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Despite some questionable booking at times, a UFC title shot has traditionally been hard to come by for the majority of fighters. Usually, it takes a massive win streak, a lot of trash talk – or both – and even then a stroke of luck to secure one, even in the thinner divisions in the company.
That means that over the years there have been some fantastic fighters in the UFC who never managed to get a title shot, whether that was down to bad luck, bad timing or an ill-timed loss. Here are ten great fighters who never got a title shot in their UFC career.
#1 Gegard Mousasi
A champion in StrikeForce and DREAM – and perhaps in the near future, in Bellator – Gegard Mousasi came close to securing a UFC title shot on a couple of occasions, but never quite managed it despite ending his tenure with the promotion on a five-fight win streak.
Mousasi debuted in the UFC in 2013 after moving over during the integration of the StrikeForce roster, and he initially entered as a 205lber, defeating late replacement Ilir Latifi in his first fight. A severe knee injury then sidelined him for a year, and when he returned it was at 185lbs, where he was faced with Lyoto Machida.
Machida managed to outpoint Mousasi – and was awarded a title shot. Mousasi then bounced back by beating Mark Munoz, only to drop his next fight to ‘Jacare’ Souza. That loss pushed him down the ladder somewhat but wins over Dan Henderson and Costa Philippou quickly moved him back up, before an upset loss to Uriah Hall appeared to knock him out of contention for good.
Mousasi recovered, though, and went on to beat Thales Leites, Thiago Santos, Vitor Belfort and Hall in a rematch, the latter three by TKO. This was enough to put him into what was a huge fight with former champion Chris Weidman, but unfortunately, even after winning, Mousasi seemed miles away from a title shot – largely due to the logjam in the Middleweight division caused by the booking of the Michael Bisping/Georges St. Pierre title fight.
And so Mousasi moved on to Bellator rather than wait. Had he stuck around, the likelihood is that he may have received the interim title shot given to Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero at UFC 213, or at the worst, the title shot given to Luke Rockhold at UFC 221. As it is, he makes it onto this list instead – perhaps a case of impatience cost him dearly.
#2 Travis Browne
Ronda Rousey’s husband may have ended his UFC tenure on an awful four-fight losing streak, but back in 2013 he was literally inches away from gaining a Heavyweight title shot and may well have secured one had it not been for the injury-prone nature of then-champion Cain Velasquez.
Browne debuted in the UFC in 2010 and reeled off four wins and a draw before a loss to Antonio Silva in late 2013 stalled his momentum somewhat. He returned with a vengeance in 2013, though, and picked up the biggest three wins of his career – stopping Gabriel Gonzaga, Alistair Overeem and Josh Barnett, all by TKO.
The win over Barnett at UFC 168 should’ve been enough to earn him a shot at Velasquez’s title, but unfortunately for him, the champ was banged up following his successful title defence over Junior Dos Santos two months prior at UFC 166. Instead, the UFC matched Browne with fellow top contender Fabricio Werdum, and the pair faced off in the main event of UFC on Fox 11.
Werdum surprisingly outstruck Browne and beat him to a unanimous decision, and that was the closest ‘Hapa’ ever got to a title shot. He did bounce back with a win over Brendan Schaub, but by that point, he’d made an ill-fated move to Edmond Tarverdyan’s Glendale Fight Club and only won one fight in his next five. He retired from MMA in 2017, but his 2013 run remains impressive – and unfortunate not to be enough for a title shot.
#3 Tyson Griffin
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.
#4 Cub Swanson
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.
#5 Jim Miller
One of the longest tenured UFC fighters in the company’s history with 28 fights and a 29th booked for April, Jim Miller is now on the downswing of his career and retirement is likely looming for the New Jersey favourite. But back in late 2011, he was inches away from a title shot, with only some bad luck keeping him from it.
Miller had reeled off 7 straight wins after a 2009 loss to Gray Maynard, and usually, that would’ve been enough to secure him a Lightweight title shot. But unfortunately for Miller, champion Frankie Edgar had gone to a draw with Maynard at the start of the year and had then withdrawn from a planned May rematch due to injury.
The fight was re-booked for October’s UFC 136, but that left Miller in need of a fight, and so he took on former WEC champ Benson Henderson – and lost a close decision, snapping his win streak. A victory over Melvin Guillard got him back on track, but then a loss to Nate Diaz in a title eliminator knocked him right back off.
Despite winning 7 fights since, Miller has never been able to regain the form he showed in 2011 and subsequently has never gotten close to a title shot again. Had it not been for the draw between Edgar and Maynard though, who knows what could’ve happened?
#6 TJ Grant
Canadian TJ Grant is a rare case in that he was actually granted a title shot at UFC 164, but was forced out with an injury and then never returned to make his claim at the Lightweight title. Grant had reeled off 4 wins in a row midway through 2013 when he was matched with former title challenger Gray Maynard.
The plan was for the winner to face champion Benson Henderson later in the year, and Grant lived up to his end of the bargain, destroying Maynard with a vicious Muay Thai assault in the first round. He looked like one of the most dangerous title challengers to come around in some time – slick ground skills and violent striking – and the fight with Henderson was quickly signed for August that year.
Unfortunately, Grant was forced out of the bout with a concussion, and Anthony Pettis stepped in to replace him and submitted Henderson to win the title. A match between Pettis and Grant was then tentatively scheduled for December, but Grant was unable to return and a year after the Maynard fight, he was removed from the UFC rankings after being deemed inactive.
Grant still hasn’t returned to UFC action despite reports in 2015 suggesting he was healthy again. It’s been almost five years now since his last fight and the chances of him returning to finally take his title shot seem somewhere between slim and none.
#7 Jussier Formiga
When the Flyweight division was introduced to the UFC in 2012, the four-man tournament for the inaugural UFC title felt like it was missing someone – Brazil’s Jussier Formiga, who was widely recognised as the top fighter in the world at the weight for years prior to a 2011 loss to Ian McCall. McCall entered into the tournament – and lost to the eventual champion Demetrious Johnson – while Formiga signed with the UFC a few months later.
His debut didn’t go so well – he was knocked out by John Dodson – but despite losing a further three UFC fights it’s still a bit of a surprise that he hasn’t been given a title shot yet. He’s beaten tough contenders like Wilson Reis and Dustin Ortiz, and to be quite frank, Johnson has been such a dominant champion that he’s essentially cleaned out the division – outside of the Brazilian veteran.
Unfortunately for Formiga, despite winning his last two fights handily – and showing more striking skills than he’s ever done previously – it looks like the UFC are dead-set on matching Johnson in a champion vs. champion fight with TJ Dillashaw next. And with Formiga now 13 years into his MMA career, time could be running out for him.
If he never does get a title shot in the UFC, it will be a sad state of affairs – he’s been one of the most consistent fighters at 125lbs since the division was introduced, and more to the point he feels like the final fighter of his era that Johnson hasn’t faced yet. Perhaps in a year or so – when Dillashaw/Johnson is done and dusted – he can be removed from this list.
#8 Ryan Bader
Currently sitting pretty as the Bellator Light-Heavyweight champion, it could be argued that only a reputation for putting on less than entertaining fights kept Ryan Bader from a shot at UFC gold in late 2015. Prior to that period, Bader had always been defeated right before a title opportunity came to him – his initial run was stopped by Jon Jones in 2011, another strong run ended at the hands of Lyoto Machida in 2012, and he was knocked out by Glover Teixeira in 2013.
After the Teixeira loss though, Bader became far more consistent and defeated Anthony Perosh, Rafael Feijao, Ovince St. Preux and Phil Davis to stake his claim for a title shot. When he crashed a press conference to taunt the new champion Daniel Cormier in 2015, it seemed logical to match the two later in the year.
Unfortunately the UFC felt that Bader’s style wouldn’t draw enough eyeballs, and gave the title shot at UFC 192 to Alexander Gustafsson instead, despite the Swede coming off a loss. Bader defeated Rashad Evans at the same show, but then lost a #1 contender’s fight to Anthony Johnson in early 2016.
He recovered by beating Ilir Latifi and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, but by that stage – with Jon Jones set to return and Johnson still lurking around waiting for his shot – the chances of a title opportunity had sailed and Bader moved over to Bellator. A fight with Cormier likely would’ve gone badly for him, but he still should’ve been given the shot.
#9 Roy Nelson
Now fighting in Bellator and firmly on the downswing of his career, Roy Nelson came close to capturing a Heavyweight title shot in the UFC on numerous occasions but could never quite get over the final hurdle. It says a lot that the TUF 10 winner fought 7 opponents who went on to fight for a UFC title.
Nelson debuted in the UFC with his win over Brendan Schaub in the TUF finale, and then knocked out Stefan Struve. Losses to future UFC champion Junior Dos Santos and title challenger Frank Mir sent him back down the ladder, but he bounced back with a win over Mirko Cro Cop. A loss to Fabricio Werdum followed before Nelson went on the best streak of his UFC career – three straight wins.
This should’ve been enough to put him into title contention, but at the time – mid-2013 – new contenders like Antonio Silva and Alistair Overeem were emerging and champ Cain Velasquez was also in the middle of his rivalry with Dos Santos. And so Nelson took a late notice fight with Stipe Miocic and saw his win streak erased.
From there he lost more fights than he won, and eventually left the UFC in 2017 following a loss to Alexander Volkov. But had ‘Big Country’ just picked up one more big win during his UFC tenure – perhaps over Mir in 2011, or over Mark Hunt in 2014 – a title shot likely would’ve been his.
#10 Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza
It is true that a title shot for ‘Jacare’ Souza could still come in time – he’s currently ranked as the #2 Middleweight in the world in the UFC’s official rankings, and he’s coming off a big knockout win over Derek Brunson. But somehow you just get the feeling that at 38 years old, his time has probably passed, which is hugely sad for a variety of reasons.
Jacare debuted in the UFC in 2013 with a win over Chris Camozzi, and then vaulted himself into title contention over the next two years by defeating Yushin Okami, Francis Carmont, Gegard Mousasi and Camozzi in a rematch. The wins put him on an eight-fight win streak, but with Luke Rockhold ahead in the queue to fight champ Chris Weidman, Jacare was instead matched with fellow contender Yoel Romero.
The fight went down at UFC 194, and Romero squeaked out a razor-close decision. But when he tested positive for PEDs, the UFC probably should’ve given his title shot to Jacare. Instead, they signed a rematch between Rockhold and Weidman, and when Weidman withdrew with an injury, Michael Bisping stepped in and upset Rockhold for the title.
Jacare could easily have been granted a shot at Bisping but due to the controversial nature of his title reign, it never came about and in 2017, when it finally seemed like a shot was within reach, the Brazilian lost to Robert Whittaker who went on to claim the interim title later in the year. Jacare’s win over Brunson puts him back into range for a possible shot, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that he’ll go down as one of the best fighters to never gain an opportunity to capture UFC gold.
