The Worst Champions (Historically) in Each Division

[don't ask]

HW - Maurice Smith
205 - Jamahal Hill
185- Strickland
170- Carlos Newton
155- Conor
145- Conor
135- Aljo
125 - Van

I agree with this list, except for Aljo being worse than O'Malley. I agree that Mo Smith is worse than Rutten considering Rutten beat Smith several times in Pancrase.

Also. I never before considered Serra vs Mewton, but I would have loved to have seen that.

 

[El Fernas]

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.

Esparza has won the title against potential GOAT but at the same highly inconsistant Namajunas, just as Andrade did, who not only won the title, put a stamp on it when she won it, lost a 3 round rematch to Namajunas but managed to beat the ish out of her in one round, she also had success at other divisions, way better than Esparza.

 

[Sycho Sid]

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.

Right. I completely forgot jiri had to relinquish it, and then so did hill.

 

[Bullitt68]

HW: Rutten.

Maurice Smith is the only answer here. He had a 3-7 record when he undeservedly fought Coleman for the title, his only defense was against Tank Abbott who was a short-notice replacement anyway, and he retired with a losing record of 12-14. He couldn't even finish the gassed Coleman and got shown up by his 22-year-old green teammate Pete Williams. Bas also beat Mo twice in Pancrase.

You better edit this post if you know what's good for you.

 

[jeff7b9]

I agree with this list, except for Aljo being worse than O'Malley. I agree that Mo Smith is worse than Rutten considering Rutten beat Smith several times in Pancrase.

Also. I never before considered Serra vs Mewton, but I would have loved to have seen that.

I forgot about OMalley.

Yeah you are probably right about that one.

 

[jsbx45]

Great breakdowns in this thread. I gotta go with Tyron for WW though. I know he won the belt fair and square and he was busy for a few fights. But he was so whiny. And petulant. And played the race card every time he didn't like something. He sucked in the end. Then got KTFO by a YouTuber. LOL

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

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 machete belt
125 Nico Monatno (worst "champ" period pfp D4C )
115- Esparza

This is a great list, absolutely agree with it.

 

[humdizzle]

Too many to list

Tons of people got belts by pure happen stance and luck. Bisping, Aljo, Van

I'd say the absolute worst men's champ has to be Hill. He was #8 and got the call to fight a 40 year old dude in Glover who happened to get the belt off another old dude in Jan. At least some of these other champs sort of worked there way up to the belt by fighting legit contenders. Hill is showing that he doesn't even belong at the top with 2 losses after Alex smoked him

 

[TITS]

For thw Maurice Smith fans

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

If you're taking less about their skill level and more their overall reign as champ, I'd say Cejudo for fly. The title win was BS in the first place, and the defense, though good for a "superfight," was the bigger (and already incredibly lean) guy who dropped and was barely able to mummify himself to 125 with artificial enhancement.

 

[Bullitt68]

For thw Maurice Smith fans

Jesus, the whole event with no time stamp? For people who don't know and don't care to look, that's a 1989 "mixed rules" fight between Mo Smith and Minoru Suzuki in the UWF. It's on YouTube. And you know that's fake, right? UWF is a Japanese pro wrestling org. That's why that's not on any official records. (Just like the infamous Bart Vale/Ken Shamrock fight where Vale KOs Shamrock with a head kick. My God, the number of threads back in the day with people "discovering" this "lost" fight of Ken's where he gets Cro Copped by some schmo with a mullet!) They also fought a kickboxing bout in Pancrase where Mo legitimately knocked Suzuki silly. (Ken Shamrock also psychotically fought Frank "The Animal" Lobman in a kickboxing fight. Lobman had KO'd Bas Rutten in a MT fight. He chopped Ken down with low kicks.) Then they fought a legit mixed rules fight in Pancrase - one of the weirdest fights I've ever seen with them alternating round by round between wearing gloves and no gloves - which Suzuki won by armbar while wearing gloves. Art Jimmerson who? Suzuki got an armbar wearing two giant boxing gloves

 

[DougieJones]

I always thought it was dumb of GDR to refuse the fight with Cyborg. Not only would it have made her a ton of money, I think she had a very good chance to pull off the upset, as there was no way Cyborg was gonna try to take the fight to the ground and GDR was a great striker (for WMMA). I mean she made Nunes a panic wrestler in their (title) fight

 

[KO Shotz]

Carla Esparza, GDR, Carlos Newton, Evan Tanner, Mat Serra, Ricco Rodriguez, Pat Miletich, & Murilo Bustamante.

 

[fendertach]

If anyone ever questions how far MMA has come in the last 20+ years.... Show them Dave Menne.

Dave Menne fought two or more times in the same night 10 separate times in his career. He was a different kind of beast. He was at nearly 40 fights already when he got to fight for a UFC belt and he was only 27.

 

[Fedorgasm]

Great breakdowns in this thread. I gotta go with Tyron for WW though. I know he won the belt fair and square and he was busy for a few fights. But he was so whiny. And petulant. And played the race card every time he didn't like something. He sucked in the end. Then got KTFO by a YouTuber. LOL

You make a very convincing argument. I'm changing my vote for WW to Woodley

 

[fractal]

Seriously, how quickly AI became this good amazes. I wonder how much effort (prompts, post processing etc) it takes from the human user.

 

[DougieJones]

Vito has quite the chin... but it should be expected it would be nearly impossible to put down a guy that survived a dozen point-blank gunshots

 

[Pem123]

HW : Between Francis or Lesnar, they both are very one dimensional and have the weakest resume
LHW : Jamal Hill
MW : David Menne
WW : Carlos Newton
LW : Conor
FW : Yair
BW : Sean
FLW : Van (For now, because he is new)

 

[NovaJon93]

Ricco Rodriguez
Jamahal Hill
Dave Menne
Carlos Newton
Sean Sherk
Conor McGregor
Cody Garbrandt
Joshua Van
Germaine de Randamie
Raquel Pennington
Nicco Montano
Mackenzie Dern

 

[TheNewGame]

Hill beat an old Glover for a vacant title then got smoked in every fight thereafter

I wonder how much Hill's torn achilles had to do with how bad he's done since returning from it. Hill was far more impressive against old man Glover than Jiri was.