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There have been some champions in the UFC who dominated their weight division for years and stacked up long winning streaks while doing so. Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva are two great examples who ruled their division for a long time before getting off the throne.
But there have been fights when these invincible fighters have looked human against their opponents. Anderson Silva's first fight with Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 showed that it is possible to beat 'The Spider'. 'The American Gangster' dominated Silva for four rounds of the fight, but in the end, the Brazilian fighter caught Sonnen in a triangle armbar and submitted him.
For GSP, it was his loss to Matt Serra that broke the Canadian's aura of invincibility. 'Rush' fought Matt Serra at UFC 69 to defend his welterweight title. Serra pulled off arguably the biggest upset in UFC history when he knocked out St-Pierre in the first round of the fight.
The current UFC champions have also had fights in the octagon where they failed to show their dominant self against their opponents.
Let's take a look at the five times current UFC champions failed to look flawless against their opponents:
#5 Amanda Nunes vs Cat Zingano at UFC 178
Amanda Nunes is currently reigning over the two heaviest women's divisions in the UFC - bantamweight and featherweight. 'The Lioness' has run through so many challengers that it is now becoming increasingly difficult for the UFC to find new and worthy opponents for her.
But this was not always the case with the Brazilian fighter. In her starting days in the UFC, Nunes hit a brick wall in Cat Zingano. 'The Lioness' fought Zingano at UFC 178. This was Nunes' third fight in the UFC and her professional record at the time was 9-3.
With a knockout victory in the third round, 'Alpha' became the first and the only woman in the UFC to defeat 'The Lioness'.
Nunes learned a lot from this loss and came back stronger than ever. The Brazilian has been undefeated since then with 12 straight wins in the UFC. Nunes' last outing was against Megan Anderson at UFC 259, whom she finished via submission in the opening round of the fight to defend her featherweight title.
#4 Amanda Nunes vs Valentina Shevchenko 2 at UFC 215
After shocking the world by knocking out UFC star Ronda Rousey in the first minute of the fight at UFC 207, Amanda Nunes faced off against Valentina Shevchenko for her second title defense.
It was a rematch as the two had their first fight at UFC 196. Nunes had defeated Shevchenko comfortably via unanimous decision, with the three judges scoring the contest 29-28, 29-27, and 29-27.
But the rematch was a much closer fight as 'Bullet' came fully prepared. The fight lasted all five rounds and ended with a split decision victory for 'The Lioness' with the three judges scoring the contest 47-48, 48-47, and 48-47 in Nunes' favor. This was the first time Nunes lost on a judge's scorecard in the UFC.
Since then, the Brazilian fighter has finished four of her next six fights. Nunes' biggest win came against Cris Cyborg at UFC 232. 'The Lioness' knocked out the 145-pound queen to become the first female fighter in the UFC to hold two championship titles simultaneously.
'Bullet' has also remained undefeated in the UFC after her second encounter with Nunes. Both fighters seem to be on a collision course for a trilogy fight as they are running out of competition in their respective divisions.
#3 Israel Adesanya vs Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 236
Before his encounter with Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 236, Israel Adesanya was on an amazing run in the UFC, stacking up one impressive win after another. 'The Last Stylebender' had not faced much adversity in his UFC career before his iconic fight with Gastelum.
The two fought a hard 25-minute battle for the interim middleweight title. Gastelum was at his best as he was constantly moving forward and pressuring Adesanya to engage in a slugfest. Adesanya had never taken a beating like this before in the UFC.
It was the fifth and final round that became the deciding factor in the razor-close fight. Adesanya rose to the occasion in the fifth round to edge out a decision victory.
After the encounter, the 33-year-old improved significantly as he knocked out Robert Whittaker to become the undisputed king of the 185-pound division.
#2 Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns at UFC 258
Former teammates Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns were scheduled to fight each other at UFC 258 for the 170-pound title. Burns was riding a six-fight win streak, with his latest win over former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. Meanwhile, Usman was coming off a decision win over Jorge Masvidal.
With his vicious knockout of Demian Maia, 'Durinho' had shown that he possessed devastating power in his hands.
Usman had also shown no weakness in his fight game before this fight.
In the first round of the fight, Burns hit 'The Nigerian Nightmare' with a heavy shot that forced Usman to put his hands on the ground to retain balance. This forced Usman to back up to regain his composure. It was the first time that fans had seen the Nigerian in trouble.
This gave fans a feeling that the Brazilian fighter might finish Usman soon, but the welterweight king made an impressive comeback and started touching Burns with his jab before finishing him in the third round.
#1 Israel Adesanya vs. Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259
After destroying UFC middleweight contender Paulo Costa at UFC 253, Israel Adesanya decided to jump up a weight class to fight UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz and attain champ-champ status.
Blachowicz had just won the light heavyweight title by defeating Dominick Reyes via TKO at UFC 253.
Adesanya decided against putting on weight for the fight. This adversely affected the New Zealander as Blachowicz used his bigger frame to take Adesanya down and keep him there in the later rounds of the five-round fight.
By doing this, the Polish fighter became the first person to defeat Adesanya in an MMA fight.
'The Last Stylebender' proved that he was still the king of the 185-pound division when he came back and comfortably defeated Marvin Vettori at UFC 263. Adesanya was in charge of the entire fight, and that was shown in the judges' scorecard as well. All three judges scored the contest 50-45 in Adesanya's favor.
