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To the juggernaut that is the UFC, all fighters, regardless of their star power, are eventually expendable, and so the promotion has always built new superstars on the back of older ones.
Over the years we’ve seen numerous examples of UFC legends being sacrificed to create new stars, and we could see another example of this when Khamzat Chimaev faces Nate Diaz next month.
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These fights are very different to torch-passing moments like Conor McGregor vs. Jose Aldo or Georges St-Pierre vs. Matt Hughes, too. In these cases, legendary veterans were seemingly brought back to the octagon purely to act as sacrificial victims for younger, hungrier fighters.
With this in mind, here are five times that the UFC sacrificed a legend to create a new star.
#5. Ken Shamrock vs. Rich Franklin – Ultimate Fighter I Finale (2005)
When Ken Shamrock returned to the UFC in 2002 to face bitter rival Tito Ortiz in a light heavyweight title bout, very few fans wrote the veteran off despite his athletic prime coming nearly a decade beforehand.
However, after Ortiz destroyed ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Man’ in one-sided fashion, it was painfully clear that Shamrock didn’t really have a lot left to offer inside the octagon, as his body was banged up from years of both fighting and pro-wrestling.
Despite this, Shamrock returned to the octagon in 2004 to knock out fellow veteran Kimo Leopoldo, and then began to make some noise about another fight in 2005.
Rather than book him against another aging foe, the promotion instead decided to match him with up-and-comer Rich Franklin in the headline bout of the first Ultimate Fighter Finale, and it wasn’t hard to spot their intentions.
‘Ace’ was a fighter whom the promotion was hoping to establish as a superstar, and by putting him against a recognizable name like Shamrock in the main event of the UFC’s first event on free TV, they were hoping to give him a leg up.
Essentially, ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Man’ was positioned as a sacrifice of sorts. Sure enough, Franklin lived up to expectations, dispatching the veteran with ease via TKO in just under three minutes.
Sure enough, the plan worked perfectly. Franklin claimed the middleweight title in his next bout and went onto become one of the promotion’s poster boys, while Shamrock, remarkably, went onto fight for over another decade to more diminishing returns.
#4. Dan Severn vs. Pedro Rizzo – UFC 27 (2000)
The UFC’s habit of sacrificing aging veterans to build newer stars isn’t something they’ve introduced in recent years. In fact, such behavior dates right back to the promotion’s so-called ‘Dark Ages’, prior to the ownership of the Fertitta brothers.
In 2000, the fighter that the promotion wanted to build their heavyweight division around was Brazilian striker Pedro Rizzo. Despite his fearsome reputation, he’d never quite lived up to the hype in the octagon. Most notably, in his title bout with Kevin Randleman, he’d failed to deliver entirely, putting on a poor showing that saw him lose a decision.
The promotion clearly wanted to rebuild ‘The Rock’ and his reputation quickly, and so they decided to bring back former Superfight champion Dan Severn to face him in his next trip to the octagon.
‘The Beast’ was undoubtedly a legend, but by 2000, he was already 42 years old, hadn’t fought in the octagon since 1997, and the game had seemingly passed him by.
Curiously, it was something that hadn’t gone amiss from the perspective of then-matchmaker John Peretti, who went on a bizarre rant prior to the bout to essentially write off Severn’s chances of winning, basically suggesting he had nothing to offer.
Quite why a UFC official would state this was anyone’s guess, but Peretti certainly wasn’t wrong. The bout lasted just over a minute, as Rizzo easily avoided Severn’s takedown attempts before stopping him with a series of vicious leg kicks.
The fight didn’t quite make a star of Rizzo, as he came up short in a title shot against then-champion Randy Couture in 2001. However, it was certainly a fine example of a legend being used as a sacrificial victim inside the octagon, and in fact, it was hard not to feel sorry for ‘The Beast’.
#3. Urijah Faber vs. Petr Yan – UFC 245 (2019)
After picking up his fifth win in a row in the octagon in the summer of 2019, it was clear to everyone that Petr Yan was a potential UFC title contender in the bantamweight division. However, the Russian fighter seemed to lack the signature win he needed to really become a star in the eyes of the fans.
The promotion clearly wanted to move him into that position, and so they returned to their favorite way of ensuring that – sacrificing an aging legend to the up-and-comer with the idea being for the younger fighter to make a name off the back of the older one.
In this instance, the aging legend chosen to face Yan was Urijah Faber, who had returned from a self-imposed retirement to pick up a stirring win over Ricky Simon.
Despite his win over Simon, few fans were giving ‘The California Kid’ a chance against Yan. Sure, Faber had won his comeback fight, but Simon was not on Yan’s level, and he’d tagged Faber with some punches before succumbing to a knockout.
Sure enough, ‘No Mercy’ lived up to his nickname against the legend, surgically taking him apart in violent and disturbing fashion over the course of three rounds. Faber was knocked down badly in the second round and was finally put away with a head kick in the third.
The fight was criminally one-sided and, in hindsight, should probably never have been booked. Faber unsurprisingly retreated back into retirement after the loss, while Yan went onto claim the vacant bantamweight title in his next bout, ensuring that the UFC’s plan had worked perfectly.
#2. Israel Adesanya vs. Anderson Silva – UFC 234 (2019)
By early 2019, it was painfully clear to everyone that despite all of his achievements, the end was nearing for legendary former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. ‘The Spider’ had turned 43 years old in April 2018 and had won just one bout since losing his title to Chris Weidman in 2013.
Despite the Brazilian being years past his prime, though, the promotion still found the perfect use for him – sacrificing him to rising star Israel Adesanya in the headline bout of UFC 234 in Adesanya’s native Australia.
The idea was clearly for Silva to proverbially pass the torch to ‘The Last Stylebender’, handing Adesanya the mantle of the middleweight division’s flashy, unorthodox striker. In many ways, the bout had come far too late.
By 2019, after all, ‘The Spider’ simply had no torch to pass on, as he’d lost most of his lustre in his defeats to Weidman, Michael Bisping and Daniel Cormier.
Despite that, many fans bought into the idea behind the clash, and it actually turned out to be a decent fight, as a highly respectful Adesanya seemed to be holding back at times, while Silva produced one of his best showings since his title reign.
In the end, ‘The Spider’ lost a three-round decision. Indeed, Adesanya went onto the superstardom the UFC had been hoping he’d ascend to, winning the middleweight title before the end of 2019.
#1. Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie – UFC 60 (2006)
Perhaps the best example of the UFC sacrificing an aging legend to create a new star remains Royce Gracie’s return bout against Matt Hughes in 2006.
By that point, Hughes had held the welterweight title on and off for the best part of five years. Despite that, he’d never truly gotten over with the fans as a mainstream star, largely because of his unassuming personality in comparison to stars like Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell.
However, after showcasing him through a coaching stint on the second season of The Ultimate Fighter, the promotion decided to really push Hughes as a megastar.
They decided to bring back Royce Gracie – the man who’d dominated the UFC in its earliest days in the 1990’s, winning three tournaments – for a one-off non-title bout with Hughes, billing it as ‘the greatest welterweight of all time vs. the legend’.
Realistically, Gracie simply stood no chance of winning, despite the promotion’s best efforts to sell him as a threat. Not only was he nearly 40 years old at the time of the fight, but he’d left the world of MMA before fighters really became well-rounded, and remained almost a pure grappler.
Despite that, the fans bought into the fight hugely and UFC 60 quickly became one of 2006’s must-see events, drawing a strong pay-per-view buyrate of 620,000 buys.
Unsurprisingly, the fight was horrendously one-sided, as Hughes easily wrestled Gracie to the ground and considered snapping his arm before deciding to finish him with a series of thudding punches instead.
Gracie never fought in the octagon again, while Hughes – just as the promotion had hoped – became a recognizable star, and went onto headline a number of successful pay-per-views before his retirement in 2011.
