It’s a well-known fact that a bad beating in MMA can take years off a fighter’s career.
It’s hardly surprising – MMA is a violent sport and even though some fighters come off as being invincible, years of taking shots to the head catches up with everyone in the end.
Sometimes the gradual decline of a fighter is linked to their training regime – whether its hardcore strength and conditioning that causes injuries or super-hard sparring that practically replicates a full fight and causes damage via repeated concussions.
Other times, you can see a fighter gradually slowing down through their fights until they hit a wall later in their career and just can’t seem to pick up a win. See Nate Marquardt and Roy Nelson for examples of that.
There are examples, however, of a fighter going into one fight seemingly in their prime, and coming away having taken such a beating that they’re arguably never the same again.
Here are five fights that not only took years off the loser’s career, but they arguably damaged the fighter’s career irreparably.
#1 Georges St-Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck – UFC 124 – 12/11/10
One of the UFC’s biggest PPVs of 2010 was built around the rivalry between Welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and his brash challenger, Josh Koscheck. The feud had been built up during the 12th season of TUF when GSP and Koscheck coached against one another.
GSP had kept largely quiet throughout the tapings, even when Koscheck tried desperately to antagonise him, talking non-stop trash and playing pranks like boxing the champ’s car into a parking space. Koscheck at one point was reduced to feuding with GSP’s medic because the Canadian was so focused on coming off as the better man.
When the fight came around, though, it was Koscheck on the receiving end of all the abuse.
The former NCAA champion wrestler had been working on his striking non-stop since losing to GSP in 2007, feeling that he could prevent the Canadian from taking him down and attempt to knock him out on the feet.
The problem for Koscheck was that GSP was by far the better boxer. The Champion caught Koscheck early with a stiff jab and continued to land it throughout the fight, mixing in his right hand for good measure as well. Koscheck’s wild hooks couldn’t compete and by the end of the second round, it was clear Koscheck was badly outmatched.
In fact, it was after the second round that we got the sick visual of Koscheck knocking away an enswell from his right eye as his orbital bone was badly broken. In the end, Koscheck was able to last the distance despite his right eye being useless from the third round onwards.
How the doctor, or Koscheck’s corner, didn’t call a stop to this fight I don’t know – but my guess is that Koscheck probably wishes they had in hindsight. Since the GSP fight, he’s won just twice and has lost a further six times.
In all of those losses a major factor has been the damage his right eye took in the St-Pierre fight – it’s practically a given now that if an opponent lands a shot on it, Koscheck can be seen pawing at it in a panicked way. And this usually leads to him losing the fight shortly after.
People can label St-Pierre a “point-fighter” all they like, but for me, he essentially ended Josh Koscheck’s career with the beating he put on him back in December 2010. The downfall of Koscheck can clearly be traced back to this career-altering fight.
#2 Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard – UFC 136 – 10/08/11
Coming into UFC 136, the stakes couldn’t have been any higher for both Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard.
The two men had gone to a draw in their previous fight at UFC 125, with Edgar somehow recovering from a horrendous beating in the early rounds to take enough of the later ones to cling onto his title. A lot of fans felt that Maynard was the superior fighter, however.
Up to that point, the draw was the only black mark on his record, save for an odd No Contest against Rob Emerson, a fight that saw Maynard somehow knock himself out at the same time that Emerson tapped out.
Other than that though he’d been flawless, blending his wrestling and boxing together to beat the likes of Roger Huerta, Kenny Florian, Jim Miller and Nate Diaz. Oh, and Edgar himself, a few years before. Maynard was seen as a bit dull, but practically unstoppable.
Edgar would change all of that at UFC 136.
Once again, Maynard came out like a house on fire. He dropped Edgar with a series of uppercuts in the first round, and then put him back down with a knee strike when he managed to stand. A third knockdown came from a running knee, but Edgar still would not go down. Somehow, he survived the round.
Maynard seemed rattled literally after that round, unable to believe that he’d failed once again to put Edgar away. He barely threw a strike in the second round, and by the third round, Edgar began to take over.
The fight went into the fourth round, and this time there was finally a finish – Edgar caught Maynard with an uppercut as he defended a takedown, then dropped him with a right hand and sealed the deal with some punches on the ground.
Despite failing to capture the title, the general feeling was that Maynard could bounce back. Not exactly the case.
Gray took eight months off before returning to beat Clay Guida by split decision in a genuinely terrible fight. And it’s been downhill since, as he suffered three knockout losses in a row to follow – to TJ Grant, Nate Diaz and Ross Pearson.
A decision loss to the unheralded Alexander Yakovlev would follow – arguably the absolute lowest point of his career. Since then, Maynard has dropped to 145lbs, where he picked up an unimpressive win over Fernando Bruno before losing in an equally bad fight against Ryan Hall.
For all intents and purposes, he’s done – his chin is shot to hell and he seems wildly gunshy – basically everything that once served him well is gone. And you can trace it back to that third Edgar fight.
Whether it’s down to Frankie cracking his chin or just the fact that he never psychologically recovered from coming so close to winning the belt only to fall at the last hurdle, is impossible to tell.
It is certain though that his career changed courses after that loss.
#3 Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos – UFC 166 – 10/19/13
Alright, so this one might prove to be premature given JDS is currently scheduled to fight for the UFC Heavyweight title again in April. Personally, though I don’t think he’ll win, and I’d argue he hasn’t been the same since this fight.
UFC 166 was the third meeting between Velasquez and Dos Santos; the two had split their previous pair of fights, with JDS knocking Cain out in November 2011 to win the HW title from him and then Cain taking the title back via decision in December 2012.
One more fight for both, and it was time to settle the trilogy.
Despite Dos Santos knocking out Mark Hunt after the first loss to Cain, most observers gave the champion a big advantage. After all, while Dos Santos had knocked him out within two minutes, Cain had put a tremendous beating on him over five rounds in the second fight, using his clinch work and takedowns to set up thudding punches while forcing JDS into the fence.
Dos Santos actually tagged Velasquez with a punch in the opening seconds of the fight, but unfortunately for him, it was about the most success he’d see. From there, the fight was essentially a repeat of the second meeting, as Velasquez clinched JDS, forced him into the cage, roughed him up with dirty boxing and takedowns, and generally beat him up.
The third round was perhaps the most brutal, as Cain dropped JDS with a right hand and then appeared to knock him in and out of consciousness. How referee Herb Dean didn’t stop the fight I’ll never know.
With each round that went by, Dos Santos was looking physically worse, like a caricature of Frankenstein’s monster.
Eventually, the end came in the fifth round. A hurt Dos Santos attempted a guillotine, and when Cain escaped, slamming JDS’ head into the ground, the Brazilian had no more to give and the fight was stopped.
It would be more than a year before we’d see JDS in action again and although his return fight was a stone cold classic – one of my favourite fights of 2014 – his decision win over Stipe Miocic was seen as bogus by most analysts, as outside of a knockdown in the third round, the fight was largely dominated by Miocic using the same gameplan that Cain had done – walk JDS down, back him into the cage and rough him up.
Once again JDS came away looking like he’d been in a car wreck, and once again it’d be a year before we saw him again. This time it was against longtime rival Alistair Overeem and JDS looked even worse, seemingly tentative and gun shy and it was no shock when Overeem knocked him out with a second-round left hook.
Since then he’s returned to beat Ben Rothwell via unanimous decision, but while he looked good in that fight, it still didn’t feel like he was the Dos Santos of old, the man who ran through the division before the second Velasquez fight.
It’s that third fight that I think had the most detriment to JDS’s career, though – not only did Cain practically write the blueprint to beat the Brazilian, he also altered his career for the worse. In my eyes, JDS has never been the same.
#4 Rashad Evans vs. Chuck Liddell – UFC 88 – 09/06/08
You could make a fair argument that the beginning of the end for the legendary Chuck Liddell came when he lost his Light-Heavyweight title to Quinton Jackson at UFC 71 in May 2007.
Personally, though I’d disagree with that – the Jackson loss was bad but it looked more like a flash knockout, and after that, the Iceman put on two great fights – one in a losing effort to Keith Jardine, and another in a win over longtime rival and fellow legend Wanderlei Silva.
The Silva fight made it look like Liddell was back to his absolute best. He could still take a sledgehammer punch and was more than capable of handing them out. 2008 wasn’t quite as good for him, though. A hamstring injury sidelined him for much of the year before he was pitted against rising star Rashad Evans at UFC 88.
On paper, it looked like a favourable match for Liddell. He’d always dealt well with wrestling-based foes like Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture, and Evans wasn’t the most accomplished striker. Although he’d knocked out Sean Salmon with a head kick, he’d gone on to struggle on the feet with the much smaller Michael Bisping.
This looked tailor made for a classic Iceman knockout.
We got a classic KO, for sure, except not in the way anyone could’ve imagined. After a tentative first round, one thing seemed certain – Evans was very fast and was much harder to hit than anyone had expected him to be.
When the second round began, Evans stayed on the outside, almost daring Liddell to come after him, and when the former champ did so, Rashad began to fire back with rapid punches, testing Liddell’s reflexes to the limit.
Eventually, things came to a head. Liddell threw a heavy right uppercut/hook – usually a killer punch for him – but this time Evans was ready and he uncorked a crushing overhand right that Liddell himself would’ve been proud of.
Like in an old Western movie, the younger fighter was the quicker, and Rashad’s punch connected with phenomenal force. Liddell went down, knocked completely unconscious in one of the scariest knockouts in UFC history.
It would be some time before he came around.
After this fight, the old adage somehow became that a stiff breeze could knock Liddell out. He attempted comebacks twice, but ended up unconscious both times, once at the hands of Shogun Rua and finally against Rich Franklin.
A chin which had once stood up to punches from heavy hitters like Alistair Overeem, Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort was well and truly cracked. The Franklin knockout convinced UFC president Dana White that he’d seen enough, and he was able to encourage Liddell to retire.
While you could argue it was a simple case of Father Time catching up with the Iceman, I think you can trace the end back to the fight with Rashad Evans – a career-altering knockout.
#5 Holly Holm vs. Ronda Rousey – UFC 193 – 11/14/15
Perhaps no other fight has altered the trajectory of an MMA career quite like this one.
Coming into UFC 193, Ronda Rousey was on top of the world. Arguably the biggest star in the UFC and possibly the biggest PPV draw too, Ronda had already won two fights in 2015, first submitting top contender Cat Zingano in a matter of seconds, and then knocking out Brazilian Bethe Correia in under a minute as well.
When she was booked to headline UFC 193 against former boxing champion Holly Holm, most figured it would be business as usual for her.
Holm had debuted in the UFC a few months prior but hadn’t looked like a world-beater, instead, stuttering to wins over Raquel Pennington and Marion Reneau, neither of whom were ranked in the top ten.
The likelihood of her being able to stay on the outside and outpoint Ronda with her striking, while at the same time avoiding the clinch and takedown seemed pretty remote. However, Rousey came out more aggressive than ever before, looking to close the distance into the clinch by swinging wild punches.
This played right into Holm’s hands; the challenger basically acting as the matador to Rousey’s bull.
It didn’t help that Rousey’s trainer, Edmond Tarverdyan, seemed happy with the gameplan and seemed to believe Ronda was winning when in reality she was charging right into counterpunches throughout the round.
Rousey managed one takedown, but Holm avoided the trademark armbar and escaped to her feet. The second round didn’t last too long as Ronda was staggered by a left hand and finally knocked out cold by a left head kick.
The reign of terror was over and the UFC had a new champion in one of the biggest upsets of all time, but in hindsight, the fight was somehow an even bigger deal than we realised at the time.
Most people expected the UFC to immediately book a rematch between the two. Instead, Rousey basically fell off the radar, and rumours abounded that she’d gained a tonne of weight and had battled with depression following the loss.
When she did emerge from her hiatus, the division had another new Champion, Brazilian Amanda Nunes. As Rousey’s reputation preceded her, she was granted an immediate title shot upon her return, but that went even worse for her than the Holm fight.
This time, Ronda was knocked out in under a minute. In reality, despite the Nunes loss being more brutal and far quicker, it was the Holm fight that really altered the path of Ronda’s career.
Before that she’d carried an aura of invincibility like no other fighter had done in MMA really. Afterwards though – perhaps as a backlash to her massive fame prior to the knockout – she was treated as a joke and a meme online, and it was felt that her style had been exposed for good.
While I think a change of trainer and a re-think of her gameplans could revitalise her, the likelihood is that she’s probably done with MMA. Which makes her loss to Holly Holm the ultimate career-changing defeat.
Any more career-altering fights you can think of? Please tell us!
Until next time....
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