They were 1 win away from a title shot but never came close again

[ufcfan4]

One has to imagine that if Ellenberger had beaten Kampmann, he was going to get a shot at the belt. Instead, Kampmann put him away and Jake was, arguably, never the same again. There was a bit of a return to form with wins over Hieron and Marquardt, but his final 11 fights in MMA, he went 2-9.

Still, dude had a strong career and had some huge wins (Shields is the one that always jumps out in my mind).

 

[AP_RESURRECTION]

Karo P

 

[ufcfan4]

Chael ****** up Nate's second shot at AS which i personally wanted to see. Nate was a top 3 MW for a good amount of time. I still remember him flatlining Maia in like 7 seconds. And he he did the classy thing and didn't land any follow up shots.

And when you consider that Maia has managed to survive bouts against top guys- never getting stopped with strikes again subsequent to that bout- Nate's putting him out is all the more impressive.

Chael vs. Nate was a great fight though. Chael did his usual stuff with impressive tenacity and volume, but Nate didn't make it easy for him (swept him and ground and pounded him, almost guillotined him, cut him bad with an elbow from the bottom). But Chael was relentless and did a great job with the top control and ground and pound. Fun fight.

 

[Kenny Powerth]

Assuncao (probably)
Jimi Rivera (maybe)
Jacare
Moicano
Jimi Manuwa

Ah nice call on Manuwa. He was damn close and in such a shallow division.

Wasn’t he “on call” in case something happened for a championship fight?

 

[Agnawedbone]

Just talking UFC then I'd throw out Clay Guida. Got close once then lost a wild fight with benson Henderson and he fell off hard after, even dropping to fw didnt help.

 

[pick999]

Florian

Jim Miller

Nate marquardt came close a couple times after his first shot

Bisping until he finally got it

they were decent but never great

 

[GraafschapDTCNL]

Volkov has a pretty weak ground game, DC would've done the same thing to him.

Well, I would have put my money on DC as well. However, I think fighting a guy like Volkov when hurt is just not worth it for DC. Lewis was like a somewhat easier opponent. Lewis got dominated by Volkov and Tybura for almost the entire fight (ofc won via KO in the end, credit to his heart and Volkov's and Tybura's low fight IQ) and had bad performances against Ngannou and Hunt.

 

[Maori]

Mike swick comes to mind

 

[HHJ]

Hendo was supposed to fight jones but got injured didnt he?

 

[Maori]

Florian

Jim Miller

Nate marquardt came close a couple times after his first shot

Bisping until he finally got it

Florian fought aldo and bj

 

[Benoitthegr8]

Shane Carwin ?

Interim-Gassed...?

 

[Askafan]

Back in 2015 Gadelha was the number one contender at straw but was out injured. Calderwood was seen as a potential contender but got choked out by newcomer Maryna Moroz. Moroz then lost to Letourneau. With Gadelha still injured Letourneau fought for the title on the Rousey Holm double header.

If Moroz had won that fight against Letourneau she would have fought on 193, instead she's drifted back into obscurity.

 

[Hotora86]

Thiago Silva was 13-0 and would have gotten a shot if not for Machida. Never came close again.

Machida TOOK HIS SOUL.

 

[chinarice]

TJ Grant. From titleshot never coming to fruition to retirement.

 

[Franklin U.]

Erik Koch

Koch actually got to put pen to paper then got hurt- lost shot- then lost and lost etc.
One of the fighters I was wrong about. I thought he was extremely good and had shot to go all the way. Whoa- I was wrong

 

[Gilday]

TJ Grant isn't what you're thinking of but the thread made me think of him and now I'm sad.

Dude actually won his title eliminator, wrecking Gray Maynard in a little over 2 minutes (at that time Gray had only lost one other fight) but had to decline the title fight due to ongoing concussion symptoms.

Hasn't fought since.

Holy fuck I literally mentioned TJ Grant in another thread yesterday

If you're still wondering when TJ Grant will get his LW title shot

IIRC Benson was the champ at the time. God damn TJ Grant could've been LW champion

 

[Maaj19]

Wasn't Roy pretty close before losing to stipe? He had won 3 in a row, and the HW division at that point in time had the whole cain fighting bigfoot and jds every fight when he already beat both, so i think he was pretty close

Yeah he was, everyone thought he'd KO Stipe too but that was Stipes coming out party lol. Roy had a streak of big knockouts and never really came back after losing.

 

[ferrisjso]

My answer to these threads used to be Bisping.

Now it's Phil Davis/Ryan Bader. Still pissed Davis didn't get a title shot cause I always thought he had the best shot at lay and praying Jones to a win. Think he deserved a title shot over DC the first time but still if he'd beaten either Rumble or Bader he probably gets one. Both Davis and Bader became Bellator champs so not sure if this counts.

If Matt Hammil had beaten Rampage he would have been on a six fight win streak and Hammil v Jones 2 the match of the century would have been a reality.

For the little guys Lineker always comes to mind at both 125 and 135. Guys lost 3 fights this decade. 12 UFC wins. He's probably going to win a few more and not get a shot given how things look at 135.

 

[theTKDguy]

Bisping

Oh wait