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UFC president Dana White might profess that his promotion only ever looks to make the best fights between the best fighters. In all honestly, that’s not always true.
Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of examples of the UFC overlooking highly deserving fighters in favor of more marketable ones, particularly when it comes to UFC title bouts. While this approach undoubtedly helps make the UFC more money, it can also bring the promotion’s credibility into question, edging it closer to WWE territory than the likes of White would probably wish.
Will the UFC pull this trick again in the near future by overlooking Justin Gaethje’s claim to a UFC lightweight title shot in favor of Conor McGregor? Only time will tell, but it wouldn’t be a shock if they did so.
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With that in mind, here are five times that the UFC handed title shots to more marketable fighters instead of deserving contenders.
#5. Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz – UFC 158
When the UFC bought out competing promotion Strikeforce in early 2011, the inter-promotional fight that fans wanted more than any other was a battle between welterweight kingpins Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz.
The UFC seemed to be on board with the idea and signed GSP to face off with Diaz at UFC 137. However, the fight fell apart when Diaz was removed after failing to complete his media duties, forcing the UFC to replace him with Carlos Condit. GSP then injured his knee, sidelining him.
When Diaz then defeated B.J. Penn, an interim title bout between him and Condit was set up. Condit defeated Diaz in that bout and following his loss, the Stockton native would spend over a year on the shelf.
During the interim period, Johny Hendricks began to climb the UFC’s welterweight rankings with a series of impressive finishes, taking out the likes of Jon Fitch and Martin Kampmann.
Once St-Pierre returned and defeated Condit, it seemed like a fight with ‘Bigg Rigg’ was the only option for him. However, the UFC decided to return to the well and sign a fight between GSP and Diaz instead.
This seemed highly unfair to Hendricks, who’d won twice during the period when Diaz was on the shelf. Essentially, the UFC bypassed ‘Bigg Rigg’ purely because of Diaz’s enduring popularity.
As it turned out, GSP defeated Diaz handily in their bout, while Hendricks outpointed Condit on the same card, setting up a title bout against St-Pierre later down the line.
Regardless, though, the UFC’s overlooking of Hendricks in favor of Diaz remains one of the more egregious examples of the promotion going with marketability rather than a deserving contender.
#4. Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal – UFC 261
It’s highly rare for the UFC to give a title shot to a fighter coming off a loss, but there have been a handful of notable exceptions to that rule over the years. However, Jorge Masvidal’s UFC welterweight title bout against champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 261 was an even bigger offender than most of the other examples.
That’s because ‘Gamebred’ was handed a second shot at Usman despite losing to him in a one-sided fashion at UFC 251 a year earlier and then not fighting again during the period of time in between.
It’s true that the UFC did have a few outs when they booked this fight. Firstly, Masvidal argued that he’d only lost to ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ in their first meeting because he took the bout on late notice following the withdrawal of Gilbert Burns.
Secondly, the promotion didn’t exactly overlook another fighter in particular, as top contender Leon Edwards was coming off a no contest with Belal Muhammad, while Colby Covington was only one fight removed from his own defeat to Usman.
However, Stephen Thompson was on a two-fight winning run at the time and would’ve provided a tricky stylistic bout for Usman, making him far more deserving than Masvidal.
The UFC, though, recognized the drawing power of ‘Gamebred’ and went with it. To tell the truth, the choice probably paid off. Usman defeated him with one of the most brutal knockouts of 2021 and likely increased his own star power tenfold in the process.
Still, there’s no way that Masvidal was deserving of a title shot at UFC 261 and were he less of a star, there’s no way he’d have gotten one.
#3. Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock – UFC 40
Despite some fans claiming otherwise, the UFC’s habit of overlooking more deserving contenders in favor of marketable fighters in title bouts isn’t something that’s been introduced since 2016’s Endeavor buyout.
In fact, the promotion did such a thing in pretty stunning fashion back in 2002. They matched UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz with returning legend Ken Shamrock, overlooking top contender Chuck Liddell in the process.
At the time, not only had Shamrock not fought in the octagon since 1996, but he’d also had just four MMA bouts since returning from a lengthy stay in WWE, winning only two of them. However, it’s probably fair to say that the decision made sense for the UFC, so much so that Liddell was reportedly quite happy to step aside in order for Shamrock to take his shot at ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’.
That’s because Ortiz’s rivalry with Shamrock dated all the way back to 1999. Also, at the time, Shamrock was a far bigger star than any other fighter on the UFC’s roster. With the UFC struggling to stay afloat financially, the fight was essentially the promotion’s last roll of the dice.
Thankfully, things paid off in tremendous fashion. Ortiz defeated Shamrock impressively, becoming a bigger star in the process, and UFC 40 drew 100,000 pay-per-view buys. That was a huge number at the time.
Essentially, it was a hint of things to come, showing that going with marketability over actual fighting ability could be the key to the UFC drawing huge money in the future.
#2. Georges St-Pierre vs. B.J. Penn – UFC 94
Despite not being all that exciting on a rewatch, Georges St-Pierre’s clash with B.J. Penn at UFC 58 was instantly considered a classic by some UFC fans.
The fight saw Penn start quickly, hurting St-Pierre with his superior striking. GSP then came back to edge the final two rounds, taking a win via a contentious split decision. It was the biggest win of his career to that point and yet plenty of fans still believed Penn had deserved the nod.
Therefore, three years later, with GSP ruling over the UFC welterweight division and Penn holding the UFC lightweight title, it seemed to make sense to book a rematch, giving ‘The Prodigy’ the chance of becoming the UFC’s first simultaneous double champion in the process.
However, while the fight was hugely intriguing and massively marketable, there was one issue with it. The booking was totally unfair to Thiago Alves. At the time, ‘The Pitbull’ had become arguably the most feared 170-pound fighter on the roster and was riding a lengthy winning streak of seven fights.
More impressively, Alves was knocking off some of the UFC’s best, including Karo Parisyan, Josh Koscheck and former champion Matt Hughes. The Brazilian was not as marketable as Penn, though. In particular, a fight with GSP was never going to draw as much money as St-Pierre’s rematch with ‘The Prodigy’.
Therefore, Alves was overlooked, although in the end, things turned out pretty well. GSP beat Penn in a fight that drew a huge buyrate of 920,000 on pay-per-view and the Canadian duly fought ‘The Pitbull’ just six months later, defeating him, too.
#1. Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar – UFC 91
Perhaps the greatest example of a deserving contender for a UFC title being overlooked in favor of a more marketable fighter remains Brock Lesnar’s fight with UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture at UFC 91.
This was an interesting situation as, realistically, it wasn’t so much a case of a deserving contender being overlooked, it was more that basically any heavyweight in the promotion would’ve been more deserving than Lesnar at the time.
‘The Beast Incarnate’ had just two fights in the octagon prior to his title shot. They were a submission loss to Frank Mir and a decision win over Heath Herring. He was just 2-1 in MMA overall after starting his fighting career in 2007. However, Lesnar had already established himself as a huge draw, as the two events he’d appeared on, UFC 81 and UFC 87, drew unusually large numbers for the time.
Fascinatingly, too, the two fighters who probably would’ve been considered the most deserving of a shot at Couture were already booked against one another. Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira were already set to fight for the interim heavyweight title by the time the UFC booked Couture vs. Lesnar.
This was because prior to agreeing to fight Lesnar, Couture had been out of action for over a year, embroiled in a legal battle with the UFC. Purportedly, a fight with Lesnar, which guaranteed a big paycheck, was part of his reasoning for returning.
If that was the case, then it backfired, as Lesnar surprisingly knocked out the far more experienced champion in violent fashion. Despite this, there’s still no disputing that the former WWE superstar definitely didn’t deserve a UFC title shot and only got one due to his marketability.
