I often wondered where the Ukrainian killing machine went after his last Pride fight in 2005. That’s not his nickname, just a name I like to use to describe him.

I will never forget his cold stare when he stood across the ring from his opponent or his calm demeanor before going into battle. He was only 5′8 but usually weighed around 240lbs when it was fight time. He was one of the shortest, hard hitting, brutal heavyweights of his time and left a trail of 46 victims in his wake.

This is the story of Igor Vovchanchyn. One of the most ferocious heavyweight strikers in the history of mma.

Igor "Ice Cold" Vovchanchyn was born on August 6, 1973 in Zolochiv, Ukraine. Little is known about his youth except this. He had an extremely bad temper. You never would have guessed it though seeing him in his Pride fighting days because he looked like one of the nicest guys on the planet. When Igor was in his teens he had an infamous temper among the people that lived in his village. So much so that they would ring a church bell every time he was in a bad mood to warn everyone in the village. Apparently you did not want to confront Igor when he was in one of his moods or he would knock your head off.

Igor had an amazing mixed martial arts career with 46 wins and only 9 losses to his name. He knocked out 24 of his opponents in mma and submitted 14 of them. His kickboxing record is even more impressive with 58 wins and only 2 losses. He began his mma career by fighting in a backbreaking 32 man tournament called the International Absolute Fighting Council that took place in Moscow on September 25, 1995. It was an extremely exhausting and punishing tournament in which the winner would have to fight five times in one night. This put the early UFC tournaments to shame and Vovchanchyn did very well winning 3 of his fights until finally succumbing to Mikhail Illoukhine. Illoukhine submitted Igor with a very unusual submission, a chin in his eye.

After that he went on a 9 fight winning streak fighting in such organizations as Mr. Strong Guy in 1996 and DNRF Ukrainian Octagon in 96 as well. He fought nine times in 1996 and kept his streak alive until he fought Leonardo Castello Branco at IAFC 2 and the fight was a draw. He then went on another hot streak and made his Pride FC debut at Pride 4 where he fought Gary Goodridge. Goodridge was another massive man with big punching power but not much else. Igor finished Gary in under 6 minutes with vicious strikes winning his debut in one of the most respected organizations in the world.

He did extremely well in Pride and overall fought 27 times in the organization. He was a fan favorite because of his brutal punching power that looked like it caused immediate permanent brain damage to the opponent in question. I witnessed every one of his fights and he was literally one of the strongest strikers in mma if not the most powerful striker in mixed martial arts at the time. He needed very little leverage to knock you out cold. Of his 27 fights in Pride he won 18 of them with one no contest against Mark Kerr. He even made it to the finals of the Pride Grand Prix 2000 tournament losing to Mark Coleman via Submission from strikes.

Igor had a lustrous mixed martial arts career and I will never forget his head jarring punches that sent many a fighter to the canvas only to wake up and wonder. What the f*** just happened? I will miss his distinctive style and unrelenting punch combinations that made him one of the best strikers in Pride.

So where is he now? After his fight at Pride Final Conflict in 2005, in which he was defeated by Kazuhiro Nakamura via decision, he basically vanished from mixed martial arts. Or at least I didn’t know what happened to him anyway. I decided to try and find out where he is now and what he is doing. I ended up finding very little information about him.

According to a few different sources he owns and runs a Ukrainian restaurant with his wife in Russia. Igor has one daughter Zlatta that he spends all of his spare time with. Zlatta means "golden girl". He is apparently through with fighting and no longer even trains. This is reportedly due to the fact that his injuries have taken a toll on his body. There was a rumor that he was going to fight Wanderlei Silva at Pride 34 but it never materialized as Silva was never cleared to fight.

One thing is for sure. Most mma fans will never forget Igor Vovchanchyn including myself. He produced some of the best mixed martial arts fights I have ever seen and will always remain "Ice Cold" in my book.

If you have any new or updated information on Igor Vovchanchyn that you would like to submit please contact me.