How many times was Khabib vs Tony Ferguson booked?

Five times: at the TUF 22 Finale in 2015, UFC 209 in 2017, UFC 223 in 2018, and twice around UFC 249 in 2020. Injuries, a weight-cut hospitalization, a knee blown out on a TV cable and a global pandemic each took a turn cancelling it. It is widely called the most cursed booking in MMA history.

Why did Jon Jones never fight Francis Ngannou?

Money, mostly. Jones and the UFC argued publicly over his purse for the fight through 2021 and 2022, and before it could be repaired Ngannou left the promotion entirely in early 2023. Jones moved on and won the vacant heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane instead.

Would Ronda Rousey have beaten Cris Cyborg?

It is one of the great unanswerable questions. Rousey was the best pure grappler women's MMA had seen and Cyborg the most destructive striker, and the fight collapsed over weight class as much as anything. Most analysts lean toward whoever imposed the first exchange, which is exactly why fans wanted it so badly.

8 UFC Dream Fights That Never Happened (and Why They Fell Apart)

Every fan carries a private fight card in their head. Not the fights we got, but the ones we were owed: the bookings that collapsed a week out, the superfights that died in a negotiating room, the two primes that passed each other by eighteen months. This is that card. Eight fights, the real reasons each one fell apart, and an honest lean on who takes it, from the people who spend all day feeding fighters into a simulator.

1. Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Tony Ferguson

The cursed one. Booked five separate times between 2015 and 2020, and the cage door never closed behind them. Tony's ribs went first, then Khabib's weight cut put him in the hospital the week of UFC 209. In 2018 Tony blew out his knee tripping over a television cable at a media day. By 2020 it was a pandemic doing the cancelling, with Khabib stranded on the wrong continent while Justin Gaethje stepped in and broke Tony's spell for good.

What stings is that both men were at their absolute peak in the 2017 window: Khabib unbeaten and unbeatable in the wrestling, Tony on a ten-fight streak fighting like something out of a fever dream.

Our lean: Khabib, by relentless chain wrestling into the late rounds. But Tony at his weirdest was the one man in the division nobody could plan for.

2. Khabib vs Georges St-Pierre

The fight both men wanted and the UFC didn't. After UFC 229, GSP made it known he would come back for Khabib. Khabib openly called it the dream, a legacy fight against the greatest welterweight ever. The promotion never warmed to it, reportedly because a one-off retirement bout did nothing for their rankings math, and when Khabib's father passed away in 2020 the fire went out. He kept his promise to his mother and walked away 29-0.

Our lean: the closest thing to a coin flip on this list. GSP is the most complete fighter of his era, but nobody ever solved Khabib's top pressure. Nobody got the chance to.

3. Jon Jones vs Francis Ngannou

For two years this was the scariest sentence in sports: the greatest fighter of all time moving up to meet the hardest puncher ever measured. It died on a spreadsheet. Jones and the UFC fought publicly over money through 2021 and 2022, Ngannou fought his own war with the promotion over contract freedom, and in January 2023 the champion simply left with the belt vacated behind him. Jones fought Ciryl Gane for the empty title two months later and finished him inside a round.

Our lean: Jones. The oblique kicks and clinch wrestling drag Ngannou into deep water. But one clean right hand rewrites this paragraph, and everyone knows it.

4. Anderson Silva vs Georges St-Pierre

The original superfight. For about three years, roughly 2010 to 2013, the two most dominant champions in UFC history reigned one division apart while everyone from fans to Dana White begged for it. GSP wanted a catchweight and time to build the size; Silva's camp wanted it huge. The sport waited one summer too long. Chris Weidman knocked Silva out in July 2013, GSP fought Hendricks and stepped away that November, and the window closed with a bang and a press conference.

Our lean: GSP by decision in exactly the kind of wrestling-heavy, low-drama masterclass that made the matchup so hard to sell to Silva's side.

5. Fedor Emelianenko vs Brock Lesnar

In 2009 the best heavyweight alive had never set foot in the UFC, and the UFC had a champion selling a million pay-per-views. The negotiation is now legend: Fedor's management insisted on co-promotion with M-1 Global, the UFC refused on principle, and the last great prize of the PRIDE era signed with Strikeforce instead. Fedor's aura cracked against Werdum a year later, and the moment never came back.

Our lean: prime Fedor. Lesnar's size was real, but so was his reaction to getting hit, and Fedor hit harder than anyone Brock ever faced.

6. Ronda Rousey vs Cris Cyborg

The biggest fight in women's MMA history, and it never got past the scale. Rousey ruled at 135 and refused to go up; Cyborg had made 145 her kingdom and insisted the cut would hospitalize her. In between the two numbers sat years of genuinely nasty trash talk. Then Holly Holm's head kick in 2015 did what no negotiation could and removed one half of the fight from the sport.

Our lean: whoever won the first exchange wins the night. Rousey's entries against Cyborg's right hand is the single most volatile opening minute never fought.

7. Demetrious Johnson vs TJ Dillashaw

Quietly the best pure-skill matchup on this list. Through 2018 the UFC pushed hard for the bantamweight king to drop down and challenge Mighty Mouse, the pound-for-pound number one who had just set the all-time title defense record. DJ, dealing with the toll of eleven straight title fights, wanted the superfight on different terms. Before it could settle, the UFC traded him to ONE Championship in the sport's only true player-trade, and Dillashaw dropped to flyweight to fight Henry Cejudo instead.

Our lean: Johnson. Speed, scrambles and fight IQ stack up against anyone in history, and TJ's pressure needed a slower target.

8. Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva, in their primes

A cheat entry, because they did eventually fight. But UFC 79 in 2007 was the sequel to a fight that should have happened in 2003, when Chuck was iceman-cold and Wanderlei was the most terrifying human being in PRIDE. Dana White flew to Japan to make it; the promotions could not agree, and PRIDE put Chuck in their Grand Prix instead, where Rampage got to him first. The 2007 version was a great brawl between two men a step past their best. The 2003 version might have been the most violent fight ever booked.

Our lean: prime Wanderlei in Japan, prime Chuck in the Octagon. Some fights are decided by the zip code.

Book the card yourself

Here's the thing about dream fights: on this site, they all get to happen. Every one of these matchups can be booked in the UFC Card Builder, which will happily let you stack Khabib vs Tony under Fedor vs Lesnar and simulate the whole cursed evening. Or run any single matchup through the fight simulator and see the round-by-round breakdown of the fight the lawyers never let you watch. And if you want to know why even dream fights refuse to go to script, read why MMA has so many upsets.