Illustrations via Liam Eisenberg
Recently, sports like baseball, football, and boxing have witnessed notable drops in viewership. Mixed martial arts, by contrast, is blowing up. Its biggest and most lucrative promotion, UFC, was purchased for $4 billion over the summer, and the company held its first ever event (UFC 205) in New York at Madison Square Garden this past weekend.
MMA is creating a huge wave, and combat athletes all across the map are jumping on it. Even a number of professional wrestlers have crossed over from the squared circle to the Octagon in recent years. Brock Lesnar, Dave Bautista, Bobby Lashley, Ken Shamrock, and more have all tried their hand at mixed martial arts with varying degrees of success. Most recently, CM Punk took a major “L” in his fight at UFC 203 against Mickey Gall, and post-match, his cauliflower ear looked more like a deformed cherry tomato.
That got us thinking—what other athletes would make intriguing MMA fighters? These are the 8 active professional athletes we’d love to see compete in the Octagon.