5 surprising UFC title challengers

#3 Al Iaquinta (2018)

The UFC's desperation put Al Iaquinta into a title shot at UFC 223

While Shamrock and Diaz’s title shots were set up for purely financial rather than sporting reasons, Al Iaquinta’s shot at the UFC Lightweight crown earlier this year came from something else entirely – a feeling of total desperation.

UFC 223 had been built up as one of the year’s biggest shows, and its scheduled main event of Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov for the 155lbs title – the same title stripped from Conor McGregor – was as highly anticipated as any fight the promotion could put together. But like with the previous three times the fight had been put together, it just wasn’t meant to be.

In this case, Ferguson blew out his knee days before the fight and had to withdraw, and the UFC found a surprising replacement – current Featherweight champ Max Holloway. Come weigh-in time though, things went totally haywire. First, Holloway was removed from the fight by the New York State Athletic Commission – deemed medically unfit to compete following a tough weight cut.

The UFC initially pegged former champ Anthony Pettis as the new opponent for Khabib, but Pettis apparently made financial demands that the promotion refused to acquiesce.

Next, they turned to Paul Felder, but the NYSAC nixed that fight as Felder wasn’t ranked. Finally, Felder’s scheduled opponent Al Iaquinta was approached.

Despite a fractious relationship with the UFC, Iaquinta agreed to take the fight and became perhaps the most unlikely title challenger in UFC history – a feeling only made stronger when the NYSAC decided that they wouldn’t officially recognise him as champion even with a win as he’d weighed in at 0.2lbs over the championship weight of 155lbs.

The Rocky story never quite came off though, as Nurmagomedov easily took a unanimous decision after largely outpointing Iaquinta in all areas. Still, the New York native remains one of the most surprising title challengers in UFC history.