Guys who lose "The big one"

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@plutonium
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Who are the best fighters in MMA who never took home gold in a major organization?

Donald Cerrone for sure
Won his way to a title shot in WEC twice, failed twice
Climbed the mountain in the UFC, fell to Pettis in a number one contenders match then lost to RDA

Condit
Won an interim title, but never beat the guy
But on a show against GSP but was largely dominated, and lost to the homie Bob Lawler

Kenny "Let my people go" Florian
Never overcame or beat a the champion in two different weight classes. Also lost his TUF finale

Joey B Wan Kenobi
Came close to beating Dom the first time, and as well as DJ the first time
Fell to both in the rematches after destroying pretty much everybody else
 
Carlos won against Hobbie though.

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I'm glad Urijah had his hand on Gold back in WEC, but it's sad how it only got close but was never champion in UFC :(
 
Good list TS

Cowboy, Condit and Ken Flo jump immediately in my mind.

Jon Fitch is another won. I would have added Bisping but what he did to Rockhold was a thing of beauty.
 
Good list TS

Cowboy, Condit and Ken Flo jump immediately in my mind.

Jon Fitch is another won. I would have added Bisping but what he did to Rockhold was a thing of beauty.

Jon Fitch I forgot about
Bisping was the ultimate one, just because of how many wins he has - but he changed his legacy by one-punching Rockhold. Even if he never defends or gets the belt again, he's secured his legacy imho
 
I would take out Condit.

WEC Champion and he won the Interiim Championship, which is enough.

To the guy that said Cro Cop, winning the OWGP was enough to not have him in the list.

I wouldn't include guys who convincingly come through in title shots.

Cowboy is a good pick, unfortunately.
 
There are a bunch of guys. Starting from the early days:

Vitor Belfort - for such a legendary fighter who has had such a legendary career, he should have won more wins in fights for a championship.

Tank Abbott - Made it to the final in UFC 6 against Taktarov and fought for about 20 minutes straight (no rounds) at 1 mile above sea level before finally fatiguing. Then he made it to the finals of the second Ultimate Ultimate and was beating Don Frye easily, but then slipped and fell and got choked out as a result.

Josh Barnett - he was the youngest UFC Champion of all time but then if was found he was on bummed substances in that fight. Now, roughly 20 years later, he still has never won a UFC heavyweight Title again. he beats most people,but when he gets to close to a title shot he loses. He was well on his way to a title shot relatively recently and then inexplicable allowed Ben Rothwell to submit him! An interesting side note - he is the only top Heavyweight in PRIDE during Fedor's long title reign who was never given a shot at fedora by the PRIDE matchmakers. Was Fedor ducking him? They say styles make fights and considering he was the only guy in the top 3 of challengers to Fedor's PRIDE HW Title whose specialty was catch wrestling and the only one out of Cro Cop, Big Nog, and himself who never once got a shot at fedora in PRIDE.

Mark Hunt - every time he goes on a win streak, he loses when he gets too close to becoming a UFC Champion.

Overeem - he has held lots of championship belts but has never risen to the occasion in The UFC. He ha been close but never has won a UFC title. Now he's near 40 so it's now or never.
 
Uriah Faber?

I know he was wec champ, but in the ufc the guy has had more title shots than Oprah has had donuts in her life.
 
The ultimate in close but no cigar in the UFC is Uriah Faber. He loses title shots and then beats a nobody and gets another title shot which he loses. Then the process starts all over
 
There are a bunch of guys. Starting from the early days:

Vitor Belfort - for such a legendary fighter who has had such a legendary career, he should have won more wins in fights for a championship.

Tank Abbott - Made it to the final in UFC 6 against Taktarov and fought for about 20 minutes straight (no rounds) at 1 mile above sea level before finally fatiguing. Then he made it to the finals of the second Ultimate Ultimate and was beating Don Frye easily, but then slipped and fell and got choked out as a result.

Josh Barnett - he was the youngest UFC Champion of all time but then if was found he was on bummed substances in that fight. Now, roughly 20 years later, he still has never won a UFC heavyweight Title again. he beats most people,but when he gets to close to a title shot he loses. He was well on his way to a title shot relatively recently and then inexplicable allowed Ben Rothwell to submit him! An interesting side note - he is the only top Heavyweight in PRIDE during Fedor's long title reign who was never given a shot at fedora by the PRIDE matchmakers. Was Fedor ducking him? They say styles make fights and considering he was the only guy in the top 3 of challengers to Fedor's PRIDE HW Title whose specialty was catch wrestling and the only one out of Cro Cop, Big Nog, and himself who never once got a shot at fedora in PRIDE.

Mark Hunt - every time he goes on a win streak, he loses when he gets too close to becoming a UFC Champion.

Overeem - he has held lots of championship belts but has never risen to the occasion in The UFC. He ha been close but never has won a UFC title. Now he's near 40 so it's now or never.

Barnett and Vitor held titles in major organizations. I'd argue that if you held a title in pride or the ufc you don't belong on this list.

Reem was a K1 grand prix winner and strikeforce champ when their heavyweight division was stacked. I'd argue all of those guys are legends.

I guess you can include tank but was he ever any good?
 
Umm vitor and Faber both held gold in major orgs guys

The ones that jump to mind are Cerrone and Gustaffson
 
These are the dumbest threads ever.

Florian won plenty of huge fights. How the hell do you think he got to 3 title fights? Just a dumb example.

Cowboy Ceronne has won plenty of huge fights. He fights more than anyone, and fights whomever, whenever which puts him in a position to likely lose compared to pretty much any other fighter in history and wins the majority of the time. Another dumb example.

Condit actually beat Lawler, so this is the dumbest example. He was one of the closest guys to dethroning GSP, and GSP even said he was his toughest fight. ANother horrible example.

I hate these idiots that spew this garbage and disrespect elite fighters. Just because a guy can't get the belt and become a champ for several years doens't make him a choker in big fights.

The same guy would probably say that Bisping can win the big one all because he got lucky against Rockhold, when before that he never beat an elite fighter in his life.

Stop copying drunk statements from Dana White, and learn the history of MMA. Fight Pass would help.
 
Martin Kampmann unfortunately

First number one contender fight against Franklin at 72 he had to pull out of due to knee injury, Second number one contender fight he was supposed to fight mike Swick but got knocked out by late replacement Paul Daley at 103 and then in his last number one contender fight he got starched by Hendricks in like 15 seconds. It was always really disappointing as a fan
 
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