Worst fighter to become champion?

[Dog Gynecologist]

Gegard Mousasi

 

[phillysmoker]

Trt forrest griffin was good but very chinny. I mean who taps out to strikes in a title defence.

 

[ehxsur]

Carla Esparza, Jéssica Andrade , Nicco Montaño , Germaine de Randamie,

all champ by default

 

[LHWBelt]

Matt Serra or Dave Menne I guess. Maurice Smith could be in that mix too although I think he had a defense. Or any of the women champs but I don't follow them.

 

[mallen7272]

Reported

His career highs were beating Phil Baroni and MW Robbie Lawler

 

[jeff7b9]

Alvarez?!?! Wtf. It’s obviously Montano

Its Nicco Montano.

Then Carla Esparza, IMO, as iirc both were given a “ufc belt” for winning a reality tv show and fought for the title in their ufc debut against an opponent who had never had an official ufc fight.

Carla at least stuck around and won some reasonably respectable fights, Nicco got stripped as I recall for missing weight and failing to defend... correct me if I am wrong, I’m fuzzy on the details.

Neither were ever even remotely close to being considered the best in the division, with Shevchenko and Joanna around.

Say what you want about Eddie and Serra they won title fights fair and square against the rightful champions.

 

[lolsnar]

People have to consider what he's done before the UFC. Furthermore, the people who mention Eddie as a weak champ due to his run in the UFC have to consider he went Cowboy, Melendez, Pettis, RDA, Conor, Poirier, Gaethje, Porier. And the record was 4-3-1, to have a winning record vs all top 5 level competition is impressive. And let's consider, this is prime Cowboy, Pettis, RDA and Gaethje he beat.

Look at how Poirier, Gaethje, Cowboy, RDA, Pettis, and other top LWs have looked vs the same level opposition, all pretty much have a .500 records some better and some worse. So you can't really put Eddie down when he's fighting nothing but the best. Sure it looks better when other LWs have great win/loss ratios.....but let's be honest, those records are padded in most cases.

Lost against cowboy

 

[Xuh]

Its Nicco Montano.

Then Carla Esparza, IMO, as iirc both were given a “ufc belt” for winning a reality tv show and fought for the title in their ufc debut against an opponent who had never had an official ufc fight... Neither were ever even remotely close to being considered the best in the division, with Shevchenko and Joanna around

This is a dumb take, 115 was a new division to the UFC and they set it up by recruiting all the best talent from Invicta (which was where the talent was concentrated at that time) and putting most of them into a TUF to gain attention.

Carla was the Invicta champ at the time and so got the #1 seed and ended up winning the tournament justifying that ranking, but it should just be seen as a transition from Invicta to the UFC using TUF as a mechanism to get more attention for the UFC's new division rather than just 'winning some reality TV show'. It wasn't a 'new contenders for an already well established' kind of TUF. People make similar claims about how Ronda and Valentina won their belts in the UFC (just without the TUF) - that they didn't fight the most legit divisional contender because the UFC just wanted to give them the belt; both claims are rather ridiculous (probably because they're made by diehard Ronda/Valentina haters) but it's actually somewhat valid about Valentina - she never beat the sitting 125 champion, while Ronda was at least the Strikeforce champ and the UFC was just picking up that division.

As for Joanna, she'd never fought at 115 when that TUF started and when she fought for the belt she was actually an underdog. She won of course but it's revisionist nonsense to claim that everyone thought she was the best when Carla won the belt. It's the other way round - Carla was the legitimate champion and divisional #1, and Joanna made her name by beating her up.

 

[legedema]

Conor, and it is not even close.
He refused to defend any title

 

[tramendous]

Alvarez , as a whole, a bad ass with a great career but if u really look at it- as far as UFC champ is concerned - look at the 3 fights before his shot. He had the round off his life against a then scorching RDA but I think Eddie was at the beginning of other side of career when he got to UFC. Putting women & old school aside, I'd say Serra, Bisping and then Alvarez. Eddie still a legend of sport unlike the other 2.....but thsts me.

* oh shit, forgot about Lesnar-

I dont think thats a fair assessment of alvarez since he scored wins over justin gaethje and had extremely competitive fights vs poirier AFTER winning and losing the title. I dont see why skills wise hes worse than say evan tanner or forrest griffin.

 

[VAfan]

Alvarez?!?! Wtf.

yeah, wanted to say the same thing. TS has some beef with alvarez obviously, that's ridiculous.

 

[kalabula]

Kind of a mean spirited thread, but I’d say Eddie Alvarez or Ricco Rodriguez

Holy shit! Eddie? What about that chick that won UF then missed weight and was stripped. She’s got to be less skilled then Eddie.

 

[Richard Fannin]

Serra beating GSP was definitely an against-all-odds Rocky story, but not because Serra was a nobody. He wasn't. He was a known guy.

Good post, and indeed, back then the only way people said Matt Serra could win was if the managed to get a submission.
But he came out swinging like he had nothing to lose and took GSP by surprise, landing a big punch behind his ear.

It was a Rocky story because of that random TUF "Comeback" season where the winner would get a TS, which would never happen again, and, the fact that GSP was just seen as a perfect fighter who had just dethroned "Matt Hughes the WW kingpin", and was going to reign for a looong time (which he did afterward).

It's like if Chael Sonnen had managed to beat Jon Jones; it would have been insane, but that doesn't mean Sonnen was a nobody who came out of nowhere.
He's an amazing elite wrestler, but much smaller that the champ, and who's mostly been a journeyman in MMA with a couple good wins sprinkled in... and then he gets in there and rips the LHW GOAT's big toe.

That would have been a crazy Rocky story as well, what with Jones "ducking" him on short notice, when Hendo pulled out, that random-ass TUF 17 season, Jones being the new LHW kingpin...

 

[Ch31ck]

Bisping easily.

 

[JKS]

Lost against cowboy

Yah, and Cowboy is a top level LW. He lost to Cowboy when he was on a killer run, 9 fight wins streak. Cowboy also be Ben Henderson and Barbosa in that run. Cowboy at LW is a very different beast than WW, he only loses to top 5 opponents.

 

[ShinkanPo]

Dave Menne...

His only win I think is a very boring fight and I can't remember who he beat up.

Then Bustamante fucked him up

 

[bobStash]

Matt Serra. Dude came out of NOWHERE and miraculously won the belt, from GSP no less. It was simultaneously a disgrace and the ultimate Rocky story of MMA.

Yep, and this was the first right I actually bet on. The odds were -2000 for GSP.

 

[Regulator75]

Esparza???

Garbage head.

 

[Pierced7681]

Carla Esparza, Jéssica Andrade , Nicco Montaño , Germaine de Randamie,

all champ by default

Id remove Andrade from that list, she earned her belt and would have won the rose rematch if she’d opened up a little earlier.

 

[Franklin U.]

I dont think thats a fair assessment of alvarez since he scored wins over justin gaethje and had extremely competitive fights vs poirier AFTER winning and losing the title. I dont see why skills wise hes worse than say evan tanner or forrest griffin.

No- that was a justin gaejthe that had no gas tank and his early fights at beginning of UFC tenure ( like alot of fighters)were horrible...and Eddie got worked by Dustin.

Couldnt disagree more.