Fighters with the worst UFC luck in hindsight

blaseblah

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Usually there's no big deal with fighters getting cut after a bad run in the UFC. They had a chance to prove themselves and they failed. But there's a few guys who had the worst luck in hindsight. I have two examples in mind.

Marcus Brimage:

He won 3 fights in a row before his luck soured. He ran into a debuting Conor McGregor and got KO'd in the first. After that, he lost a split decision and then won by KO. But next he had to face two more fighters making their debut. An unheralded Cody Garbrandt and Jimmie Rivera. Basically the UFC cut him for losing to two future champions and a top contender.

Jake O'Brien:

A promising heavyweight prospect who was undefeated. He won his first 3 UFC fights, including a win over Heath Herring. Then he ran into a prime Andrei Arlovski, who TKO'd him in the second round. After that he had to face a young 3-0 Cain Velasquez making his debut. Of course he got crushed. He moved to light heavyweight and won his next fight, but then he ran into this 22 year old kid named Jon Jones. Getting submitted by Jones was enough, he lost his job for losing to 3 MMA greats and future UFC hall of famers. To make matters worse, a year later he got a fight in DREAM and had to fight Mousasi. To this day those are his only 4 losses in his entire career. He won a couple more fights in tiny promotions and then retired at the age of 28. If you think about it, that could've been the career of almost anyone. Who knows how good he really was. He's still only 34, he could arguably be top 5 right now if he'd had better matchmaking.

Got any other examples?
 
Anderson and Jones for being suspended when both are clearly innocent
 
O'Brien definitely had a rough run. Was he the one on top of Arlovski and KOed from the bottom?
Who knows how he would have done against more middling competition.
 
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If he had just landed that big right hand...
 
Matt Hamill. Beat the Goat, yet never got to the top of the mountain to say "I got hear!"
 
Certainly not analogous to your examples but I don’t think Gerard Mousasi had a fair shake in the UFC.

The UFC let him walk even though he was clearly a top 5 guy in the MW division.

Moose had won 7 of his last 8 UFC bouts, and was on the short list for a title shot. Still pissed the UFC didn’t pony up the cash to keep him.
 
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Where did Thatch go? Thought he would have been a contender, lost to Benson, dissappeared off the earth.
 
Will Brooks is not as bad as his UFC run suggests.
Brooks was so disappointing after coming to the UFC. I was very surprised by his string of poor performances. Definitely a better fighter than he showed in the UFC.
 
Art Jimmerson got screwed...he got cut after one loss to the eventual 3 time champ. WTF Art Davie? They even have the same first name.
 
David Bielkheden debuted at UFC 82 against a prime Diego Sanchez, was dominated and had to tap to strikes. He never really recovered from that loss and was cut after 3 fights
 
Chael Sonnen.
If the ref had seen JJ's broken toe, he would have stopped the fight.
 
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