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While some UFC champions took the fast route to the top and simply blew through their competition before claiming gold, others found the climb much trickier.
Over the years we’ve seen a number of UFC champions who only claimed titles in the promotion after suffering hardship, with some even losing in their first trip to the octagon.
In a lot of ways, it could be argued that those fighters who became champions after failing in their first octagon appearance deserve even more respect. After all, they had to earn their titles the hard way.
With that in mind, here are five UFC champions who lost in their first appearance inside the octagon.
#5. Eddie Alvarez – former UFC lightweight champion
After putting on some fantastic fights in Bellator MMA and claiming their lightweight title, Eddie Alvarez was a fighter that UFC fans always dreamed about seeing in the octagon.
That dream became a reality in 2014, when, after some protracted negotiations, he was able to secure his release from the promotion in order to join the UFC. If he’d expected to have a slow introduction to his new home, though, he was sorely mistaken.
‘The Underground King’ was faced with highly-ranked contender Donald Cerrone. Despite starting quickly, he ended up succumbing to the low kicks of ‘Cowboy’ en route to a defeat on the scorecards.
It looked like Alvarez would join the likes of Hector Lombard and Rameau Sokoudjou on the list of major signings who turned out to be busts. Instead, ‘The Underground King’ recovered well in his next two bouts.
He overcame Gilbert Melendez and Anthony Pettis, two former champions in multiple organisations, both via split decision. That was enough to net him a surprise shot at lightweight kingpin Rafael dos Anjos.
Few people expected Alvarez to succeed. However, despite coming into the fight as a heavy underdog, ‘The Underground King’ stunned ‘RDA’ with an early right hand and then put him away with a flurry to claim the title.
While he dropped the gold to Conor McGregor in his first defense, the fact he recovered from his debut loss to win the title in the first place was remarkable. It made him the first Bellator champion to find title success in the octagon.
#4. Luke Rockhold – former UFC middleweight champion
Former Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold entered the UFC in the spring of 2013 with plenty of fanfare behind him. An exciting fighter with finishing ability both on the feet and on the mat, he was riding a nine-fight win streak. Hopes were high of him quickly entering title contention.
However, those hopes went up in smoke when Vitor Belfort brutally knocked him out in his octagon debut, finishing him with a spinning wheel kick inside the first round.
It was the kind of knockout that could easily have made Rockhold into at best, highlight-reel fodder, and at worst, somewhat of a laughing stock.
Despite the loss, though, the former Strikeforce champ wasted no time in recovering. He took a few months off to heal up and then returned with a vengeance in 2014, violently taking out Costas Philippou, Tim Boetsch and Michael Bisping. He then dispatched top contender Lyoto Machida in early 2015.
Those wins set him up for a shot at then-middleweight champion Chris Weidman. In an epic battle that lasted for four rounds, Rockhold was eventually able to come out on top, capitalizing on an error from ‘The All-American’ to eventually finish him via TKO.
The lengthy title reign that many fans expected Rockhold to have didn’t quite go as planned. He lost the belt in a rematch with Bisping just six months after winning it. However, his title win was still excellent and if nothing else, it erased memories of Belfort’s spinning heel kick somewhat.
#3. Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua – former UFC light heavyweight champion
Once widely recognized as the greatest 205lber on the planet thanks to his exploits in PRIDE, when Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua signed with the UFC in 2007, great things were immediately expected.
After all, the Brazilian had violently taken out fighters like Alistair Overeem, Ricardo Arona and ‘Rampage’ Jackson in Japan. His only loss came via a freak injury in a fight with Mark Coleman.
So when the UFC announced a fight between ‘Shogun’ and TUF 1 champion Forrest Griffin, it seemed academic that the Brazilian would destroy his opponent before moving onto challenge for the promotion’s light heavyweight title.
However, when he appeared at the weigh-ins for the fight in what appeared to be less-than-peak shape, alarm bells began to ring. The svelte ‘Shogun’ from PRIDE suddenly appeared to be a little bloated, suggesting he was carrying an injury.
Sure enough, Rua simply couldn’t keep up with Griffin’s pace in the octagon and ended up falling to a third-round rear-naked choke in one of the biggest upsets of 2007.
Rua would not appear in the octagon again for over a year. When he returned and struggled to a win in a rematch with an ancient-looking Coleman, his time at the top appeared to be over.
Incredibly, though, ‘Shogun’ was able to recapture his best form just months later, knocking out Chuck Liddell to set up a light heavyweight title bout with Lyoto Machida. That ended with the former PRIDE champ coming up short in a controversial decision.
The UFC rewarded him with an immediate rematch. This time Rua did not disappoint, becoming the first man to stop Machida and taking his title in the process. The victory immediately turned ‘Shogun’ into a legend of the octagon as well as PRIDE, a label he still holds today.
#2. Max Holloway – former UFC featherweight champion
Few fighters took as lengthy a road to the top as former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway. Not only did ‘Blessed’ have to win an insane number of fights in a row to claim his shot at the title, but he also recovered from a one-sided loss in his octagon debut to do so.
To be fair to Holloway, he was always likely to come up short on his first visit to the big show. Not only did the Hawaiian have just four professional fights to his name when he was signed by the promotion, but he also took his fight with rising star Dustin Poirier on just a month’s notice.
Sure enough, it took Poirier very little time to dispatch Holloway. He took him down and submitted him with a mounted triangle choke/armbar combination in the opening round.
Still, at the age of just 20, it was clear that ‘Blessed’ had potential. The UFC kept him around and quickly witnessed how good he could be when he reeled off three wins in a row.
Back-to-back defeats at the hands of Dennis Bermudez and Conor McGregor in 2013 then derailed him temporarily, but ‘Blessed’ recovered by winning an incredible 10 fights in a row. The final win saw him defeat Anthony Pettis for the interim featherweight title.
From there, Holloway proved to be the best 145lber on the planet by unseating champion Jose Aldo. He went onto hold the title for nearly three years, defending it successfully on three occasions.
While the Hawaiian failed in an attempt to claim gold at 155 pounds too, coincidentally, falling to defeat at the hands of Poirier again, it’s safe to say that the loss in his octagon debut didn’t even hint at the greatness he’d eventually achieve.
#1. Brock Lesnar – former UFC heavyweight champion
There have been a number of UFC champions who fell to defeat in their first octagon appearance. As with the fighters named previously on this list, most of them then had to take the long route to the top.
The one exception to that rule? Former UFC heavyweight champion and current WWE superstar Brock Lesnar, who arrived in the octagon with a bang in early 2008.
Lesnar experienced a rapid rise to fame in the world of pro-wrestling in the early 2000’s. Feeling jaded with the pseudo-sport, he chose to walk away and found himself in the world of MMA soon after.
After winning one fight in Japan’s K-1 promotion, ‘The Beast Incarnate’ was signed by the UFC, with most fans feeling he’d be a sideshow attraction despite his stellar background as an NCAA Division 1 wrestling champion in his youth.
However, those thoughts changed when Lesnar was matched with former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir in his octagon debut. Despite taking the fight to the submission expert, he fell prey to a kneebar after coming close to winning the bout via TKO.
It was immediately clear that Lesnar, who was treated as a huge star from the off, would be put on a quick route to the top. Sure enough, after an impressive win over veteran Heath Herring, the UFC awarded him a shot at longtime heavyweight champ Randy Couture.
Despite many fans feeling the title shot was too much, too soon for Lesnar, ‘The Beast Incarnate’ shocked the world by knocking out ‘The Natural’ in the second round, becoming the new heavyweight champ in the process.
The win immediately turned Lesnar into the biggest star in the sport. While his career only lasted another three years, the impact he had in the octagon was seismic and his total of two successful heavyweight title defenses has only been topped once in the years that have followed.
