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In MMA, the tag of being undefeated isn't taken as seriously as in boxing. Yes, undefeated fighters are celebrated in the UFC but some fighters have lost more than one fight and still gone on to become popular champions.
Take former interim UFC lightweight champion Dustin Poirier, for example. Poirier suffered a devastating first-round knockout loss to Conor McGregor at UFC 178. Despite the loss, he picked himself up, got back on the grind, defeated a host of top-contenders in the lightweight division, and became an interim champion. He also got his revenge on McGregor, knocking the Irishman out at UFC 257.
Although Poirier found his way back to the top, sometimes losses can take a heavy toll on fighters and their mindsets. Sometimes it's the manner of defeat whereas in other cases, it's the person you lose to, but there are examples of losses that turned the careers of fighters upside down.
Following these losses, fighters who used to be world beaters become a shadow of their former selves. Their confidence is shattered and they often find it extremely difficult to get back to the form they once were in. In this article, we look at five defeats that shattered the confidence of UFC stars.
5) Anderson Silva's loss to Chris Weidman at UFC
Anderson Silva was in his absolute prime when he took on then-up-and-comer Chris Weidman in a fight for the UFC middleweight title. The Brazilian was the undisputed king of the middleweight division and was on an unbelievable 16 fight win streak inside the octagon before fighting Weidman.
Weidman was supposed to be easy prey for The Spider. Despite that, the fight delivered one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. Trying to showboat by keeping his hands down, Silva got caught with a wild left hook by Weidman. Silva immediately went to the ground, knocked out cold.
That was the end of the Anderson Silva era in the UFC. The Brazilian managed to pick up just one win in eight more attempts after the defeat against Weidman.
4) Jose Aldo's shocking KO loss to Conor McGregor at UFC 194
Jose Aldo dominated the featherweight division for years until he met Conor McGregor at UFC 194. Aldo was on an 18 fight win streak and hadn't been defeated in eight years until then. The build-up to the fight between McGregor and Aldo was wild.
The Irishman clearly got inside his opponent's head with his trash-talk and mind games. When the pair finally squared off, it took McGregor just 13 seconds to put Aldo to sleep in emphatic fashion. Fans were stunned, and so was Jose.
Although he once again became champion when McGregor was stripped of the title for inactivity, Aldo failed to successfully defend the belt. His record, too, has been very erratic since the loss to McGregor. Aldo has won just four out of nine fights since his loss to The Notorious One.
3) Ronda Rousey's devastating defeat at the hands of Holly Holm at UFC 193
Ronda Rousey was once the most dominant female athlete in MMA. She was the first-ever UFC women's bantamweight champion and had seven successful title defenses to her name before succumbing to Holm at UFC 183. Rousey was also undefeated before the shocking defeat.
Rousey had finished all the fights she had been in before the fight with Holm and was expected to make quick work of The Preacher's Daughter. But that wasn't to be as Holm's perfectly timed head kick brought Rousey's unbeaten run to a violent end. Holm did the unthinkable by beating the seemingly invincible Ronda Rousey.
Rousey returned, only to be finished by current champion Amanda Nunes. Following her second straight loss, Ronda Rousey decided to hang up her gloves and has not returned since.
2) Justin Gaethje's beatdown of Tony Ferguson at UFC 249
Tony Ferguson was riding on a 12 fight win streak in the UFC when he faced Justin Gaethje at UFC 249. Ferguson was initially set to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov but when the latter was forced to pull out, Gaethje stepped in as a replacement.
El Cucuy got dominated, beat up, and broken like never before in the fight. Fans were shocked as Ferguson had no answer to Gaethje's relentless onslaught. Gaethje took Ferguson's soul in that fight. After four rounds of getting brutally beaten up, Ferguson finally gave up in the fifth.
Tony Ferguson has not been the same since. He stepped inside the octagon twice following the fight against Gaethje and ended up losing both times. Not only that, Tony got dominated in both of those fights and failed to win a single round.
1) Conor McGregor's 'humbling' defeat to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229
Conor McGregor was the king of the UFC when he fought arch-rival Khabib Nurmagomedov in the biggest pay-per-view in UFC history. Before fighting Nurmagomedov, the Irishman became the first simultaneous two-division champion in UFC history.
Also known as Mystic Mac, McGregor would often pick the round and manner of his wins and incredibly turn his predictions into reality. That would all change after the fight against Khabib. The animosity and bad blood between McGregor and Nurmagomedov was pretty evident in the build-up to the fight.
McGregor's trash-talk was very personal and Nurmagomedov was itching to get his hands on the Irishman inside the octagon. When the time came, Nurmagomedov mauled McGregor, completely dominating the Irishman on his way to a fourth-round submission victory.
After losing to his biggest rival, McGregor didn't seem like the all-conquering beast he once was. Khabib effectively humbled him as he promised he would. McGregor has fought only twice in the three years following the loss to Khabib in 2018. He beat Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 but went on to get knocked out for the first time in his career in a recent rematch against Dustin Poirier at UFC 257.
McGregor is slated to fight Poirier in a rivalry-settling trilogy fight in 20 days at UFC 264. If he loses again, it can be said that The Notorious One is well past his prime and will probably never become champion again.
