Sliding Doors: 5 Fight Outcomes That Would Have Changed the UFC Forever

Ever wonder what life might be like if a defining moment had turned out differently? If some memorable thing had been spun entirely in the opposite direction?
Surely you have. There have been plenty of movies made about such occurrences and altern…

Ever wonder what life might be like if a defining moment had turned out differently? If some memorable thing had been spun entirely in the opposite direction?

Surely you have. There have been plenty of movies made about such occurrences and alternate timelines and what have you, and they always seem to catch people’s attention because it is generally a fun little thought exercise to consider alternative outcomes.

And where could one have more fun with said exercise than in the world of MMA, where outrageous happenings are the norm and things that would rock other sports to the core are more or less just another day on MMA Twitter for most.

What follows is a look at five UFC fights that would have changed the course of the promotion if the man who walked out victorious had lost. It’s counterfactual history, nothing more than a bit of fun, but it’s the exact type of exercise that can make one wonder: What would the UFC today look like if icons became afterthoughts, if legends became losers?

Take a look, give it some thought and even add your own in the comments section if you have them. After all, that’s what this whole thing is about.

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Demian Maia, Nate Diaz and the Best Active UFC Fighters to Never Win UFC Gold

Marino. Malone. Moss. Maia?
The jiu-jitsu world champ and current UFC contender has torn off six straight wins, several of them over the company’s top welterweights.
However, at age 39, the end of Demian Maia’s career, or at least his athletic prime, i…

Marino. Malone. Moss. Maia?

The jiu-jitsu world champ and current UFC contender has torn off six straight wins, several of them over the company’s top welterweights.

However, at age 39, the end of Demian Maia‘s career, or at least his athletic prime, is growing more prominent at the horizon. What’s more, consistent dominance notwithstanding, his style isn’t the most pyrotechnic of things, and that rather than simply winning is critical to a shot at UFC gold.

This Saturday at UFC 211, Maia faces Jorge Masvidal, himself an accomplished fighter who hasn’t yet obtained a title fight. The winner may earn that elusive contest. Or not. 

In the meantime, it got us thinking. Who, along with Maia, are the best active UFC fighters to never wear UFC gold? Who are the Dan Marinos, the Karl Malones and the Randy Mosses of MMA? Let’s take a look and count them up.

First, a few ground rules. Admittedly, we’re threading a bit of a needle here. We’re looking for non-title-winning fighters with the most impressive career resumes, but who are not only active but viable today. So there’s a sweet spot. For example, while there’s a case to be made that Khabib Nurmagomedov is the best lightweight on the planet right now, his actual career accomplishments don’t carry him as far as those of, say, Dustin Poirier, who has a much longer UFC tenure.

(Poirier also competes this Saturday at UFC 211, facing Eddie Alvarez with a potential title shot on the line.)

Entire careers are considered, but UFC success receives heavy emphasis. We are talking about UFC titles, after all.

All fighter record information courtesy of Sherdog.com

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Stipe Miocic, Junior Dos Santos and the 20 Best Heavyweights in MMA History

There’s something special about the heavyweights. Just ask the 90,000 fans who packed Wembley Stadium to see boxing’s Anthony Joshua stake his claim to the crown in April.
The heavyweight kingpin isn’t just one champion among many—he’s the most d…

There’s something special about the heavyweights. Just ask the 90,000 fans who packed Wembley Stadium to see boxing’s Anthony Joshua stake his claim to the crown in April.

The heavyweight kingpin isn’t just one champion among many—he’s the most dangerous unarmed combatant on the planet. Bigger, badder and tougher than his peers.

In the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the title of “world’s most dangerous man” has come with a curse of sorts. In the 20 years since Mark Coleman won the inaugural heavyweight championship, no one has managed to defend the title more than twice in a single reign. 

That lack of exceptionalism makes parsing any best-of list an extraordinarily subjective undertaking. With no dominant runs inside the promotion, a look beyond the Octagon is in order. So is an analysis of a fighter’s career both before and after sitting on the throne. 

On Saturday, Stipe Miocic will attempt to defend his UFC championship for a second time against former champion Junior dos Santos. The stakes are high—historical legacy up for grabs along with a title belt. Where do the two men rank among the best ever? Read on to find out!

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The Case Against Every UFC Champion

Champions are champions for a reason. But they’re never infallible, especially in a crucible as intense as MMA. 
Reams of pixels, if pixels can truly be said to exist on reams, are regularly generated on what makes each reigning UFC champion great…

Champions are champions for a reason. But they’re never infallible, especially in a crucible as intense as MMA

Reams of pixels, if pixels can truly be said to exist on reams, are regularly generated on what makes each reigning UFC champion great. Still, each man or woman with a belt on his or her mantelpiece has at least one key flaw. 

Given what we know about the importance of self-promotion and the current fishbowl nature of our celebrity society and all that stuff, flaws outside the cage can be just as important as flaws inside it.

So let’s take a close look at each of the 11 UFC titleholders and tease out one key weakness for each. We will do this not because we’re drinking “haterade,” but because, hey, we’re all human, and until the robots take over, our human weaknesses should be part of the discourse.

Ready? Great, let’s get it on.

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UFC 210 Results: The Real Winners and Losers from Cormier vs. Johnson 2

Rightly or otherwise, there is an air of illegitimacy hanging over the UFC light heavyweight division.
Jon Jones might be the best MMA fighter ever. Until he returns to action—his current suspension ends in July—the belt feels a little, wel…

Rightly or otherwise, there is an air of illegitimacy hanging over the UFC light heavyweight division.

Jon Jones might be the best MMA fighter ever. Until he returns to action—his current suspension ends in July—the belt feels a little, well, interim-y. 

That may not sound fair to Daniel Cormier, the undisputed champion of the division (though he lost when he faced Jones in 2015. It’s certainly not fair to the main event of UFC 210, in which Cormier defended said title in a rematch with power-striking terror Anthony Johnson on Saturday. 

The wrestling of Cormier and the furious, short-fused knockouts of Johnson provided a compelling stylistic contrast, whether Jones loomed over it or not. (He will, one can assume, almost surely face the winner next.)

Still, most of the fight-week intrigue was drummed up by the New York State Athletic Commission. That’s not ideal. More on that momentarily.

Back in the cage, the co-main event featured ex-champ Chris Weidman and the streaking Gegard Mousasi battling to gain headway at the crowded top of the middleweight division.

As always, there was intrigue up and down this card, and the final stat lines only reveal so much. These are the real winners and losers from UFC 210, which went down in Buffalo, New York.

Full card results appear at the end of the article.

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UFC 210 Predictions: Bleacher Report Main Card Staff Picks

After an extended March Madness-related hiatus, the UFC is back in full force Saturday with UFC 210, going down in Buffalo, New York.
The narrative on Daniel Cormier has become clear over the course of the week. This card does not carry the buzz that o…

After an extended March Madness-related hiatus, the UFC is back in full force Saturday with UFC 210, going down in Buffalo, New York.

The narrative on Daniel Cormier has become clear over the course of the week. This card does not carry the buzz that others carry. Cormier, who defends his light-heavyweight title against first-round terror Anthony Johnson in the evening’s main event, bears some responsibility for this, but is chronically under-appreciated by the mainstream MMA– and sports-going publics. 

Perhaps if the former Olympic wrestler can defeat the knockout artist Johnson for the second time—Cormier choked him out in 2015 to take the belt vacated by a wayward Jon Jones—that would add enough mass to create a tipping point.

We shall see Saturday. We shall also see about the co-main event, which pits middleweight contenders Chris Weidman and Gegard Mousasi against each other. And those are only two of the five fights scheduled for the pay-per-view card.

We can’t let you watch these fights with no information or perspective. So we’re giving you a breakdown and a prediction for each of these main-card contests. It’s our tried-and-true staff predictions team. Steven Rondina. Craig Amos. Nathan McCarter. And myself, Scott Harris. Let’s get it on. 

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