Greatest fighter to compete in the Octagon to not of won a title.........mine is

[EVIL WAR GOD]

Dan Henderson won the UFC 17 middleweight tournament championship

Split decision though, awesome fight.

 

[shankmcgank]

I liked Kenny Florian.

Not saying he was more decorated than Hendo or more deserving, but for me I wanted to see him win the title.

Unfortunately he just couldn't get the job done.

 

[Natural Order]

Mousasi

 

[Kono dio da!]

only other fighter i have seen on this list so far I could put up there, Mousassi was Deep, StrikeForce and Bellator champ and still fighting at the TOP level and just beat Machida, he is a good mention,

Lost every time he fought someone elite in the UFC.

 

[John makfresshi]

Benavidez

He beat Sergio Pettis!!!!... Fuck those ref.


Only lost x2 to the flyweight GOAT DJ, and BW Goat Cruz

Cruz beat him twice also no?

 

[John makfresshi]

He was on a revenge killing spree before his health gave out. Ground n pound ko over gonzaga, boxed big country's ass up, won a openweight grand prix, won a kickboxing grand prix.

I had serious reservations about how exactly jones or dc could beat this late version of cro cop let alone his pride run. Albeit he might have aged better than fedor did and become a more technically sound version of what prime fedor was.

One leg kick and i think jon jones is screwed. Just my two cents

Hes on a 10 fight win streak, won and defended the IGF title, won the OWGP, and hasn't lost since being submitted by Oliynyk by Scarfhold. Hes doing great still

 

[Gambit MMA]

condit

 

[laleggenda27]

All the other bullshit aside, losing to Shields is nothing to be ashamed of, and Misaki was actually pretty fucking good. Those were not “terrible losses” by any stretch of the means.

Shields was a WW and he absolutely dominated Hendo for 4 straight rounds. Yes, getting dominated by someone from a lower weight class is a bad loss. And Misaki was good, but he wasn't close to being an elite fighter. In fact, the only elite fighter he ever beat was Hendo. Considering the fact that Misaki never beat another top-level guy, I'd say that's a bad loss (relatively speaking).

 

[ejazahmednit]

Dan the hendo henderson is a very good answer
Throwing Overeem in this mix, probably would be knocked out by me throwing him though

 

[krelianx]

Joe Benavidez, Dan Henderson, Alistair Overeem, Gegard Mousasi, Wanderlei Silva, Donald Cerrone, Jake Shields.

 

[laleggenda27]

Wanderlei had an amazing 5-year run, and I'm not denying that, and I don't even care about the usual negative connotations thrown at Pride superstars. But let's not forget that 5-year run only had 3 title defenses. The reason I would place Hendo just as high, if not higher, is because Dan has always been in that conversation of the best in his weight class. Not just within one promotion. But every place he competed. When he was Decision Dan or H-Bomb, Henderson was challenging for a title. His "bad losses" are to Misaki, whom he had just beaten two months prior and Jake Shields, who just happens to be one of the other names being brought up on this thread, another fighter that won everywhere he went. Henderson is the same guy who won 3 tournaments in his first 9 fights with names like Newton, Big Nog, Yvel, and Sobral before losing to Wand who had already lost to a green Ortiz and Belfort before getting a decision over Henderson.

Actually, he had 4 title defenses. And during that reign, he also beat guys like Rampage, Sakuraba, and Yoshida in non-title fights.

Of course Hendo was good everywhere he went; he was a great fighter. All the great fighters would have been good in any promotion. And you're right, he was one of the best everywhere he went. But like I said, Hendo was never actually considered the best fighter in any division at any given time. Wand was LHW king for an extended period of time, during the golden era of LHW.

And it's a little disingenuous to mention Hendo "winning" the Rings tournament. His fight with Nog was without a doubt the biggest robbery I've seen in MMA. There's really no debate on that fight.

 

[dildos]

Romero and Ortega.

 

[fortheo]

Maia.

Ranked for over a decade
Challenged for a title twice
2nd most wins in UFC history
2nd most submissions in UFC history

Notable wins:
Jorge Masvidal
Ben Askren
Chael Sonnen
Carlos Condit
Matt Brown
Jon Fitch
Rick Story
Dong Hyun Kim
Nate Quarry
Gunnar Nelson
Neil Magny

 

[agibmxmma]

Joe B, Faber, Mendes, Yves, Thompson, Melendez, Cerrone, Nick, Shields, Hendo, Wand, Romero, Gegard, Cro Cop, Overeem.. all come to mind. Although Melendez, Shields and Cro Cop did not have the best UFC runs.

 

[Let's Dance]

Dan HENDO Henderson
StrikeForce 205 champ
Pride 183, 205 champ,
UFC 17 Tournament winner
2 Time Olympian in Wrestling
Notable UFC wins, Franklin, Bisping, Lombard, Shogun(2), Palhares,

Tough to argue against Hendo.

Hammer House went 2/3 for titles, but this guy coulda easily made it 3/3...

Fuckin’ don’t forget ya shine box!

Tank Abbott

 

[Make Sherdog Great Again]

*not have

 

[The Half Blood Prince]

I put an asterisk beside Hendo. He beat the shit out of Bisping and should've retired with the UFC MW belt around his waist.

but tbf he didnt deserve the title shot in terms of beating the tp ranked fighters etc. he was ranked outside of the top 10

 

[seanb1979]

Sakuraba

 

[linvillegorge]

but tbf he didnt deserve the title shot in terms of beating the tp ranked fighters etc. he was ranked outside of the top 10

Neither did Bisping when he rematched Rockhold. Doesn't matter if you "deserved" it or not, if you beat the champ you're the champ.

 

[The Half Blood Prince]

Neither did Bisping when he rematched Rockhold. Doesn't matter if you "deserved" it or not, if you beat the champ you're the champ.

except that isnt the same thing
Bisping was a late replacement and was not scheduled to originally fight Rockhold, from meory he stepped in with 2 weeks notice
Also i dont think Bisping was that low ranked
Regardless they scheduled a title fight from the get with a guy not even ranked in the top 10. Not taking anything away from Henderson, he's a great fighter ofc