5 times a former UFC champion failed to regain their title in a rematch

#4. BJ Penn vs. Frankie Edgar – UFC 118

BJ Penn was unable to show his prior dominance as he failed to beat Frankie Edgar in their rematch at UFC 118

UFC 112 was subtitled ‘Invincible’ in reference to two of the UFC’s most dominant champions Anderson Silva and BJ Penn, who were booked to co-main event the show.

But while Silva duly defended his UFC middleweight title against Demian Maia, Penn failed to live up to his end of the bargain.

‘The Prodigy’ was expected to simply run over challenger Frankie Edgar, who was undersized at 155 pounds and had never shown anything that suggested he could handle a fighter as dangerous as Penn. But Penn fought a strangely flat fight, and despite many fans believing he deserved the nod from the judges, he ended up on the wrong end of the decision and lost his title.

It was a no-brainer that the UFC would book an immediate rematch, not only because of Penn’s prior dominance but also because of the semi-controversial decision in the first bout. And it was fully expected that ‘The Prodigy’ would regain his title.

Instead, though, at UFC 118, Edgar proved his worth by completely outclassing the Hawaiian in all areas across five rounds, winning a decision that didn’t have a shred of controversy around it. When all was said and done, there was no doubt who the rightful champion was.

Incredibly, the fight basically signaled the end of Penn’s career as a top-level fighter, too, as he would go onto win just one of his next nine visits to the octagon.

UFC 118: ‘BJ Penn vs Frankie Edgar 2’ | 6th Round Retro with @TheEddieMercado and @VicMRodriguez (by @JuneMWilliams2) https://t.co/1scBMpJapb

— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) December 22, 2020

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#3 Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell – UFC 57

Randy Couture failed to reclaim his UFC light-heavyweight title from Chuck Liddell at UFC 57

When Randy Couture lost his UFC light heavyweight title to Vitor Belfort in 2004, he was able to instantly regain it by battering the Brazilian in a rematch. However, when he then lost the title to Chuck Liddell a year later, he was unable to repeat the feat.

Couture’s fight with ‘The Iceman’ at UFC 52 broke the UFC’s pay-per-view buyrate record, and so it made sense for the promotion to book a rematch between the two, despite the fact that Liddell had knocked out ‘The Natural’ inside a round.

But surprisingly, the UFC decided not to book it immediately, instead allowing the two rivals to fight separate opponents at UFC 54. And when they both won – Liddell beating Jeremy Horn, Couture beating Mike Van Arsdale – the long-awaited rematch was quickly set up at UFC 57.

Once again the fight piqued the interest of UFC fans across the world, drawing another huge pay-per-view buyrate. Unfortunately for Couture, the result remained the same.

‘The Natural’ fought a better fight this time around, taking Liddell down in the first round, but ‘The Iceman’ simply had too much punching power, and eventually turned Couture’s lights out in the second.

Couture would hang his gloves up, albeit temporarily, after the bout, while the rivalry as a whole propelled Liddell into becoming the UFC’s biggest star for some time afterwards.