10 big UFC fights that failed to deliver

#2: Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock, UFC 5

Royce Gracie's second fight with Ken Shamrock was a huge letdown

The first-ever edition of the Ultimate Fighting Championship was very different from the UFC we know and love today – an eight-man tournament to decide essentially what the most effective style of martial arts was. As everyone knows, Royce Gracie was triumphant after submitting three foes, and thus Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was introduced to the masses.

One of his three victims that night was Ken Shamrock, who in subsequent UFC events quickly rose to popularity due to his marketable look and charisma. Shamrock was absolutely determined to get a rematch with Gracie, but injuries to both men during the UFC 3 tournament prevented the fight from happening.

In order to guarantee it, the UFC booked a ‘Superfight’ between the two at UFC 5, and the hype was off the charts – this was undoubtedly the biggest fight in UFC history to that point. Unfortunately, both men were more determined to prove their superiority than put on an entertaining fight, and what we got was spectacularly bad.

Shamrock took Gracie down early in the fight, but rather than allowing Gracie to catch a submission from the guard position, he stayed conservative, landing minimal strikes for basically the full 30 minutes of regulation time with very little else happening.

As the crowd booed, five minutes of additional overtime were announced, but outside of Ken managing to open a cut on Royce with a right hand, nothing happened there either and eventually, the fight was declared a draw.

The fight remains notorious today as an example of one of the most boring fights in MMA history, and in terms of big fights that turned out to be a letdown, it’s certainly one of the worst offenders.