5 Planned Ken Shamrock Fights That Never Happened

#2 Igor Vovchanchyn

Igor Vovchanchyn: Unbreakable

In 2001, Ken Shamrock versus PRIDE stalwart, Igor Vovchanchyn was a dream bout of mega proportions and would have been a difficult fight to predict.

Why didn't it happen?

Injury. The bout was set to occur at PRIDE 13 in March 2001, but Shamrock withdrew two weeks before the fight after he injured his neck. The fight was never re-scheduled.

Who would have won?

This is a very tough call. There is every chance that the powerful and impervious to pain, Vovchanchyn could have withstood Shamrock's offence.

Standing up, there were few fighters that could compete with the Ukranian.

This fight could have gone a very similar way to the 2000 fight between Shamrock and Kazuyuki Fujita at PRIDE 10.

In that bout, Shamrock dominated the early exchanges but punched himself out as Fujita was able to withstand the assault. Shamrock simply wore himself out to the point he could not continue and had to throw in the towel.

Vovchanchyn was a very similar prospect and a superior fighter to Fujita. It's likely Shamrock would have been faced with the exact same issues.

Maybe the Fujita experience would have given him the opportunity to devise a better gameplan for Vovchanchyn.

A bit of a coin toss this one, but Shamrock may have been undone by the raw power and fierce invincibility of Vovchanchyn.