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#4. Rose Namajunas vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk – UFC 217
Back in 2017, there were few more dominant champions in the UFC than Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
The native of Poland claimed the UFC strawweight title at UFC 185 in 2015 by destroying Carla Esparza. In the years that followed, she pulled off five straight successful title defenses.
It seemed like no fighter in the UFC at 115 pounds could handle Jedrzejczyk’s brutal striking skills. She became so confident in them that she even christened herself ‘Joanna Champion’.
When the UFC booked her in for her sixth defense against Rose Namajunas at UFC 217, it felt like it would be business as usual for the champion. After all, despite a good run, Namajunas held recent losses to Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Esparza, both of whom had been dispatched by Jedrzejczyk with ease.
However, to the shock of everyone watching, ‘Thug Rose’ came in with far sharper striking than she’d shown before. In the first round, she connected with a clean left hand that dropped Jedrzejczyk. Before the champ could recover, Namajunas followed with a flurry that forced the champion to tap out.
The entire UFC, from the fans to the announcing team, were stunned by the result, as nobody expected Jedrzejczyk to lose, particularly by knockout.
Despite Namajunas proving her excellence by defeating the former champ in a rematch, this remains one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.
#3. Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm – UFC 193
Widely considered one of the biggest upsets in UFC history at the time, in hindsight, it’s probably fair to suggest that people should’ve seen Ronda Rousey’s big loss to Holly Holm coming.
Sure, ‘Rowdy’ had been thoroughly dominant over every fighter she’d faced up to that point, dispatching of opponents like Cat Zingano and Miesha Tate in the UFC, but in the fights leading up to UFC 193, she’d begun to rely less on her grappling and more on a powerful, but wild, striking game.
In reality, then, seeing a striker as credentialed as ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ pick Rousey apart en route to a second round TKO win shouldn’t have been that surprising.
However, to put it that way would be doing a huge disservice to quite how dominant Rousey was seen as being back in 2015. Not only had she been defeating her challengers, but she’d been destroying them with ridiculous ease, needing just over a minute combined to put away Zingano, Bethe Correia and Alexis Davis.
In fact, ‘Rowdy’ had been looking so good that the likes of Joe Rogan were openly questioning whether she could actually defeat some of the UFC’s male bantamweights.
With that considered, then, it’s easy to see why everyone was left gobsmacked when Holm knocked her silly with a head kick, essentially ending her career as a top level fighter in the process.
Six years later, the knockout has lost none of its impact and remains up there with the biggest upsets in UFC history.
