After defeating future WEC Featherweight Champion Mike Thomas Brown in his MMA debut in 2001, Hermes Franca followed the victory up with seven more—including one over Japanese legend Caol Uno—before he was even discovered by a modern MMA audience. One of the most talented Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners in the sport’s early days, Franca holds career victories over Ryan Shultz, Toby Imada, Jamie Varner, Nate Diaz, Spencer Fisher, and Marcus Aurelio. He is a former WEC Lightweight Champion, and once fought for the UFC Lightweight Championship, nearly knocking out defending champion Sean Sherk in 2007 in a game but losing effort.

Despite highly respected submission abilities, Franca preferred to stand and bang with opponents, and was consistently effective with his powerful, looping punches. Franca also showed a knack for dropping monster flying knees to the heads of opponents shooting in for takedowns. Taken together, Franca’s various standup skills led to an unusual rate of knockout wins for a lightweight.

After personal and professional problems in 2009-2010, as well as back-to-back losses in the cage at the age of 35, Franca announced his retirement from active MMA competition. However, Franca soon returned to active competition, fighting in a variety of regional promotions throughout an active 2011.