But can we please talk about how Brock Lesnar snapped The Undertaker’s undefeated Wrestlemania streak at Sunday night’s Wrestlemania XXX at 21 straight Wrestlemania victories? Because holy shit, Brock Lesnar snapped The Undertaker’s undefeated Wrestlemania streak, and I’d really like to talk about it.
(Your reaction. Enjoy it before it gets taken down.)
But can we please talk about how Brock Lesnar snapped The Undertaker’s undefeated Wrestlemania streak at Sunday night’s Wrestlemania XXX at 21 straight Wrestlemania victories? Because holy shit, Brock Lesnar snapped The Undertaker’s undefeated Wrestlemania streak, and I’d really like to talk about it.
I probably don’t speak for the majority of fans when I write that I was getting pretty sick of The Streak. It was next to impossible to get excited about his Wrestlemania matches when everyone already knew the routine: ‘Taker kicks out of his opponent’s finisher a few times, hits the tombstone, roll credits. (The irony of wrestling fans complaining about predictable booking, then celebrating The Streak wasn’t lost on me, either.) And let’s face it, if The Undertaker won on Sunday night after spending the overwhelming majority of the match on his back, it would have felt cheap.
After battering and busting up Urijah Faber en route to his 29th straight victory, newly-crowned interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao proved to the world at UFC 149 that his win streak was the product of hard work and dedication, not the culmination of years spent crushing cans that seemed to be the case for a certain somebody making his long awaited debut just one fight before. This is not to say that Hector Lombard doesn’t push himself as a fighter — by all accounts he does the exact opposite, in fact — but to say that Lombard was the first fighter to come to the UFC on a huge win streak, only to have said streak invalidated almost immediately would be a bold faced lie (Jason Reinhardt, anyone? How about our buddy Sean McCorkle?).
But when guys who have spent years fighting below their level come up short on the big stage, it just makes it all the more impressive to see the Barao’s and Ryan Jimmo‘s of the world succeed in living up to their hype. Simply put, it’s no coincidence that most of the guys with the greatest win streaks in the sport are all champions, and the rest are either made up (I shall refer you to the infamous tale of Craig Rehage as my primary example) or busted as soon as the fighter faces some legit competition.
However, when trying to determine which champion has the most impressive win streak of them all, we surprisingly found ourselves at odds. Some of us went with the obvious choice in Anderson Silva, some of us thought that Jon Jones’ streak was more impressive, and ReX thought that Ronda Rousey’s run stood atop them all before snatching a copy of her ESPN magazine shoot and running off to our executive bathroom. He has yet to return.
So as is often the case when we are struggling to decide upon an issue, we will hand the power over to you, Potato Nation. After the jump, you will find a survey. The topic: “Which Current Champion Has the Greatest Win Streak in MMA?” You WILL vote on this poll, and you WILL leave us your convincing arguments in the comments section. Sound good?
After battering and busting up Urijah Faber en route to his 29th straight victory, newly-crowned interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao proved to the world at UFC 149 that his win streak was the product of hard work and dedication, not the culmination of years spent crushing cans that seemed to be the case for a certain somebody making his long awaited debut just one fight before. This is not to say that Hector Lombard doesn’t push himself as a fighter — by all accounts he does the exact opposite, in fact — but to say that Lombard was the first fighter to come to the UFC on a huge win streak, only to have said streak invalidated almost immediately would be a bold faced lie (Jason Reinhardt, anyone? How about our buddy Sean McCorkle?).
But when guys who have spent years fighting below their level come up short on the big stage, it just makes it all the more impressive to see the Barao’s and Ryan Jimmo‘s of the world succeed in living up to their hype. Simply put, it’s no coincidence that most of the guys with the greatest win streaks in the sport are all champions, and the rest are either made up (I shall refer you to the infamous tale of Craig Rehage as my primary example) or busted as soon as the fighter faces some legit competition.
However, when trying to determine which champion has the most impressive win streak of them all, we surprisingly found ourselves at odds. Some of us went with the obvious choice in Anderson Silva, some of us thought that Jon Jones’ streak was more impressive, and ReX thought that Ronda Rousey’s run stood atop them all before snatching a copy of her ESPN magazine shoot and running off to our executive bathroom. He has yet to return.
So as is often the case when we are struggling to decide upon an issue, we will hand the power over to you, Potato Nation. After the jump, you will find a survey. The topic: “Which Current Champion Has the Greatest Win Streak in MMA?” You WILL vote on this poll, and you WILL leave us your convincing arguments in the comments section. Sound good?
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.
A convincing argument could be made for JDS boasting the single most remarkable contender streak in UFC history. If you’ve failed to be impressed by Junior’s seven consecutive triumphs since entering the UFC back in October 2008 — and the level of competition they came against — then you’re evidently not a very excitable person. In fact, it’s likely that you possess the same stoicism characterised by “Cigano’s” adversary this weekend, Señor Velasquez.
You see, unbeaten runs aren’t common in the UFC. This isn’t the world of boxing, where fighters are fed 20 journeymen before they get thrown to the lions. And that’s precisely why the MMA community purrs over such immaculate resumes. So which UFC fighters built up the most impressive win streaks en route to their first title shot? These five come to mind…
A convincing argument could be made for JDS boasting the single most remarkable contender streak in UFC history. If you’ve failed to be impressed by Junior’s seven consecutive triumphs since entering the UFC back in October 2008 — and the level of competition they came against — then you’re evidently not a very excitable person. In fact, it’s likely that you possess the same stoicism characterised by “Cigano’s” adversary this weekend, Señor Velasquez.
You see, unbeaten runs aren’t common in the UFC. This isn’t the world of boxing, where fighters are fed 20 journeymen before they get thrown to the lions. And that’s precisely why the MMA community purrs over such immaculate resumes. So which UFC fighters built up the most impressive win streaks en route to their first title shot? These five come to mind…
1. Junior Dos Santos
Since he burst onto the global MMA scene with an emphatic knockout of Fabricio Werdum at UFC 90 in October 2008, Junior “Two Saints” has blitzed his way through the heavyweight division with consummate ease. Four of his seven UFC scraps have concluded via first-round T/KO, with Fabricio Werdum, Stefan Struve, Gilbert Yvel and Gabriel Gonzaga feeling the full force of Cigano’s fury.
He also made Mirko Cro Cop cry uncle, and most recently dominated Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin, who both withstood an inhumane amount of punishment in their one-sided decision losses. Lesser men (i.e. you or I) would have succumbed to Junior’s pre-fight gaze, never mind his onslaught of significant strikes. What renders Dos Santos’s UFC tenure so incredible is the fact that he seemingly hasn’t been troubled in the slightest. He has dominated a “who’s who” catalogue of the division’s most dangerous challengers and decorated veterans without losing a single round.
2. Cain Velasquez
Cain’s contender run leading up to his UFC 121 title match against Brock Lesnar last year was also extraordinary, perhaps only marginally less so than Junior’s, owing to the calibre of victims on his professional MMA resume. Six straight victories in the UFC is no joke, even if you’re defeating fighters that are languishing in the lower echelons of the division. Velasquez clinched his title shot with a first-round steamrolling of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 110. Before that, he scored notable wins over Ben Rothwell and Cheick Kongo. But unlike Junior, Cain has at least been hurt momentarily in the UFC, getting dropped twice by Kongo at UFC 99, the sole evening on which Velasquez has been made to compete for three full rounds.
Jon Fitch is simultaneously the most overrated and underrated fighter in the UFC. While that’s clearly an oxymoron, you understand my sentiment. He employs a “style” of fighting that gets fans cheering — for referee standups.
But whether you love the Vegan mean-mugger or not, the one thing you absolutely cannot refute is his unerring capacity to grind out results, as attested to by his phenomenal Octagon record both before and after his UFC 87 title shot against Georges St. Pierre in August 2008. Quite simply put, unless your initials are GSP, you ain’t emerging from the Octagon victorious against Monsieur Fitch.
After joining the UFC in late 2005, Fitch amassed a staggering eight-straight wins (including the scalps of Thiago Alves and Diego Sanchez) within a two-and-a-half year period, earning a shot at GSP’s coveted title, but as anticipated, Fitch suffered a humbling one-sided loss to “Rush.” Had Fitch prevailed, he would have surpassed Royce Gracie’s streak of eight straight wins (a record that has since been broken by Anderson Silva, currently on fourteen as of November 2011).
But a true champion is one who can rebound from a defeat. And rebound is exactly what Fitch has done, subsequently embarking on a six-fight unbeaten streak which has captured the attention (if not the imagination) of most except the most important man in the business, Uncle Dana. The problem with Fitch 2.0 is that he appears even fonder of the decision victory. Prior to the GSP affair, he actually finished 50% of his fights. Following the GSP loss, this percentage has plummeted to 0%.
On the next page: Our picks in the lightweight and light-heavyweight divisions…
(The pink-shirted gangster and the Canadian poster-boy have compiled the two longest win streaks in UFC history. Props: fightworld.com.br)
If Jim Miller can sock away his eighth consecutive UFC victory in August, he’ll become just the seventh fighter in the promotion’s history to accomplish that feat; Cain Velasquez also has a chance to join the club in October. With that in mind, we figured it would be a good time to publish a stats list of the UFC’s greatest win streaks — both all-time, and ongoing.
For the purposes of these lists, we only included fighters whose UFC win streaks were unbroken by draws or no-contests. However, if a fighter competed for different promotions between stints in the UFC, only the UFC fights are counted. If we’ve accidentally omitted somebody, please let us know in the comments section. And as with our previous stats lists, timelines, and leaderboards, we’ll periodically update this page when there are changes. Now let’s get to the numbers…
(The pink-shirted gangster and the Canadian poster-boy have compiled the two longest win streaks in UFC history. Props: fightworld.com.br)
If Jim Miller can sock away his eighth consecutive UFC victory in August, he’ll become just the seventh fighter in the promotion’s history to accomplish that feat; Cain Velasquez also has a chance to join the club in October. With that in mind, we figured it would be a good time to publish a stats list of the UFC’s greatest win streaks — both all-time, and ongoing.
For the purposes of these lists, we only included fighters whose UFC win streaks were unbroken by draws or no-contests. However, if a fighter competed for different promotions between stints in the UFC, only the UFC fights are counted. If we’ve accidentally omitted somebody, please let us know in the comments section. And as with our previous stats lists, timelines, and leaderboards, we’ll periodically update this page when there are changes. Now let’s get to the numbers…
