Undeserved title shots, by division

Jones received a title shot against Shogun due to Rashad getting injured.

Till received a title shot at Woodley due to Covington needing deviated septum surgery and not being able to fight, so that's also injury replacement.

Penn received a title shot against Hughes via injury replacement as well, GSP was originally scheduled to fight Hughes, but got injured.

I don't understand how Woodley vs Thompson II is on the list, the first fight was a draw. Yes, the champ retains his belt in a draw, but he didn't really defeat the challenger, that's why a 1 goes in the draw column and not the loss column.

TJ vs. Cejudo happened at FLW, not BW.

I strongly disagree with Barao. Not only was he 32-1-1 when he lost to Dillashaw the first time, but he didn't even receive an instant rematch despite Dana claiming he was the P4P best in the world right before losing.

EDIT: Actually, Barao did receive an instant rematch, but he cracked his head cutting weight and had to pull out. Still, there have been far more egregious instant rematches (Stipe vs. DC II off the top of my head).
 
Gus got a title shot against DC after Rumble sent him on a trip to Bolivia...
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I disagree with a lot of your options but I appreciate your work.

FW:
Aldo vs Edgar I
Frankie coming of 2 (debatable) losses and first fight at that weight class.
 
Jones vs Sonnen should maybe get a pass, they wanted those guys as coaches for TUF
 
Frankie was on a 2 fight skid and 0-0 at feather weight when he got the shot there
 
Penn received a title shot against Hughes via injury replacement as well, GSP was originally scheduled to fight Hughes, but got injured.

I meant I, but as someone else pointed out, I also said I'd start at TUF, so I've removed it.

I don't understand how Woodley vs Thompson II is on the list, the first fight was a draw. Yes, the champ retains his belt in a draw, but he didn't really defeat the challenger, that's why a 1 goes in the draw column and not the loss column.

It's not that I think it's a massive example. It barely made my list. Maybe I should have left it off. Shrug. I also listed Bendo v Frankie II....

TJ vs. Cejudo happened at FLW, not BW.
Of course. Thanks.
 
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two things:

first, you don't list a single holly holm fight. she is the queen of "undeserved" title shots.


second, MMA belts are owned and controlled by promotions. they are not like championships of other organizations that are owned by a sanctioning body. dana white has said in a court of law that UFC belt is only meant to be a promotional tool and not some kind of designation for who the best fighter in the world is. therefore, if the promotion gives you a title shot, it means they think you earned it. there is no such thing as undeserved title shots in MMA
 
Caveats
  • Excluded TUF 4 winners (GSP v Serra & Silva v Lutter)
  • Don't get me started with TUF 4. Just the concept of it is outrageous...
HW
  1. Arlovski v Eilers
  2. Tim Sylvia v Gan McGee
Why Gan McGee? He'd only lost to Barnett, beat a guy that was still highly regarded in Rizzo (Coming for his title shots with Randy and a victory to Arlovsky), and destroyed Cafe so bad that they ban knees to the head of a downed opponed.

BTW Gan 6-12 elbows against Brad Gabriel was the reason the banned those too (In fact they wanted to ban ALL elbows).

At the time of Gan's title shot, the sorry state of the UfC's HW division made them find anyone else more qualified.

In fact, it was unfair that Gan wasn't granted a rematch after Teemy pissed hot in their fight.

On top of that, again, it was in fucking 2003 pre-TUF¡¡. Signed: Choco "The Timeline Taliban"

Eilers was a late replacement for Ricco. And probably the only one available. Buentello was the first option to replace Ricco, but was not medically cleared when the decision was made.

MW
  1. Silva v Leites
Leites was in a five wins streak (Including Nate Maquard), and MW was fairly thin. Why did you inlcude that?
 
Honestly the only one I strongly disagree with you on is Woodley vs Thompson 2. The first fight being a draw made the rematch seem pretty understandable in my book... Now if only the fight hadn't been absolutely terrrribleeeee.
 
  • Don't get me started with TUF 4. Just the concept of it is outrageous...
Why Gan McGee? He'd only lost to Barnett, beat a guy that was still highly regarded in Rizzo (Coming for his title shots with Randy and a victory to Arlovsky), and destroyed Cafe so bad that they ban knees to the head of a downed opponed.

BTW Gan 6-12 elbows against Brad Gabriel was the reason the banned those too (In fact they wanted to ban ALL elbows).

At the time of Gan's title shot, the sorry state of the UfC's HW division made them find anyone else more qualified.

In fact, it was unfair that Gan wasn't granted a rematch after Teemy pissed hot in their fight.

On top of that, again, it was in fucking 2003 pre-TUF¡¡. Signed: Choco "The Timeline Taliban"

Eilers was a late replacement for Ricco. And probably the only one available. Buentello was the first option to replace Ricco, but was not medically cleared when the decision was made.

Leites was in a five wins streak (Including Nate Maquard), and MW was fairly thin. Why did you inlcude that?
Both good points.
 
A lot I agree with some not so much.
A few like McGee, Eilers, Castillo the divisions just weren't what they are now, only a handful of fighters.
Belfort and Soto were late replacements so can't blame that much.
Jones, are you kidding me.
Leites easily only good choice at the time.
Hardy, quick riser on a division that has already been cleaned out.
 
Brock earned his shot.

- Slaughtered one of the Orient's finest warriors in record time.
- Beat Frank Mir almost to death.
- Rode Heath Herring hard and put him up wet.
 
Brock earned his shot.

- Slaughtered one of the Orient's finest warriors in record time.
- Beat Frank Mir almost to death.
- Rode Heath Herring hard and put him up wet.

Brock lost the fight to Mir, he was 1-1 in the UFC at the time.
 
Arlovski vs Eilers wasn't one of em lol. Other than that fight I've really never heard of the guy.
The replacement of the replacement (Buentello) of a TS in 2005 UFC's HW division is not going to be a big name. This was the event originally planed for Yokohama, where Arlovski was supposes to fight CroCop, as the payback for Dana sending Chuck tu be fail in PRIDE. In the end the UFC allegedly didn't find an sponsor, and Lorenzo didn't want to fork out the dough to get glass chined Andrei to be left kick in the head to Bolivion.

Wise decision if you ask me,

Porr Justin was murdered by his stepfather in front of his (Justin's) son, in Christmas 2008. RIP.
 
The replacement of the replacement (Buentello) of a TS in 2005 UFC's HW division is not going to be a big name. This was the event originally planed for Yokohama, where Arlovski was supposes to fight CroCop, as the payback for Dana sending Chuck tu be fail in PRIDE. In the end the UFC allegedly didn't find an sponsor, and Lorenzo didn't want to fork out the dough to get glass chined Andrei to be left kick in the head to Bolivion.

Wise decision if you ask me,

Porr Justin was murdered by his stepfather in front of his (Justin's) son, in Christmas 2008. RIP.
Arlovski vs Mirko would be something I'd love to see, actually. Well, at the time. Certainly not now.
 
Jones v Belfort
TJ v Soto

These were both replacements.

LW
  1. Conor v Alvarez

Conor vs Alavarez was fine as he was coming off beating #4 Diaz. Because of that, he actually had the highest ranked win of anybody other than Alvarez himself (who was coming off wins over the champ, #1, and #3). Tony had zero top 5 wins and was coming off unranked Lando, and Khabib only #5 RDA from 2 years before and was coming off unranked Horcher.

It would be different if he had fought RDA for the title as originally scheduled, but the Diaz fights actually gave a reasonable justification to fight Eddie. He was coming off a win over a top 5 LW. Nobody else was.
 
Gus got a title shot against DC after Rumble sent him on a trip to Bolivia...
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Also Cormier got a shot at Rumble for the vacant title after Jones handily beat him 3 months before, and despite Bader being the #2 contender. He actually was pulled from the Bader fight to take Bader's title shot lol.

Vacant title should've been Rumble vs Bader.
 
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