Throughout the nearly 23-year history of the UFC, there’s been an elite group of champions that truly define both their weight class and era with unique and transcendent skills. Names like Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, Jon Jones, Randy Couture, and Matt Hughes have all made their mark upon MMA as one of the greatest
Throughout the nearly 23-year history of the UFC, there’s been an elite group of champions that truly define both their weight class and era with unique and transcendent skills. Names like Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, Jon Jones, Randy Couture, and Matt Hughes have all made their mark upon MMA as one of the greatest champions of all-time.
However, there is also another group of fighters who, while no doubt world-class and among the best of their respective eras, simply could not rise above the truly game-breaking champions above them to win the belt. Some of them were ousted by the legends of the fight game, and others never got the title shot.
Regardless, these fighters will go down as solid and effective in their own right, but just not good enough to be called UFC champion (at least not yet for some). Let’s take a look at the best fighters to never win a UFC championship.
Junior dos Santos talks about his preparation and aspirations ahead of his main event against Ben Rothwell at UFC Fight Night 86, on April 10. Junior dos Santos is looking for redemption next Sunday, as the former UFC heavyweight champion pr…
Junior dos Santos talks about his preparation and aspirations ahead of his main event against Ben Rothwell at UFC Fight Night 86, on April 10.
Junior dos Santos is looking for redemption next Sunday, as the former UFC heavyweight champion prepares for the first UFC show in Croatia. “Cigano” will look to get back in the win column following a disappointing KO loss to Alistair Overeem in December.
Dos Santos believes he will achieve that goal at American Top Team, where he has been training since his last match.
“This is my second camp at ATT. I spent the whole time there. I could feel the development happening as each day passed.” Dos Santos told Portal do Vale Tudo. “I felt good and a little more adapted as well. It’s a big, quality team. The new gym has everything I need when it comes to training. I think we did a good job and I’m ready to surprise everyone on Sunday and get that win, which will be the first step to reclaim that belt. It will be a tough fight against a tough guy, but it’ll be the first step towards the good times of my career, again.”
Injury-free, the 32-year old intends to fight more often in order to climb the ranking ladder even faster.
“It had been a while since I had two fights back to back. Most people know I have been through some hard times, but I feel good now. I fought in December and now I have another fight. I want to keep this up, because it’s important to stay active and have a good number of fights per year. I’m glad everything went well so I’m going in there with great expectations.”
Junior dos Santos will meet Ben Rothwell in the main event of UFC Fight Night 86, on April 10, in Zagreb, Croatia. Another pair of heavyweights, Gabriel Gonzaga and Derrick Lewis will square off in the co-main event of the evening.
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is going to return to the Octagon in 2016, but just because she’s (temporarily) gone doesn’t mean “Rowdy” will exit the limelight.
Not when she can s…
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is going to return to the Octagon in 2016, but just because she’s (temporarily) gone doesn’t mean “Rowdy” will exit the limelight.
Not when she can sit down and have a “Face to Face” with Odell Beckham Jr. for Draft Kings.
The New York Giants’ wide receiver took turns holding cards with the mixed martial arts (MMA) superstar, which then had to be explained. For example, Beckham overturned a portrait of Rousey’s recent nude photo shoot for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (pics) and she then had to reveal some behind-the-scenes details.
Like the creep in the bushes with his telescopic lens.
Who Rousey will face when she eventually returns to fighting remains to be seen. It was expected to be Miesha Tate, but then “Cupcake” went and booked herself against Amanda Nunes at UFC 200 while Holly Holm lurks in the shadows.
Former two-time UFC title contender Kenny Florian is making his return to Brazilian jiu jitsu this weekend. For the first time in 13 years, Kenny Florian is stepping onto the mats for a competitive grappling competition. Florian, a 3rd degre…
Former two-time UFC title contender Kenny Florian is making his return to Brazilian jiu jitsu this weekend.
For the first time in 13 years, Kenny Florian is stepping onto the mats for a competitive grappling competition. Florian, a 3rd degree black belt under Roberto Maia of Boston Jiu Jitsu, has decided to compete in the Masters 1 division of the IBJJF New York Spring Open on April 9 & 10. At 39 he’ll be taking on opponents in the 30-35 year old age division in a bid to get more matches and to face a higher level of competition.
During his UFC tenure, Florian made a name for himself as one of the sports most formidable grapplers, holding impressive submission victories over Clay Guida, Takanori Gomi and Joe “Daddy” Stevenson. Prior to appearing on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter, Kenny Florian was a regular competitor on the grappling circuit, scoring some respectable victories including an impressive run at the 2003 Pan Am games as a brown belt which saw him take home a bronze medal.
In addition to Florian’s regular duties as a host on UFC Tonight, the Bostonian has been keeping up with regular gi training and has been working with notable grapplers such as Ryan Hall and AJ Agazarm, who competed against Jake Shields at Polaris 3.
Some of America’s best wrestlers battled their way into the Olympic Team Trial in the Last Chance Qualifier, last weekend. The participant list for the quadrennial team trials is now locked up. Twelve men and twelve women qualified for the U…
Some of America’s best wrestlers battled their way into the Olympic Team Trial in the Last Chance Qualifier, last weekend. The participant list for the quadrennial team trials is now locked up.
Twelve men and twelve women qualified for the US Olympic Team Trials, to be held in Iowa City, Iowa on April 9th-10th. Nearly 200 wrestlers participated in the Last Chance tournament, held in Cedar Falls, Iowa, a scant one and a half-hour drive away from where the Olympic Team Trials will take place.
Twelve spots in the trials were won by the women finishing 1st and 2nd in the six weight classes. One spot was earned by the champion in each of the six Olympic weights for Men’s Freestyle and Greco-Roman. Only men compete in Greco-Roman at the Olympics.
The athletes who punched their tickets to the trials are as follows.
A clutch of competitors had just wrestled at Madison Square Garden less than a month ago in the NCAA Championship. Collegiate wrestling is different than both Olympic rule sets, known colloquially as “folkstyle.” Thus, elite American wrestlers are almost always proficient in multiple wrestling rule sets.
Hayden “Planetarium” Zillmer, a senior at North Dakota State, was able to bounce back from a disappointing finish at the NCAAs, which saw him eliminated two wins shy of All-American status. Zillmer won the 85 kilogram category in the Greco-Roman tournament.
“John” Blaize Campbell, a senior at Northern Iowa, qualified for the NCAA tournament but was unfortunately not cleared to wrestle due to illness. However, Blaize recovered in time to throw down in his home gym, emerging victorious in the 125 kilogram men’s freestyle division.
The tournament also helped reestablish two lightweights who had not been competing regularly for several years. Champions BJ “Back to the” Futrell, at 65 kilos, and Obe “Wan” Blanc, at 57 kilos, both have experience overseas and won medals amidst top notch international competition. Additionally, Blanc was the USA’s team representative at 55 kilos in the 2010 World Championship.
The highlight of the tournament was a showcase of the future of USA wrestling at 74 kilograms, when 2014 Junior World Team member Anthony Valencia “Oranges?” [sorry, hitting a wall here] faced off against 2015 Junior World Team member Mark “Kids in the” Hall in the finals. Hall, a Penn State signee, got the better of Valencia, who has just completed his redshirt freshman year at Arizona State. This was not before Valencia did his best Frogger impression with an acrobatic, improvised leap frog take down to go up by a point with less than a minute left in the match. Hall would not be denied, however, and by dint of will, secured the winning takedown with mere seconds left in the match.
Perhaps more impressive is the fact that Hall was nearly beaten by technical fall in the quarterfinals by former Lehigh Mountainhawk, Santiago Martinez, rallying from a 8-0 deficit to win and advance. Coming in third (and falling to Valencia in the quarters) was 4X Pennsylvania state champ Chance “30 Seconds to” Marsteller, who put together his own highlight reel on his march to a bronze medal. Though he did not qualify for the Trials, Chance is another bright spot in Team USA’s deep and young 74 kg weight class.
The stakes are immeasurably heightened this Saturday and Sunday as America’s best will enter Carver-Hawkeye Arena with Olympic dreams on the line. One speed bump on the road to glory for some of the athletes is the fact that the USA is only qualified to participate in 9 out of a possible 16 weight classes in Rio at the moment. The Team Trials winner in those other 7 weight classes will need to qualify the weight in 2 more tournaments happening overseas in the next month. But that person will have to run the domestic gauntlet first.
Zane Simon & T.P. Grant are back to talk about this week’s batch of young talent, and most particularly, about a prospect laden UFC card going down this weekend. Most notable this week are Curtis Blaydes, Francis Ngannou, & Marcin Tybura in the UFC. And out of it we have Alexey Kunchenko, Magomed, Ankalaev, Abubakar Vagaev, Vlad Popovskiy and many more.
Zane Simon & T.P. Grant are back to talk about this week’s batch of young talent, and most particularly, about a prospect laden UFC card going down this weekend. Most notable this week are Curtis Blaydes, Francis Ngannou, & Marcin Tybura in the UFC. And out of it we have Alexey Kunchenko, Magomed, Ankalaev, Abubakar Vagaev, Vlad Popovskiy and many more.
