Fighters who could've beaten the champ, but didn't get a shot

fractal

fractal

93andbeyond.com
@red
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Messages
9,491
Reaction score
1,951
Which fighter could've beaten the champ in their division at that time, but failed to earn a shot.

eg, Luke Rockhold - he had the tools to beat Bisping in the rubber, but just couldn't get a title shot. Completely schooled Bisping in the first and then just got way too cocky in the second and got KTFOed
 
out of 8 billion people on planet Earth only 28 people dared to step inside the octagon with Him.
People talk about GOATs like GaySP, John Johnes, Fedora or someone else. But how many these so called GOATs mentioned his name?
Khabib needed ambush attack supported by around 10 people just to still not being able to land a single significant strike or takedown in interaction with Him.
He was so good that mediocre one-trick pony McGregor became two-division champ simply training with Him in the same gym from time to time.

All of them begged Dana White to keep Him away from fighting them, otherwise..
1 (75).jpg
 
Rob Perez from DBX could've been HW champ in #PowerSlap . In his first match, he tanked 3 shots from the heaviest hitter in the division at the time and showed nothing that would suggest future stepping or clubbing fouls. According to my predictive models, good defense and a low offensive foul rate are the best predictors of long-term success in the sport.

Unfortunately he wasn't allowed to continue competing due to having 1 working eye. #SafetyFirst
 
Even though he looked like shit against Gonzaga and never looked as good as he did in 2006 ever again, I think Cro Cop still would've beaten Randy in 2007. He was faster than Randy and as strong if not stronger, and Randy's striking had improved but not enough to deal with Cro Cop's. But Gonzaga Cro Copped Cro Cop before that could happen.

I also think Arlovski could've beaten Frank Mir for the HW title in 2004, but of course Mir got hurt and Arlovski became interim champ. Back then, though, Mir's striking and cardio were both shit. If Arlovski didn't KO him quickly, he would've sprawled-and-brawled until Mir gassed and then Arlovski would've KO'd him.

And I think Hughes would've beaten Serra at UFC 79 had Serra not gotten injured. I knew as soon as I heard the news of the injury that Hughes would never be WW champ again. I knew GSP had surpassed him, but I was hoping he'd at least get to be three-time WW champ and then drop the belt to GSP again. Alas, Serra got hurt and the Rush freight train came to town and GSP obliterated Hughes.
 
fractal said:
Which fighter could've beaten the champ in their division at that time, but failed to earn a shot.

eg, Luke Rockhold - he had the tools to beat Bisping in the rubber, but just couldn't get a title shot
Click to expand...

Yeah but at least Luke had the belt & Bisping won fair & square

Yoel was the #1 contender when Bisping was champ but the ufc went with GSP instead

That was Romero’s opportunity - could’ve been champ, but didn’t get his shot
 
OK, time to ruffle some feathers... but I feel like if a few things had gone differently, Jamahal Hill could have beaten Jiri earlier in each man's respective career. I remember feeling this way years ago when Jiri was champ and Hill had just scraped by Santos, but at the time I figured we'd never see the fight because between the two of them was a squad of Top 5 guys who represented stylistic nightmares for Hill and could effectively gatekeep him from entering the title picture... until Jiri got injured and Ank/Jan had their Draw.

I know Jamahal is understandably looked at with some disdain by many fans. It's true, he hasn't looked good lately and has always had some notable holes in his game. I do think a big part of his success came on the back of lucky matchmaking. Despite this, the guy who went on a run after losing to Craig to eventually beat (admittedly shopworn) Glover on short notice for the title was a moderately talented -- or at the very least, dangerous -- fighter all the same.

Jiri is awesome. Fun fighter, great character, solid resume. He is a superior fighter to Hill in the grand scheme of things. But his weaknesses are pretty well-known at this point. He's there to get hit, especially by good boxers inside the pocket. He doesn't move his head and he keeps his hands low, relying on his reaction time and toughness to carry him. Oftentimes that works, but we've seen him get hurt and even finished more than once. Even Glover was clubbing him with big shots and rocking him. I think his weaknesses are exactly the kind Jamahal could exploit given his fast hands and KO power.

If we look at it from the other direction, what does Hill struggle with? At one time his grappling was suspect, but he showed a fair amount of improvement against the ghost of Teixeira. Doesn't really matter because Jiri rarely commits to any sort of offensive grappling attack. I think Jamahal's bigger vulnerability is strikers who are cleaner than him and thus able to control distance and dictate exchanges -- especially with low kicks. That isn't Jiri. Jiri embraces the fire and will give you all sorts of opportunities to beam him with a check hook or 1-2. He also throws remarkably few low kicks compared to many of his opponents (I'm serious, just check the stats, especially from the beginning of his UFC run).

So it would basically be a race to see whether Jiri's pressure would break Jamahal's composure and melt him... or Jamahal finds a clean counter and puts his lights out in the pocket. Call me crazy, but I think that's a scenario where the latter is far from unthinkable.

"But we saw them fight and Jiri finished him!" you might argue. That's true, but I also think think the way that fight looked is not indicative of how it would've looked in the time frame I'm talking about. Jiri looked really good in that bout and showed things he's never shown before, like extensive head movement and some understanding of defensive responsibility and discipline. Meanwhile, I think Hill lost a lot of his mojo when he fucked his leg. Ever since that injury, he just seems unable to move and throw with anything resembling the same bounce or confidence that he enjoyed before. He also consistently shows up flabby and seemingly a bit uninterested ever since. If Hill had not incurred that injury and ended up facing a version of Jiri who was coming back from shoulder surgery in mid-to-late 2023? I don't think it would have been the foregone conclusion many might assume.
 
Last edited:
Jacare and Mousasi definitely. They were just as good as the champions of that time and had wins over them. Other than obviously not just being flat out undefeated, they were taken out of the picture for a couple of years with Bisping log jamming. Bisping, Henderson, and GSP all kind of leap frogged the division which probably screwed some guys (also probably gave Romero one less attempt to win a title).
 
Safton said:
OK, time to ruffle some feathers... but I feel like if a few things had gone differently, Jamahal Hill could have beaten Jiri earlier in each man's respective career. I remember feeling this way years ago when Jiri was champ and Hill had just scraped by Santos, but at the time I figured we'd never see the fight because between the two of them was a squad of Top 5 guys who represented stylistic nightmares for Hill and could effectively gatekeep him from entering the title picture... until Jiri got injured and Ank/Jan had their Draw.

I know Jamahal is understandably looked at with some disdain by many fans. It's true, he hasn't looked good lately and has always had some notable holes in his game. I do think a big part of his success came on the back of lucky matchmaking. Despite this, the guy who went on a run after losing to Craig to eventually beat (admittedly shopworn) Glover on short notice for the title was a moderately talented -- or at the very least, dangerous -- fighter all the same.

Jiri is awesome. Fun fighter, great character, solid resume. But his weaknesses are pretty well-known at this point. He's there to get hit, especially by good boxers inside the pocket. He doesn't move his head and he keeps his hands low, relying on his reaction time and toughness to carry him. Oftentimes that works, but we've seen him get hurt and even finished more than once. Even Glover was clubbing him with big shots and rocking him. I think his weaknesses are exactly the kind Jamahal could exploit given his fast hands and KO power.

If we look at it from the other direction, what does Hill struggle with? At one time his grappling was suspect, but he showed a fair amount of improvement against the ghost of Teixeira. Doesn't really matter because Jiri rarely commits to any sort of offensive grappling attack. I think Jamahal's bigger vulnerability is strikers who are cleaner than him and thus able to control distance and dictate exchanges -- especially with low kicks. That isn't Jiri. Jiri embraces the fire and will give you all sorts of opportunities to beam him with a check hook or 1-2. He also throws remarkably few low kicks compared to many of his opponents (I'm serious, just check the stats, especially from the beginning of his UFC run).

So it would basically be a race to see whether Jiri's pressure would melt Jamahal and break his composure or Jamahal finds a clean counter and puts his lights out in the pocket. Call me crazy, but I think that's a scenario where the latter is far from unthinkable.

"But we saw them fight and Jiri finished him!" you might argue. That's true, but I also think think the way that fight looked is not indicative of how it would've looked in the time frame I'm talking about. Jiri looked really good in that bout and showed things he's never shown before, like extensive head movement and some understanding of defensive responsibility and discipline. Meanwhile, I think Hill lost a lot of his mojo when he fucked his leg. Ever since that injury, he just seems unable to move and throw with anything resembling the same bounce or confidence that he enjoyed before. He also consistently shows up flabby and seemingly a bit uninterested ever since. If Hill had not incurred that injury and ended up facing a version of Jiri who was coming back from shoulder surgery in mid-to-late 2023? I don't think it would have been the foregone conclusion many might assume.
Click to expand...

want to see feathers get ruffled? hold my beer.

i think Johny Walker, before he lost to Cory Anderson, could've beaten Jon Jones.
<{ohyeah}>
 
I remember watching UFC 194 live and seeing the performances in Weidman-Rockhold, and thinking to myself, the 2 guys who just fought before them (Romero-Jacare) might be the 2 best MWs in MMA. Romero ended up beating both and Jacare beat Weidman, and he might have beaten Rockhold in a rematch. Romero obviously got his shot, but Jacare never got his. One of the best ever to not fight for the UFC title.

When Bisping was champ as OP mentioned, quite a few MWs would have been favored to beat him: Romero, Whittaker, Mousasi, Jacare.

I think Assuncao could have beaten Barao in 2014. Along with Jacare, one of the best ever to never fight for the UFC title. He was one of the best fighters in MMA, P4P, when he dropped down to BW. He went 11-1 from 2011-2018, and the only loss was to peak Dillashaw (who he held a win over, so he'd beaten everyone he fought, including Eduardo, Caraway, Munhoz, Sterling, Moraes, Font).

Formiga beat Fig less than a year before he won the vacant title. He lost a title eliminator against Benavidez, but had a very competitive fight against Moreno right after. I thought he arguably won that and wondered if he'd beat Fig in a rematch. We've never seen him past the 3rd round in MMA, so it would have been interesting if the fight ever got there. I recall him doing well later in fights with some borderline 10-8 rounds, like against Sergio. He's definitely one of the better fighter who never fought for a title, just couldn't get past guys like prime Benavidez, Dodson, Cejudo in those title eliminators.

When Blachowicz and Teixeira were UFC champs for a couple years, I remember thinking a few guys from Bellator could have beaten them: Nemkov, Davis, Bader, Anderson. Davis and Anderson had already dominated Teixeira, and a worse version of Bader who wasn't using his grappling as much had him hurt. Anderson was 1-1 against Blachowicz. That's one of the rare occasions where multiple fighters from another promotion might have been favored over the UFC champion. Bader, Davis and Anderson were all in title eliminators in UFC too, and ranked top 5 at one point, so it wasn't like they weren't in the discussion.
 
Last edited:
Phil Davis had some tough outs. He lost to Evans in a title eliminator, and even getting wins over Prado, Magalhaes, and Machida after that didn't give him another shot. He had to be given to Rumble after that, and Rumble is a scary dude to be up against. That loss and a really 50-50 close fight with Bader put him on the road to Bellator right when Jones wasn't champ anymore.

Jake Shields coming from SF MW champ to the UFC at WW was always a big question mark to me too. I think Hendo was the first guy to take Silva down and take a round that way, and it wasn't much longer that Shields survived a painful first round to utterly dominate Henderson in grappling. I guess he was close with Chael, who (after Shields signed and was already booked to fight Kampmann) would go on to give Silva the hardest fight of his life only to get submitted, whereas Shields was much more grappler than the pure wrestler Sonnen was.

Egészségére! said:
Yeah but at least Luke had the belt & Bisping won fair & square

Yoel was the #1 contender when Bisping was champ but the ufc went with GSP instead

That was Romero’s opportunity - could’ve been champ, but didn’t get his shot
Click to expand...
And the Hendo fight before it. Bisping wins the belt in June 2016, Romero was done w/ his suspension in July (#2 when he was removed in Januawy, #4 when he returned), but it's instead announced in August that Bisping would be fighting #13 Hendo. So Romero had to take Weidman. Bisping defends in Oct and, once again, Romero is ready just one month later after beating Chris, but Bisping is 'nursing some injuries' (from that farcical defense) until all of a sudden in March, he's booked against GSP, then he isn't and it's because GSP needs more time to put weight one, then no wait, actually Bisping is still injured, so Romero accepts an interim fight against Rob. So only with Romero losing and Rob injured from it, suddenly a month later, Bisping is good to go again, and the GSP fight is announced.

Honestly, so much of this thread can be the Bisping era. Especially when it was such a diverse shark tank of strikers like Silva, Machida, Belfort, Whittaker, grappling threats like Weidman, Romero, Souza, and mixed threats like Rockhold and Mousasi.

Pancake Sprawl said:
want to see feathers get ruffled? hold my beer.

i think Johny Walker, before he lost to Cory Anderson, could've beaten Jon Jones.
<{ohyeah}>
Click to expand...
I mean, Johnny's biggest weakness was his chin, and Jon, for all his incredible strengths, was never a chin-checker.
 
fractal said:
Which fighter could've beaten the champ in their division at that time, but failed to earn a shot.

eg, Luke Rockhold - he had the tools to beat Bisping in the rubber, but just couldn't get a title shot. Completely schooled Bisping in the first and then just got way too cocky in the second and got KTFOed
Click to expand...

They both talked about it on a podcast. Jaxxon afaik.
Bisping had 1 eye and got headbutted on the other. That's how the first fight went.

Bisping knew from sparring Rockhold that he can't defend a left hook. That's why he threw it over and over.
Luke also never learned to defend it, see his following knockout losses.

Therefore Bisping most likely would've won the 3rd fight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,280,502
Messages
58,290,344
Members
175,996
Latest member
blainepsychiatry

Share this page

Back
Top