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This weekend sees a major show in the form of UFC 275, and at the top of the card, two title fights are on tap. However, it’s safe to say that one is more intriguing than the other.
This weekend’s co-headliner will see Valentina Shevchenko defend her flyweight title against Taila Santos, a fighter who is arguably amongst the most obscure title challengers in UFC history.
Usually, the promotion attempts to ensure their title fights involve combatants with the biggest names possible. However, over the years, we have seen them forced to turn to lesser known fighters instead.
With that in mind, here are five of the most obscure title challengers in modern UFC history.
#5. Taila Santos – Women’s flyweight title challenger (UFC 275)
UFC 275, which goes down this weekend in Singapore, will see Taila Santos challenge Valentina Shevchenko for the women’s flyweight title While the Brazilian is clearly a talented fighter, it’s probably safe to label her as one of the promotion’s most obscure title challengers, too.
Santos debuted in the octagon back in February 2019 in a split decision loss to Mara Romero Borella. Since then, she’s reeled off four victories, all over respectable opponents. Most recently, she choked out Joanne Wood in the first round of their bout in November 2021.
However, that clash was the first time that Santos had ever appeared on the main card of an event. While she was impressive, winning a $50k bonus for her efforts, it wasn’t the year’s most memorable show overall, meaning the Brazilian’s win was swiftly forgotten.
When it was announced that she was next for Shevchenko, who has held the flyweight title since December 2018, it came as somewhat of a surprise, even if the division is currently devoid of any real big-name challengers.
Whether Santos can pull off what would be probably the biggest upset in the history of the promotion remains to be seen, but it’s probably safe to say that because of her somewhat obscure nature, the interest levels in this fight are somewhat low coming into this weekend.
#4. Chris Cariaso – Flyweight title challenger (UFC 178)
When Demetrious Johnson won the UFC’s inaugural flyweight title back in September 2012, it didn’t take him long to defeat the majority of the top challengers in the division.
‘Mighty Mouse’ quickly took out John Dodson, John Moraga, Joseph Benavidez and Ali Bagautinov. By the time that two years of his reign were up, there were very few credible names left for him to defeat.
However, the promotion needed a title fight to headline UFC 178 when the show lost its initially booked main event of Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier. So, with Johnson more than willing to stay active, Chris Cariaso was pegged as his latest challenger.
At the time, ‘Kamikaze’ was a highly experienced veteran who’d been fighting for the promotion since January 2011. Despite putting together a record of 7-3, he’d only ever featured on one main card showcase, a largely dull victory over Louis Smolka.
More to the point, Cariaso also had losses to Moraga and Jussier Formiga on his record, meaning that he hardly came across as the most credible challenger.
In the end, the show turned out to be one of the better events of 2014, but the interest levels came largely from two main card bouts, Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez vs. Donald Cerrone, rather than the headliner, which ended up flying under the radar entirely despite Johnson impressing in a second-round submission win.
#3. Frank Trigg – Welterweight title challenger (UFC 45)
Newer UFC fans would probably recognize Frank Trigg as one of the referees working in the octagon from time to time, but if you rewind back to just under two decades ago, ‘Twinkle Toes’ was widely seen as one of the best welterweights in the world.
However, prior to his famous second clash with Matt Hughes – as well as his big victories over Dennis Hallman and Charuto Verissimo – Trigg became one of the few fighters to debut in the octagon in a title bout, making him one of the most obscure challengers in history.
UFC 45’s main event saw ‘Twinkle Toes’ enter the octagon for the first time to challenge then-welterweight kingpin Hughes. Due to the nature of MMA at the time, his name would only have been recognized by hardcore fans.
Trigg’s biggest win at the time came over Hallman in the ill-fated WFA promotion. He’d only fought once in PRIDE and he had also come up short against Hayato Sakurai, a fighter that Hughes had dealt easily with.
Essentially, he only received a debut title shot because Hughes had defeated every other credible challenger in the division. Unsurprisingly, ‘Twinkle Toes’ joined them, losing to the champ via first-round submission.
Sure, it didn’t take him long to gain credibility with the fans afterwards, but at the time, it was hard to imagine him having too much success or climbing out of obscurity.
#2. Yana Kunitskaya – Women’s featherweight title challenger (UFC 222)
Ever since it was introduced to the UFC in early 2017, the women’s featherweight division has largely been devoid of talent, with the promotion largely choosing to ignore it and therefore not making all that many big signings there.
Essentially, the division was brought in to build Cris Cyborg into a genuine UFC star. To an extent, that worked, as she defeated Tonya Evinger for the vacant title and then picked up a big win over Holly Holm in her first title defense.
However, due to the fact that the promotion simply hadn’t filled the division at that stage, when it came to picking the next challenger for the Brazilian, they essentially had to pluck a fighter from obscurity to fill the gap.
The fighter chosen was Russia’s Yana Kunitskaya, who had never fought in the UFC previously and who had actually been competing largely as a bantamweight in the Invicta promotion. Did she really deserve a UFC featherweight title shot? Probably not.
It came as no surprise, then, when Cyborg comfortably defeated her by TKO in the first round of their clash. Although ‘Foxy’ has since claimed a number of victories in the octagon, she hasn’t come close to gaining another title shot.
#1. Joe Soto – Bantamweight title challenger (UFC 177)
While he was always a solid fighter in his own right, it’s probably safe to say that the most obscure title challenger in UFC history remains Joe Soto, who debuted in the octagon in a bantamweight title bout with T.J. Dillashaw in 2014.
At the time, Soto was probably best known for his brief run in Bellator MMA. While he’d won six fights in a row and had clearly earned a chance in the UFC, he almost certainly didn’t deserve an instant crack at the gold.
Of course, Soto’s title challenge was never the initial plan and only came to fruition when Renan Barao, who was supposed to rematch Dillashaw for the title he’d lost earlier that year, collapsed after a weight-cutting issue prior to the event.
With the event already losing a number of other bouts due to injuries and various other reasons, the promotion could simply not afford to lose its headliner.
Therefore, with Soto being more credible than Anthony Birchak, who was supposed to face the former Bellator star, he was quickly pushed into the slot.
Unsurprisingly, many UFC fans had no clue who Soto was and a one-sided defeat to Dillashaw didn’t help matters, even if he later picked up three wins in the octagon.
