The pinnacle of achievement in the K-1 is the Grand Prix. There have been 12 tournaments to date and only 7 men have taken the crown and sat on the thrown. What a thrown it is! A Grand Prix Champion can lose a match and still walk away the champion. Mark Hunt, for instance, lost to Mirko Filipovic and Jerome LeBanner during his reign and still entered the 2002 tournament as the defending champion.

Many great fighters like Filipovic and LeBanner have tried and failed to capture the K-1 Grand Prix title, forced to wait another agonizing year to try again and fail again. Fans who know the sport understand that more than skills and fitness are required to win the title. Luck plays a large role and some fighters are just not as lucky as others.

Here is a list of figures compiled to give a list of the best K-1 fighters who never won the title. The criteria fighters need to satisfy to make the list are:

1-      Must have won at least one match in the Grand Prix tournament
2-      Must have defeated a Grand Prix Champion in a match

Stefan Leko has defeated Peter Aerts twice but has never won a match in the Grand Prix. He, for example, doesn’t qualify for the list. Maurice Smith, on the other hand, has won a match in the Grand Prix but has never defeated a Grand Prix Champion. Lastly, as this list is K-1 specific, matchups from other kickboxing promotional companies are not counted.  

GPW= Grand Prix Wins. One point is given for each match the fighter wins in the Grand Prix tournament.
WOC= Wins Over Champion. One point is given for every win against one of the men who have captured the title.
WOG= Wins Over Group. One point is give for every win over a fighter on this list, men who have won in the Grand Prix and defeated champions in the ring.