When news broke Wednesday that Eddie Wineland would be the next challenger for Renan Barao‘s interim UFC bantamweight championship, the MMA community seemed to meet it with a collective, “Really?”
Wineland, who is currently the No. 5 bantamweight in the UFC, lost his first two bouts for the promotion in 2011 when he fell short in decisions to Urijah Faber and Joseph Benavidez. Since then, he has won back-to-back fights against Scott Jorgensen and Brad Pickett.
No disrespect for Wineland, who has been a top competitor within the division for years and is coming off perhaps the biggest win of his career over Brad Pickett at UFC 155, but considering that he has only won half of his past four fights, the decision to give him a title fight was a bit surprising to some.
Nevertheless, Wineland is a former WEC bantamweight champion and is very confident in his ability to reclaim his throne. In fact, he already warned Barao that he is coming to take the title.
Wineland isn’t the only one who is gunning for a title at the moment that most wouldn’t have predicted, however. Here are four other rather surprising contenders on the UFC roster.