I'm talking about fights (toughest fights, even on paper) after their UFC Debut My pick would be Palhares getting Dan Henderson next after an impressive debut. That was a super tough task (and he actually went the distance with Hendo) Yours?
Anderson Silva fought Rich Franklin for the MW title in his second UFC fight, and Shields fought GSP in his second fight.
Well if we talk about Hendo's second UFC debut Rampage and then Anderson Silva was pretty freaking brutal...
Hence why I said SECOND debut...as in he had left for a while and came back, it was more of a return I guess...but still impressive.
He was still mentally recoveringfbrutal knockouts to wanderlei and shogun and chuck had went on that streak. Even though he beat chuck before everyone had counted him out. In fact rampage says he was only bought in so that Chuck could avenge the only other loss he hadn't avenged yet. rampage said he wanted more time to adjust to the cage and that the eastman fight wasnt enough but they pushed him into the chuck fight.
Paulo Thiago had it rough his first two bouts. ON ANOTHER NOTE: Anyone else having a problem viewing their previous posts? I try to view them, however, the site is informing me that something may be wrong with my account. Any way to get a definite answer?
Outside of pride veterans or champions in other major organizations like Strikeforce I think Paulo Thiago and Rousimar. Because yeah guys like Nogueira, Anderson and Rampage had difficult fights in their "debuts" but they were already established fighters in Pride which was the biggest promotion at the time Also this caldeirao dude fought Phil Davis twice in his first two fights in the ufc lol
I know it doesn't exactly fit but I love dropping Yuji Nagata in threads like this. In just his 2nd UFC appearance Shogun squared off against a UFC Hall of Fame former HW champion, possibly the best credentialed of any of his opponents at the time.
I thought Korean zombie had a huge jump for his second fight (at the time) going from Garcia to Hominick who was coming off a title fight (and looked good against Aldo in the last round). Garcia to the number 2 guy is a big jump.
Nah, my bad. That was "Luckiest 2nd fight". Was thinking of Keith Hackney. And I forgot about the Yarborough fight.
