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#4. Holly Holm vs. Ronda Rousey (UFC 193)
By 2015, the UFC’s first ever women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey was not only one of the biggest stars in MMA, she was also one of the sport’s most dominant fighters.
Rousey managed to defend her UFC title on six occasions, defeating the likes of Miesha Tate and Cat Zingano, largely in one-sided fashion. Essentially, nobody seemed able to test her.
That all changed at UFC 193, when striking ace Holly Holm was able to execute the perfect gameplan, avoiding the wild rushes of ‘Rowdy’ and escaping her on the ground too. One expertly-placed head kick later, and Rousey’s title reign had come to an end.
Given Rousey’s star power and the fact that she’d been such a dominant champion, it seemed inevitable that the UFC would book an immediate rematch, as they’d done for other fallen greats when they lost their titles.
However, after suffering such a dramatic loss, ‘Rowdy’ simply wasn’t ready to return to the octagon when the UFC would’ve liked, meaning any idea of a rematch was shelved.
Holm instead defended her title against Tate and subsequently suffered her first loss in the UFC via submission. In turn, Tate then dropped the title to Amanda Nunes in her first title defense just four months later.
That meant that when Rousey was ready to come back a little more than a year after her loss to Holm, it was for a fight with Nunes, not ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’. And despite a dramatic build to the fight, Rousey was simply outclassed on the feet and fell to a knockout loss in the first round.
‘Rowdy’ would retire from MMA after the loss, meaning that she would never get a chance to avenge the defeat to Holm and UFC fans were never given the chance to see what was largely considered one of the most highly anticipated rematches in promotional history.
#3. Jon Jones vs. Dominick Reyes (UFC 247)
Jon Jones is undoubtedly one of the most dominant fighters in UFC history. The former UFC light heavyweight champion essentially defeated everyone in his path from his UFC debut in 2008 through to 2020, with victims including Daniel Cormier, Lyoto Machida and Alexander Gustafsson.
But at UFC 247 – with Jones in the midst of his second lengthy title reign – it felt like he’d finally met his match.
Undefeated prospect Dominick Reyes went toe-to-toe with the longtime champion for five rounds, and in the eyes of many fans, ‘The Devastator’ had done enough to claim what would’ve been a seismic victory. However, the judges on hand saw the fight differently and awarded it to Jones with scores of 48-47, 48-47 and 49-46.
The fans certainly didn’t seem to agree, and so it was widely expected that the UFC would simply book an immediate rematch to decide once and for all who the better man was.
However, that didn’t seem to be in Jones' best interests, despite the UFC apparently being willing to make the fight. Instead, Jones signaled his interest to move up to heavyweight and vacated his title.
Reyes ended up facing off with Jan Blachowicz for the vacant title, and despite being favored to win, ended up being knocked out in the second round, leaving his hopes of becoming a UFC champion dead in the water.
And due to the loss – and another at the hands of Jiri Prochazka – any hopes of a potential rematch with Jones also went up in smoke, as any interest the UFC had in making the fight was long gone.
