The most career altering fights?

[Nate banged my mom]

Ben's career was done before he even came to UFC. He retired before being traded for Johnson and Alvarez. He didn't want to fight anymore, he just jumped on the chance to prove that Dana was wrong about him.

good to know I had no idea. Seriously

thanks for sharing Ben

 

[Bluntforce420]

George sotiropolous was on a roll, lost to Denis Siver and never won another fight

 

[Terrorist]

Woodley losing to Usman

 

[Deleted member 449757]

Gerard Gordeau vs. Yuki Nakai
Mark Coleman vs. Maurice Smith
Ken Shamrock vs. Don Frye

 

[Deleted member 512089]

The Chris after Rockhold
Rockhold after Bisping

This. Weidman has never been the same after that

 

[SHAZAM]

After Chuck got KOed by Rampage, his chin was shot. He went on to get KOed in 4 of his next 6 fights.

Disagree. The Shad KO would've KO'd a horse. His chin held up. He started fighting better competition that wasn't just looking for a TD. The only shot that shouldn't have put him out is the Franklin shot.

 

[Bork Neslar]

Mickey Gall was undefeated when he fought CM Punk. He has lost 3 fights since then. Mike Jackson practically retired after their fight. Punk altered both of their careers forever.

 

[gaffbyknees2]

When Tony Broke Justins fists on his face. Champ shit only

 

[wrestlefan]

Wanderlei/Sakuraba
Cro cop/Wanderlei
Herring/Nogueira 3 - that head kick took Nog out of his prime.

 

[gaffbyknees2]

I think brocks anal rapage of Heith ruined him.

 

[Pilo]

With GSP I actually think the big effect of the first Hughes fight was George improving his sub game. His wrestling was pretty dam good almost from debut but you'd seen hints at weakness to subs before with Karo threatening him early as well.

GSP for sure imrpoved his sub game, as he imrpoved all of his skills exponentially with every fight at that time.

The reason why I'm bringing up takedown defense is because Hughes was such an iconic and unbeatable champ, because he was a dominant wrestler and nobody could match that very specific skill that he used so effectively. In that sense, Hughes was soooo influential when it comes to GSP's entire career: GSP actually shaped his style based on that very skill that Hughes had, but he was smart enough to widen his skillset with the best guys from every discipline and never let his pride towards one specific discipline let him be one dimensional (which ironically led Hughes to his downfall eventually).

The reason why I think the key skill he focused on after the Hughes loss is takedown defense (not to say that he did not improve his JJ) is when you see how he fought Hughes the second time: sprawled and nullified all of Hughes takedown attempts, and kept the fight on the feet, where he knew he had the advantage.

Remember, the WW division had so many wrestlers at its top, it was almost ridiculous. Bringing that skill to the next level he knew he'd have the advantage against the likes of Sherk, Trigg and Hughes. And he managed to beat those three men handily.

 

[Mammothman]

Holm is still headlining UFC cards five years later based on the epic knockout of Ronda, despite a 4-5 record

I have never seen a fighter milking a win as much as her

 

[Nate banged my mom]

We thought Holloway vs Ortega would be one. Although I don’t like dbag Ortega he bounced back

hespect

 

[Richard Fannin]

Rory vs Penn, maybe? BJ was hit or miss before that fight, had a draw with Fitch and a close fight with Diaz. After Rory beat the piss out of him he was a shell of himself and went 0-5.

I think the last time Penn was really 100% in a fight was for the Jon Fitch draw.
BJ got lucky that his fight against Carlos Condit, that was supposed to happen before the Rory bout, got scrapped...

That was pre-GSP Condit too, when he was a savage... hey, another fight that changed a career drastically; the Natural Born Killer went into the GSP fight as the future, the new striker too agressive to be stopped, great record 28-4 and half of these losses were 10 years ago in Pancrase...
Since losing to St-Pierre that night, he's been struggling, and was on a 5 losses streak at a time, he's lucky fans love him so he's stayed in the UFC for so long.
The Lawler fight could have gone either way, too.

To be fair, he also altered GSP's career, as it was the fight that seriously had him considered retiring.
The Nick Diaz fight was for the $$$, and it had been in motion since years ago, he'd been cancelled twice already...
Then by that time he decided that after one more, it'd be over....

 

[Snarly]

Frank Shamrock vs. Igor Zinoviev

 

[oscerthegrouch]

Silva vs Franklin
JDS vs Cain
Rockhold vs Bisping

 

[Azure]

Justin's destruction of Tony

 

[djason1988]

Silva vs The Chris.
Silva is 1-7-1 (NC) since their first bout. Who would've tell?

I think Silva had been kind of done for a while at that point, but his aura and legend kept others either tentative or grapple-focused. Nobody had any reason to believe his chin was gone.

 

[Pepy]

Cro Cop after Gonzaga 1

 

[CTEGod]