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The UFC is by far the world’s biggest MMA organisation – and has been now for the best part of 15 years – and so it comes as no surprise that the majority of the greatest fighters in MMA history, with the odd exception of course, have stepped inside the Octagon to compete against other greats.
Unfortunately, UFC fans never got to see the best of some of the sport’s all-time greats. For various reasons, some legends of MMA didn’t make it to the Octagon until it was too late for them to reach the top of the promotion.
Here are 5 legends of MMA who arrived in the UFC a little too late.
#1 Wanderlei Silva
Wanderlei Silva had two runs in the UFC, but unfortunately neither one came in the Brazilian’s prime. ‘The Axe Murderer’ fought on a handful of occasions in the Octagon from 1998 to 2000 – famously losing to both Vitor Belfort and Tito Ortiz – but then departed for Japanese promotion PRIDE, where he became arguably the most feared 205lber on the planet, going 17 fights unbeaten.
By the mid-2000’s, though, Silva’s aura of invincibility began to fade in the PRIDE ring. He was defeated by Mark Hunt in an odd Heavyweight fight that most fans didn’t hold against him, but a decision loss to Ricardo Arona was definitely a black mark. Silva did win a rematch against ‘The Brazilian Tiger’, but by 2006 it appeared that the cumulative damage he’d suffered was starting to add up.
‘The Axe Murderer’ suffered back-to-back KO losses to Mirko Cro Cop and Dan Henderson – his first stoppage losses since the Belfort knockout in 1998 – and unfortunately, they came on two of the final PRIDE shows. A month after his loss to Henderson, PRIDE was bought out by Zuffa, and the majority of its fighters moved into the UFC.
Silva moved over in December 2007, and while he was defeated by Chuck Liddell in his return – in a classic fight – his second appearance saw him destroy Keith Jardine, giving fans hopes that the Wanderlei who had terrified everyone in PRIDE was back. That wasn’t the case, though; ‘The Axe Murderer’ was knocked out in his next fight, and went on to alternate wins and losses until he departed the UFC in 2013.
Essentially, had Silva come into the Octagon during his prime – the early 2000’s – he may well have been a title contender if not a UFC champion, but as it was, his UFC run just came too late.
#2 Norifumi ‘Kid’ Yamamoto
In his prime, Norifumi ‘Kid’ Yamamoto was widely recognised as one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters on the planet. A highly accomplished amateur wrestler, Yamamoto burst onto the Japanese scene in 2001 and made a name for himself not through his grappling, but by his astonishingly powerful striking game.
‘Kid’ put together a fantastic record over the years that followed, and by the end of 2006, he was 15-1, with the lone loss coming via a fluke cut stoppage in his 5th professional bout. But unfortunately for stateside MMA fans, two things kept him miles away from the UFC; firstly, he was such a big star in Japan that he could earn far more money by fighting at home, and secondly – and more importantly – he was a natural 135lber, and while he could compete at 145lbs and even 155lbs, the UFC didn’t feature those divisions at that time.
Early 2007 saw Yamamoto step away from MMA in an attempt to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as a freestyle wrestler, but when an elbow injury put an end to that dream, he returned to the sport, only to tear his ACL right before his scheduled debut in the newly launched DREAM promotion.
The Japanese superstar returned to action in 2009, but never really looked like the same fighter he was before the injury, and his long winning streak was quickly snapped by a pair of upset defeats. By early 2011 though, the UFC had introduced the smaller weight classes, and Yamamoto’s star power made him a big signing for the promotion.
Unfortunately, by that point, Yamamoto’s prime was long over, and he subsequently lost 3 straight fights – two to largely unheralded opponents – before going to a No Contest in his 4th. The UFC fanbase never got a chance to see the best from a truly tremendous fighter and a pioneer of the smaller weight classes – a fact that became sadder when Yamamoto passed away from cancer in 2018.
#3 Takanori Gomi
A former champion in Japan’s Shooto promotion, Takanori Gomi was already widely recognised as one of the world’s best 155lbers when he signed with PRIDE in early 2004, and ‘The Fireball Kid’ quickly shot to fame with seven straight wins over tough opposition. By the end of 2005, he’d won PRIDE’s inaugural Lightweight title, and few could argue that he was the best 155lber on the planet.
An upset loss to Marcus Aurelio followed at the start of 2006, but by the end of the year, Gomi had regained his slot as the world’s best Lightweight by reeling off three straight wins and avenging that loss. But as 2007 began, things got strange.
Firstly, ‘The Fireball Kid’ was beaten by former UFC Welterweight Nick Diaz in a tremendous fight, but also one that seemed to suggest Gomi had begun to rely on his heavy hands a little too much at the expense of his overall game. And when PRIDE was bought out by Zuffa, rather than move to the UFC, Gomi headed over to Japan’s Sengoku promotion – where his form suddenly fell off, resulting in a pair of losses to unheralded opponents.
Gomi bounced back with two wins in 2009, and that was enough to earn him a UFC deal, but ‘The Fireball Kid’ that emerged into the Octagon just wasn’t the same fighter everyone knew and loved in PRIDE. He showed one flash of his former greatness – a brutal 2010 KO of Tyson Griffin – but outside of that, Gomi seemed slower, didn’t weather punishment as well as he once had, and his ground game seemed to have regressed too.
When the Japanese star’s UFC career finally ended in 2017, his overall record in the Octagon stood at 4-9, and his tenure ended with a painful five-fight losing streak. Had Gomi’s prime come a decade later, he could have become the UFC’s first Japanese champion, but as it was, UFC fans missed out on his greatness entirely.
#4 Renzo Gracie
One of MMA’s original pioneers, Renzo Gracie was basically fighting before the sport had even begun, as he was widely known for competing in the infamous ‘Gracie Challenge’ fights that would see a member of the Gracie family demonstrating the power of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu against usually hapless foes.
By the time modern MMA as we know it now emerged in the mid-1990’s, Gracie was already in his 30’s and was probably coming towards the end of his prime – but despite his cousin Royce’s success in the early UFC events, and the fact that he was based in New York, Renzo never made the move into the UFC, instead choosing to compete largely in Japan.
By the mid-2000’s, Gracie was essentially retired from active competition, taking on the odd fight but largely sticking to coaching, and when he picked up a disqualification win over fellow veteran Frank Shamrock just weeks before his 40th birthday, it appeared that we’d seen the last of him in MMA.
That wasn’t the case though, and surprisingly, he was signed by the UFC in early 2010 – 3 years after his last fight – to take on former UFC Welterweight champion Matt Hughes at the UFC’s first ever event in Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately, the fight didn’t go to plan for him at all.
Gracie looked slow and plodding on the feet – hardly a surprise given he was in his early 40’s at the time – and was eventually TKO’d by Hughes in the third round of a largely uneventful fight. Had Renzo entered into the UFC during his prime years – essentially the mid-1990’s – he may well have eclipsed the legend of his cousin, but sadly, UFC fans only got a chance to see him as an aged relic.
#5 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Okay, so Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira had a couple of really high points during his UFC tenure, most notably his win over Tim Sylvia – a victory that won him the Interim UFC Heavyweight title – and a stone-cold classic fight against Randy Couture, but for the most part, the former PRIDE Heavyweight champion’s run in the Octagon was disappointing – and the Nogueira we saw in the UFC was a far cry from the fighter who’d dominated for so long in Japan.
Nogueira rose to fame in Japan in the RINGS promotion in the early 2000’s, losing just 1 of his first 13 fights before moving into PRIDE in 2001. He quickly began winning there too, demonstrating submission skills unheard of in the Heavyweight division at the time, and became recognised as the best Heavyweight on the planet when he submitted former UFC champion and PRIDE Grand Prix winner Mark Coleman.
A win over Heath Herring gave ‘Minotauro’ the PRIDE Heavyweight title, and he continued to dominate his opponents until running into the phenomenal Fedor Emelianenko in 2003. Even after his loss to the Russian, Nogueira seemed capable of beating everyone else – and he did just that, with his two defeats to Fedor being his only losses from 2003 to 2006.
By late 2006, though, it was clear that the Brazilian was beginning to slow down a little. Although he was just 30 years old, he’d taken more cumulative damage in his PRIDE tenure than almost any other fighter, and although his durability was legendary, questions began to be asked over how long he could continue.
Nogueira entered into the UFC in 2007 following the promotion’s purchase of PRIDE, and despite looking physically worse than he’d done before, it seemed the durability was still intact – he weathered nasty storms from Herring and Sylvia before coming back to beat both men.
That durability was shattered in his next fight though, as heavy underdog Frank Mir knocked him out in the second round – the first time ‘Minotauro’ had ever been finished in nearly 40 fights. And from there – with his aura of invincibility gone – Nogueira was only able to win a further 3 UFC fights, while losing 5, 4 of which saw him finished in violent fashion by either TKO or submission.
By the time of his retirement in 2015 Nogueira simply looked like an old man in the Octagon, something truly upsetting to watch for any MMA fan who’d followed him since his PRIDE days. Had he joined the UFC in the early 2000’s, there can be no doubt that the Brazilian would’ve dominated the Heavyweight division, but unfortunately, the UFC’s rise came at just the wrong time for him.
