running the 100m sprint and throwing the discus. He ultimately turned to boxing under trainer Oleg Ermakov due to his passion for fighting. He met Eugenia Borschevskaya, the general secretary of the All Eurasian Kickboxing Federation, in 1993. He began kickboxing and then traveled to Denmark to compete with the Ukrainian national team in the World Kickboxing Amateur Championships, where he won the world championship that same year. In 1994, Vovchanchyn won the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) kickboxing championship.
Igor Vovchanchyn Wiki
Igor Vovchanchyn Biography: Igor Vovchanchyn was born on August 6, 1973. As of 2024, he os 51 years old.
Name | Igor Vovchanchyn |
Date Of Birth | August 6, 1973 |
Birth Place | Fes’ky, Ukraine |
Age | 51 years old (as of 2024) |
Height | 5ft 8inch |
Weight | 93Kg |
Zodiac Sign | Leo |
Profession | Mixed Martial Artist |
Net Worth | $5 million |
Car Collection | N/A |
Igor Vovchanchyn Personal Life
Vovchanchyn is married and the father of one daughter, Zlata.
Also Read: Oleg Taktarov Biography, Wiki, Net Worth, Record, Wife, Career
What is Igor Vovchanchyn Net Worth?
According to Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider, Igor Vovchanchyn has a net worth of $5 million.
Igor Vovchanchyn Career
Late in 1995, Vovchanchyn transitioned from a successful kickboxing career to mixed martial arts after being invited to fight at Kharkiv, Ukraine’s Honor of the Warrior. In this eight-man tournament, Vovchanchyn defeated his first two opponents via knockout before losing via submission in the final to Ukrainian ambient Andrey Besedin.
In March 1996, Vovchanchyn won three tournaments: the DNRF: Ukrainian Octagon, the UCMAL: Ukrainian No Rules Championship, and the debut IFC event: IFC 1: Kombat, in Kyiv. Throughout these three tournaments, he won only nine bouts in the first round (7 KO/TKOs and two submissions). On the same night at the IFC tournament, he faced Fred Floyd, Paul Varelans, and John Dixon, all of whom weighed more than 300 pounds/136 kilograms.
The fight against Paul Varelans was recognized as one of the most significant bouts in European mixed martial arts records. Former heavyweight boxing champion Leon Spinks was this event’s ‘guest of honor. Vovchanchyn was offered a fight at UFC 11 in September 1996 but declined due to visa issues and displeasure with the offer.
Vovchanchyn’s next opponent was the Brazilian jiu-jitsu master Francisco Bueno. Vovchanchyn knocked out Bueno with a vicious combination that resulted in Bueno collapsing face-first as he was being punched. This knockout is still regarded as one of the most brutal in the records of mixed martial arts, leading the promoters of K-1 to offer him a fight with K-1 Champion Ernesto Hoost and award him $1,000 in the locker room. Following the streak of victories, Vovchanchyn became a huge favorite for the 2000 Pride Grand Prix.
In July 2009, it was reported that Vovchanchyn would return to MMA on September 29, 2009, at the Fighting Mixed Combative event in South Korea. Despite rumors that Jan Nortje would be his opponent, Vovchanchyn had stated a year prior that he had no desire to fight due to his injuries. The event happened, but Igor was missing from the card.
In September 2016, Rizin Fighting Federation CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara posted a series of Instagram photos depicting Vovchanchyn training in his Ukrainian gym, implying that he may invite Igor to return to fight in Japan.