The Worst Champions (Historically) in Each Division

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Lionheart7167

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Just curious if anyone has thoughts about who the worst champions were over the course of the belt's histories

Here are some standouts for me

HW: Rutten. For the record Rutten was an incredible fighter in his day (Pancrase), but Randleman beat him in a super lay'n'pray (boring) fight. I wanted to put Maurice Smith or Ricco Rodriguez here, but they won those belts, fair and square, even if they were also busts.
LHW: Belfort or Hill. Belfort is historically great, but he won the belt on a fluke and was soundly beaten in the rematch. Hill beat an old Glover for a vacant title then got smoked in every fight thereafter. Showed some signs of brilliance but has since proven to be a bust.
MW: Dave Menne. No argument needed.
WW: Matt Serra. Yes, I know he won the belt fair and square and provided the greatest MMA upset ever, and kudos for that, but his whole career was relatively mediocre. This was Buster Douglas beaten Tyson. Smashed in the rematch.
LW: This one's super tough. Everyone here is a stud. Probably Conor, because he never defended. Sherk at least defended the belt once. Eddie never defended but had a much better career at LW. Conor's best wins were at FW, and WW (Diaz 2 and Cerrone).
FW: Pains me to say it again, but Conor since he never defended. . Not counting Yair btw who only got the interim.
BW: Garbrandt. After an unbelievable showing against Dom, he looked like the future of the sport. We saw what happened....
FLW: No clue. Not counting Van bc. he just won the title. Everyone in this division has either defended or won the belt multiple times.

Women's
FW: De Randamie. Never defended. Scared of Cyborg. Rep took a major, deserved hit.
BW: Pennington. Never great. The Dave Menne of female champs
FLW: Nicco Montano. Never even good. The Gil Castillo of the division
SW: Not including Dern bc. she just won a title herself. Esparza won the belt twice so I'm not gonna pick her. I'd go with Andrade. A great fighter but never elite. She beat the ever-inconsistent Rose.
 
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HW - Maurice Smith
205 - Jamahal Hill
185- Strickland
170- Carlos Newton
155- Conor
145- Conor
135- Aljo*
125 - Van


Wmma-

145- Cyborg by default because I don't consider GDR a champ she won by cheating and refused to fulfill the role of champion
135 - Tate edit: Pennington - she sucks so much my brain did not register her paper mache belt
125 Nico Monatno (worst "champ" period pfp D4C )
115- Esparza



Edit- I did this off the top of my head... with consideration of other posts here- OMalley is a more appropriate choice than Aljo. My beef with Aljo is all his fights have an asterisk of sorts. Yan DQ Yan split Old Henry Split (right?) 1 arm TJ
But still it is 4 wins and some good names. Yan rematch was a big win and aged well with Yan winning the belt back
Omalley had a legit title win to KO aljo but his chito defense was bullshit Dana White privilege garabge and Merab whooped his ass twice.
 
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Lionheart7167 said:
Just curious if anyone has thoughts about who the worst champions were over the course of the belt's histories

Here are some standouts for me

HW: Rutten. For the record Rutten was an incredible fighter in his day (Pancrase), but Randleman beat him in a super lay'n'pray (boring) fight. I wanted to put Maurice Smith or Ricco Rodriguez here, but they won those belts, fair and square, even if they were also busts.
LHW: Belfort or Hill. Belfort is historically great, but he won the belt on a fluke and was soundly beaten in the rematch. Hill beat an old Glover then got smoked in every fight thereafter. Showed some signs of brilliance but has since proven to be a bust.
MW: Dave Menne. No argument needed.
WW: Matt Serra. Yes, I know he won the belt fair and square and provided the greatest MMA upset ever, and kudos for that, but his whole career was relatively mediocre. This was Buster Douglas beaten Tyson. Smashed in the rematch.
LW: This one's super tough. Everyone here is a stud. I guess it would have to be Sherk, although he was a mega stud at the time. There has never been a weak LW champ.
FW: Pains me to say it, but Conor since he never defended. Everyone else (save for Illia, who still could win it back) has. Not counting Yair btw who only got the interim.
BW: Garbrandt. After an unbelievable showing against Dom, he looked like the future of the sport. We saw what happened....
FLW: No clue. Not counting Van bc. he just won the title. Everyone in this division has either defended or won the belt multiple times.

Women's
FW: De Randamie. Never defended. Scared of Cyborg. Rep took a major, deserved hit.
BW: Pennington. Never great. The Dave Menne of female champs
FLW: Nicco Montano. Never even good. The Gil Castillo of the division
SW: Not including Dern bc. she just won a title herself. Esparza won the belt twice so I'm not gonna pick her. I'd go with Andrade. A great fighter but never elite. She beat the ever-inconsistent Rose.
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Don't you dare say anything about TRTor
 
Wasn't the Belfort win like the flukiest thing ever? Like part of his glove cut Randy's eye in the first minute of the fight?

I think Belfort is way better than Hill, but Hill at least defeated the champ. Vitor won in the flukiest way, and then got dominated in the rematch.
 
Sycho Sid said:
Wasn't the Belfort win like the flukiest thing ever? Like part of his glove cut Randy's eye in the first minute of the fight?

I think Belfort is way better than Hill, but Hill at least defeated the champ. Vitor won in the flukiest way, and then got dominated in the rematch.
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Yes. It was a weird fluke. I don't know which one I'd choose. Hill's win was better and legit but neither guy defended and Hill has looked like shit ever since. Belfort at least reinvigorated his career.
 
Sycho Sid said:
But is Conor worse than Alvarez, who also never defended the belt, and was defeated pathetically easily by Conor?
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Thought about that. It's a tough pick. I think Eddie had a much better career overall at lightweight (including non-title fights), and beating RDA at that time was a majorly big deal. Conor's ONLY win at LW in the UFC is Alvarez right? Or was Cerrone at LW? Either way, Conor's "win" was more impressive, but the trajectory afterwards sucked and his LW stint was a bummer.
 
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I don't like how you base this on the circumstances instead of who is the least good to beeen champ. DRD is excelent. Vitor too.
 
Sycho Sid said:
Wasn't the Belfort win like the flukiest thing ever? Like part of his glove cut Randy's eye in the first minute of the fight?

I think Belfort is way better than Hill, but Hill at least defeated the champ. Vitor won in the flukiest way, and then got dominated in the rematch.
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Hill vs Glover was for a vacant title. Glover was no longer the champ. I do see your point though, Hill actually won the fight fair and square.
 
Trabaho said:
I don't like how you base this on the circumstances instead of who is the least good to beeen champ. DRD is excelent. Vitor too.
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Both were solid fighters (Vitor especially, as noted) but they were shit champs. Vitor won on a fluke and was soundly beat in the rematch. Some of these divisions, like LW and FW have no bad champs.
 
Lionheart7167 said:
Both were solid fighters (Vitor especially, as noted) but they were shit champs. Vitor won on a fluke and was soundly beat in the rematch. Some of these divisions, like LW and FW have no bad champs.
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you said worst fighter to be champ not worst title reign or title win
 
Worst LHW champ is definitely Hill.

Worst HW champ is Jon Jones. Talked about moving up to HW for years, but didn't actually do it until Francis left. I do give him credit for winning the belt against Gane, but trying to pass off Stipe as a legitimate title defense is beyond insulting.

I used to think the worst MW champ was Bisping but after learning he was fighting with one eye it gave me new respect for him. So yeah I guess I'd go with Menne.

WW would be Covington. I think Serra deserves props for beating the goat in his prime. Colby didn't accomplish anything near that difficult.
 
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