While completing our MMA Awards post for 2025, I started to wonder what the biggest upsets of all-time were. We have four different upset awards, each using different rules and/or rating systems.
In this post, we will consider all pro fights with only one exception — the winner must have a pro loss prior to the fight date. I will however, post some notable fights that would’ve otherwise qualified.
To determine the order, we will use ratings from the Elo and Glicko systems, total the pre-fight ratings for each fighter, then order by the difference.
Prepare to read about some fighters you’ve probably never heard of…
Upsets
#5 – (1497pts) [3-4-0] Shana Dobson W(TKO) [9-1-0] Mariya Agapova
UFC on ESPN 15 (September 22, 2020)
I’m a little surprised that a UFC fight made the cut, especially in the women’s list. As far as the outcome, ESPN referred to it as a “historic upset”. From what I recall, Agapova came into the UFC with a ton of hype and a pretty nice 9-1 record. Dobson, at around +850, derailed the hype train.
#4 – (1532pts) [2-2-0] Ashley Sanchez W(UD) [10-2-1] Erin Toughill
Freestyle Cage Fighting 46 (April 9, 2011)
This one had all the makings of an upset. Toughill, not having fought in nearly two years, just barely failed to make the 160-pound catchweight, a weight which according to our records, was likely the heaviest of her career. It was a unanimous 30-27 victory for Sanchez and the last fight of an MMA pioneer’s career. This picked up one of the upset awards for 2011.
#3 – (1618pts) [0-3-0] Shokhida Rakhnimova W(KO) [5-0-0] Anna Emelyanenko
World Total Kombat Federation (June 12, 2019)
The fourth time was a charm for Shokhida’s win tally. Anna, the undefeated fighter who just might be related to Fedor, took the fight in Rakhnimova’s home country of Uzbekistan. I found the fight on YouTube, so I tuned in for the finish, thinking it might be interesting as I saw the result listed on Tapology as “TKO – Punches”. Unfortunately, it appeared to me that Rakhnimova quit due to exhaustion. Maybe she was sick? Maybe bad dates? If you want to watch and translate for us, please leave something in the comments!
#2 – (1635pts) [1-1-0] Mai Ichii W(MD) [28-1-2] Satoko Shinashi
DEEP – 35 Impact (May 19, 2008)
Now THIS is an upset. Shinashi, a veteran of 31 fights still in or near her prime, loses to a relative unknown Ichii in what was her third fight. I have this noted as a 55kg (121.2lb) fight, but the average weigh-in for Shinashi that I have is just over 97 pounds. It’s fair to say that Ichii was likely much bigger and that probably had something to do with it.
#1 – (1722pts) [0-4-0] Eri Takahashi W(TKO) [4-1-0] Izumi Noguchi
Smackgirl – Third Season 7 (November 10, 2003)
This doesn’t really feel like a bigger upset than the others, but the numbers don’t lie. You can throw in an asterisk here, as some sites have started to label Smackgirl fights as “modified rules” and exclude them from fighter records. On the other hand, I’m aware of two additional Takahashi losses just prior to this fight that sites have tagged as amateur fights.
Other notable upsets….
Seo Hee Ham and Cindy Dandois both scored huge upsets in their debut fights. I’m not sure what their prior professional combat experience was and that’s one of the reasons why I excluded undefeated fighters from the main list.