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Winning a title in the UFC usually represents the pinnacle of any fighter’s career. Over the years, we’ve seen champions like Conor McGregor and Kamaru Usman take a largely lineal path to the gold.
While some fighters were able to take a straight path to titles in the UFC, others had to walk a much more winding road to glory. Some even had to recover from a loss in their octagon debuts.
Remarkably, the list of fighters who lost their octagon debuts but still went onto win UFC gold is quite small, with most of their debut losses being glossed over by the time they became a champion.
Here are five UFC champions who recovered from a debut loss to later win gold.
#5. Rafael dos Anjos – Former UFC lightweight champion
Rafael dos Anjos, who dethroned the heavily favoured Anthony Pettis to win the lightweight title in early 2015, remains one of the most unlikely champions in UFC history.
Part of what made ‘RDA’ such an unlikely champion was undoubtedly the way that he made his octagon debut in late 2008, just over six years before he defeated Pettis to claim gold.
Dos Anjos came into the promotion largely as an unknown fighter, although his record of 11-2 was solid enough. However, when he was defeated by Jeremy Stephens in his debut, suffering an absolutely brutal knockout via uppercut, it looked like his only destiny would be to feature as a victim on highlight reels.
When ‘RDA’ then lost his second octagon bout to Tyson Griffin, many fans expected him to be cut from his contract. However, dos Anjos kept plugging away and ended up reeling off the wins. By 2015, he’d lost just one of his last nine bouts, and had beaten Nate Diaz and former champ Benson Henderson to earn a title shot.
Still, nobody really gave him a chance of beating Pettis, making it all the sweeter when he destroyed ‘Showtime’ in all areas to claim the gold. Suddenly, rather than being a well-known highlight moment, the Brazilian’s debut loss to Stephens was simply a fading memory.
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#4. Shogun Rua – Former UFC light heavyweight champion
Few fighters entered the octagon for the first time with the kind of reputation that Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua did in 2007. Shogun came to the UFC via PRIDE, where he’d defeated the likes of Alistair Overeem, Rampage Jackson, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona to become recognized as the world’s best 205lber.
When he was matched with Forrest Griffin, who was more renowned for being the scrappy brawler who'd won the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter than as a top contender, it seemed academic that he’d win and go onto title contention.
However, a bloated-looking Shogun was nowhere near his best and ended up being dominated by Griffin before falling to a third-round rear-naked choke.
When he then took well over a year off due to a series of knee injuries, it looked like his career at the top was largely over and he’d fallen victim to the damage he’d sustained in PRIDE.
Remarkably, though, that wasn’t the end for the Brazilian. He returned in 2009 and looked more like his old self in a knockout win over Chuck Liddell. That propelled him into an unlikely title shot against the unbeaten Lyoto Machida. Despite most fans counting him out, he pushed ‘The Dragon’ all the way and was unlucky to come away on the wrong end of a decision.
The fight was so close that Shogun was immediately handed a rematch. This time, he made sure there was no doubt of the winner by knocking out Machida in the first round to claim the title.
Given how bad his octagon debut had been, it was remarkable to see him recover to become a UFC champion. That, along with his PRIDE run, should make him a sure-fire Hall of Famer at some point in the future.
#3. Brock Lesnar – Former UFC heavyweight champion
When the UFC signed former WWE champion Brock Lesnar in 2008, it was hard to guess exactly what they were getting. Sure, Lesnar had been competing in the scripted world of pro-wrestling for years, but he was also a naturally gifted athlete who did have a stellar background as an amateur wrestler.
The promotion clearly had high hopes for him and matched him with former heavyweight champ Frank Mir in his octagon debut.
Although the fight was massively exciting, with Lesnar showing some tremendous potential, the bout ended with Mir catching ‘The Beast Incarnate’ in a kneebar to force him to tap out. Put simply, it looked like he still had a lot to learn about MMA.
Evidently, though, Lesnar was a quick learner. Just months after his debut loss, he returned and dominated longtime veteran contender Heath Herring. With that, it looked like he had a future in the sport after all.
Few fans could’ve seen what would happen next, though. Largely due to the popularity he’d gained in his WWE days, he was matched with the returning Randy Couture in a heavyweight title bout, with the idea clearly being that he’d be the latest monster for ‘The Natural’ to slay.
However, it didn’t quite work out that way. In a stunning upset, Lesnar knocked Couture out with a monstrous right hand in the second round, becoming the new champion in the process.
To have gone from being an MMA neophyte to UFC heavyweight champion in under a year was a remarkable feat by anyone’s standards, even if Lesnar hadn’t earned his title shot. While his stay in the sport wasn’t long, it’s safe to say he made a huge mark.
#2. Max Holloway – Former UFC featherweight champion
Former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway always seemed destined for some kind of greatness. After all, ‘Blessed’ was just 20 years old when he made his octagon debut in 2012 and clearly had a ton of potential.
However, it’s easy to forget that his debut saw him brushed aside by another future champion, Dustin Poirier, in utterly one-sided fashion.
Initially, Holloway wasn’t supposed to face Poirier at UFC 143, as that spot belonged to veteran Ricardo Lamas. When Lamas was forced out, though, ‘Blessed’ stepped in on late notice and looked thoroughly overmatched – submitting to a mounted triangle armbar in the first round.
It didn’t take long for fans to see flashes of what he was capable of, though. Holloway reeled off three wins in a row to end 2012. After losing his two fights in 2013, he embarked on an epic run of ten straight victories that took him all the way to a featherweight title shot – which he won, dethroning the legendary Jose Aldo.
These days, the Hawaiian is widely recognized as one of the greatest 145lbers in MMA history. Were it not for Alexander Volkanovski, he’d probably be considered the greatest outright.
However, he is still yet to avenge that debut loss to Poirier. When the two men rematched in 2019 with the interim lightweight title on the line, although the bout was far more competitive the second time around, ‘Blessed’ still came up short and lost via decision.
#1. Leon Edwards – Current UFC welterweight champion
Current UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards is definitely an example of a fighter who took a long and winding path to the top. Sure, he was on a lengthy 10-fight unbeaten streak when he defeated Kamaru Usman for the title, but in many of those bouts, he went in as an underdog.
More to the point, if anyone had claimed that ‘Rocky’ would be a future champion following his massively underwhelming debut fight, they’d probably have been laughed at.
Edwards made his octagon debut way back in November 2014, facing a fellow debutant in the form of grappler Claudio Silva at an event in Uberlandia, Brazil. The bout did feature on the event’s main card, but given that the event felt thrown-together, with a number of debutants in action, it largely went ignored.
It was also a relatively close fight, with ‘Rocky’ using his striking to win the first round and Silva clearly taking the third with his grappling. The second round was anyone’s guess, but the judges went for ‘Hannibal’, awarding him a unanimous decision.
Neither man was expected to make much noise in the future and indeed, Silva vanished for just under four years before fighting again. Edwards, on the other hand, bounced back to score a knockout win six months later – and the rest is basically history.
