10 great fighters who never got a UFC title shot

#4 Cub Swanson

Cub Swanson never quite made it to a title shot despite great win streaks

As of writing, Cub Swanson remains on the UFC roster and is still ranked in the top ten at 145lbs, although he’s technically a free agent. It doesn’t look likely that he’ll ever secure a Featherweight title shot now though, and that’s why he makes this list – not many fighters win 6 UFC fights in a row without challenging for the belt.

Swanson came incredibly close, though – after a UFC debut loss to Ricardo Lamas he went on a tear, stopping the likes of Dennis Siver and Charles Oliveira, but found himself stuck behind Conor McGregor in the chase for a shot at then-champion Jose Aldo. It probably didn’t help that Aldo was injured so often, which meant far less title defences than other UFC champions.

Swanson’s winning streak came to an end in November 2014 at the hands of Frankie Edgar, when in reality he could well have been fighting Aldo for the title at that point had the champion been able to defend against Chad Mendes in August and not October of that year.

More recently, he saw a four-fight win streak snapped at the hands of Brian Ortega, but by that point he was behind multiple fighters – most notably Edgar – in the queue for a title shot anyway. The loss to Ortega likely means that Swanson will always remain on this list of the best fighters to never receive an opportunity at the title.