Fighters that surprised you they never became a UFC champion?

[Kenny Powerth]

I agree with TS.

If CroCop would have beat Gonzaga I’m 100% confident he would have beaten Couture. After that who knows.

 

[Bojka]

Stephen Thompson. After embarrassing Rory and Hendricks, he looked like a shoe in for the title.

 

[ferrisjso]

Wanna put one of my faves down but none of them ever overcome my jinx except if they are Jones. Evans overcame the jinx of my fandom and he got Shadfaced. So thought they were capable of being champ but at the same time knew things weren't going to work for them in the end, and of course they didn't. Dodson, Carwin, Davis same old same old. And yeah Thiago Silva. Him it's weird cause he lost to Machida and Shad(close fight too) and basically fought good enough to be an elite LHW people just forgot about him, he didn't actually decline most bizzare thing I've ever seen in MMA. He could be a better fighter than AS, would have picked Thiago. We'll never know because the MMA community decided to pretend he didn't exist.

Expected Benavidez to beat MM. Rory I felt they were setting up to be GSP's successor for all their Canada stuff, surprised that went the way it did.

 

[Bastet]

Jacare. He could've beat some of the former MW champs.

 

[Char Jawz]

Especially with how close the Bendo fight was. I thought at the time he'd give Pettis hell but Pettis was the first to tap him out and then I thought Pettis was gonna hold the strap for ages. Then RDA came along and I thought no one would beat him especially after he killed Cowboy. Then I thought Eddie would handle Conor and eventually Khabib. In other words LW is the most competitive, crazy division in mma considering how good the champions have been

Plus, Giblert seemed pretty unbeatable during his Strikeforce run, while Eddie had a couple rough patches during his Bellator run.

 

[K-Bag]

The Groovy one

 

[Char Jawz]

Andy Wang

He was a champion...he was the "warrior-not-a-punk" champ, man.

 

[ferrisjso]

Also thought Carwin would beat Lesnar.

He kind of did. Feel in a HW fight not calling a fight in the first round cause a guy who's getting brutalized could possibly come back in later rounds is tipping your fingers on the scales in a way it wouldn't be in other divisions.

 

[Psychedelic]

Houston Alexander
Bradon Vera
Erick Silva
Sage Northcutt

 

[ferrisjso]

The UFC Featherweight title is just a renamed version of the WEC Featherweight title. As far as I'm concerned, Faber was a champion.

Exactly,

If anyone needs a reminder of how insane Rumble at LHW was, see Rumble vs Bader the Bellator Champ-Champ.

Crushed him like he was a yoga mat.

Thing with Rumble is though if he couldn't knock you out in the first round he was fucked. If Bader survived the round, he'd have won and most elitefighters who actually can strike(sorry Phil) would easily win. First round KO defeat doesn't mean anything against Rumble if it's pretty much the only way you can lose.

 

[The6 mma]

I always had high hopes for Tyson Griffin and Dennis Bermudez. Never achieved what I thought they could. Definitely Gilbert Melendez i thought he was going to kill the division.

 

[TRUS8888]

Overeem
Gus
Romero
Wonderboy

 

[orca]

Also brandon Vera was hyped up big until big tim ended that hype train lol

Competitive fight he broke his hand took tim down right? But yeah i think hes a small hw back then

 

[NorrisB]

Gustafsson

Chael

Antonio Big Foot Silva

TRT Vitor never became MW champion

 

[Zaar]

I still think Cro Cop wasn't in it mentally as before.
IIRC, around that time he also decided to dabble in politics and was in the "congress" (can't remember the correct term, FML) as well.
Not to mention, if I'm not mistaken, he used to spar with his, later, conditioning coach.

All in all, his preparations weren't on the level, I'd say.
Not trying to take away anything from the quality of the opposition, ofc.

 

[VAfan]

Jacare. thought he'd get there for sure.

 

[ralek4grammy]

Dana "The Warrior King" White.

Spoiler

 

[esum80]

artem.

watch him be bare knuckle champ now.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

Of recent Stephen Thompson.

From Pride, CroCop and Wanderlei.