So it struck me that all of the current UFC champs only have two or less losses. HW: Velasquez- 1 Loss LHW- Jones- 1 DQ Loss MW- Weidman- undefeated WW- Hendricks- 2 Losses LW- Pettis- 2 Losses FW- Aldo- 1 Loss BW- Dillashaw- 2 Losses FlW- MM- 2 Losses WBW- Rousey- Undefeated So I decided to list every UFC champion in every weight class, and count up the number of champions with two losses or less (at the time they were champions.) Interim champions who do not become the undisputed champion do not count, and this is based off of Wikipedia. Parentheses around the name indicate a champ with less than 2 losses. HW- (Coleman), Smith, (Couture), Rutten, Randleman, Couture, (Barnett), (Rodriguez), (Sylvia), (Mir), Arlovski, (Sylvia), Couture, (Lesnar), (Velasquez), (Dos Santos), (Velasquez). 11 out of 17. LHW- Shamrock, (Ortiz), Couture, Belfort, Couture, Liddell, Jackson, Griffin, (Evans), (Machida), Rua, (Jones). 4 out of 12. MW- Menne, (Bustamante), Tanner, (Franklin), Silva, (Weidman). 3 out of 6. WW- (Miletich), Newton, Hughes, (Penn), Hughes, (GSP), Serra, (GSP) 4 out of 8 LW- (Pulver), (Sherk), Penn, (Edgar), (Henderson), (Pettis). 5 out of 6. FW- (Aldo) 1 out of 1 BW- (Cruz), (Barao), (Dillashaw) 3 out of 3 FlW- (Johnson) 1 out of 1 WBW- (Rousey) 1 out of 1 So we have 33 out of 55 champions, or 60% of champions. Furthermore, excluding Silva, the last time we had a champ more than two losses was...Shogun, back in 2011. The smaller weight classes push the percentage up, but I think its still a cool statistic. So who do you think is going to be the next champion to break the streak? My best guesses are Werdum at HW, Machida at MW, and Lawler at WW. Don't know if they'll pull it off, but they are the closest to making it happen.
It's hard to become champion if you keep losing unless you go full Cheal and talk/luck up your way into a title shot while having a style that can indeed beat the current champ. I'm not the biggest DC fan but he has a style that (if he can implement) may beat Jones, but he's got 0 loses Other than that being the champ is about overcoming the style even if the style could beat you (i.e., Silva, Sonnen 1).
