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

[CroCopsLHK]

Rory beat Woodley- Just not when he was champ. Rory instead had to Re Lawler for the title and the rest was history

 

[CroCopsLHK]

Also, along with Sherdog legacy lore, I must mention TJ Grant

Was making a run and DESTROYED Maynard. One of my friends said "he needs to fight for gold". And the post fight interview it was like hell yeah!

Then he got a concussion in training and disappeared completely. Who knows how he wouldve faired against Bendo

 

[TRYHARD 2001]

Michael Johnson would have beaten Eddie Alvarez or Conor McG. Safe to say Khabibi was a bridge too far for him at the time, though...

 

[jsbx45]

Yeah but he won the belt back quickly from Frankie Edgar anyway

That belt had lost a lot of weight because of all that paper in it at that point. Jose did good though.

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

Cerrone when Eddie Alvarez became champ, already dominated him the first time (aside from that weird clinch shenanigans in rd 1 where he kept clinching and let Eddie punch him in the face repeatedly).

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

Obviously Romero would have annihilaed Bisping

TRT Vitor may have beaten Weidman but stupid USADA had to happen

I feel like even old man Wonderboy could beat JDM, maybe he would have beaten Leon Edwards too.. MVP would dominate JDM unless JDM turned into a wrestler

Horiguchi, imo, would have beaten any 125lb champ post Cejudo if he didn't leave the UFC.

Rory handled Woodley without much trouble but the 2nd Lawler fight destroyed him, wasn't the same after. Otherwise he likely could have beaten Woodley the same way he did the first time.

 

[FilipEmoFights]

Shogun clearly lost the first Machida fight

 

[FilipEmoFights]

Cerrone when Eddie Alvarez became champ, already dominated him the first time (aside from that weird clinch shenanigans in rd 1 where he kept clinching and let Eddie punch him in the face repeatedly).

Just watched this fight last night
After the first round I was wondering how Cowboy ended up winning that fight but once he had hurt Eddies leg and ruined his movement Cowboy was basically doing anything he wanted. Great win for Cerrone no one beat Eddie again until Conor did.
And then Eddie KO’d Justin (probably Eddies greatest win in the UFC aside from the title)

 

[BowserJr]

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

Jacare over GSP, Bisping, Weidman or Luke in a rematch
Romero over the same guys

Robbie over Woodley in a rematch
Rory over Woodley in a rematch

 

[BowserJr]

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.


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.


I mean, Johnny's biggest weakness was his chin, and Jon, for all his incredible strengths, was never a chin-checker.

This very small type of fact is missed by so many people who automatically assume X fighters beats Y fighter cuz X fighter has a better record. Its not always that simple. Thank you for noticing

 

[snugglecakes]

half the lightweight roster when conor was champ

half the middleweight roster when bisping was champ

 

[bjjwar]

Everytime some bum like Bisping, Serra, JDM, etc gets a title you can basically pick every single fighter on the roster.

 

[HHJ]

That belt had lost a lot of weight because of all that paper in it at that point. Jose did good though.

Not his fault Conor moved up, so this shit talking is quite misdirected.