10 great fighters who never got a UFC title shot

#3 Tyson Griffin

A tight loss to Sean Sherk derailed Tyson Griffin's title hopes

When the UFC first re-introduced the Lightweight division back in 2006, Tyson Griffin was one of the newer and most heavily pushed stars at 155lbs. He debuted with a win over David Lee, and in 2007, put on three straight contenders for Fight of the Year against Frankie Edgar, Clay Guida and Thiago Tavares. By mid-2008 he was 5-1 in the UFC and a title shot seemed inevitable.

Unfortunately, the division was tied up at that stage as champion BJ Penn was set to move up i weight to challenge Georges St. Pierre for the Welterweight title. Griffin was instead matched with former champion Sean Sherk and lost a close decision, and that was enough to stall his momentum somewhat going into 2009.

Wins over Rafael Dos Anjos and Hermes Franca were impressive, but as 2010 loomed, both Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard had better claims to a shot at the gold. Missing the first half of 2010 with injuries, Griffin then lost a tight decision to Evan Dunham, and was then knocked out by a resurgent Takanori Gomi.

From there his career spiralled downwards, and he would only win one more UFC fight before being cut in late 2011. It was a sudden downfall for a man who just a couple of years beforehand seemed destined to fight for the title. In 2008 Griffin would’ve been as legitimate a challenger as you could’ve found, but the timing just never worked out for him.