Cain Velasquez

Cain Velasquez is regularly mentioned among the greatest heavyweights in MMA history, and at his best he was nearly untouchable. He brought something the division had rarely seen: a wrestler with elite pressure and seemingly bottomless cardio, capable of pushing a relentless pace that simply broke other huge men down round after round.

Velasquez won the UFC Heavyweight Championship by dominating the sport's biggest star, Brock Lesnar, and authored one of the great redemption arcs by avenging his lone knockout loss to Junior dos Santos with two utterly one-sided wins. When healthy, he combined wrestling, ground-and-pound and volume in a way no heavyweight before him quite had.

The tragedy of his career was his body. Chronic injuries and long layoffs repeatedly stalled his prime, culminating in losses to Fabricio Werdum and, in his final fight, a fast knockout by Francis Ngannou. He retired at 14-3, a fighter whose ceiling was as high as anyone's in the division's history, even if his physical durability never matched his talent.