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The fight game is a cruel one. One mistake and it could all be over. Almost every fighter will face defeat in their career. It is very rare a competitor will retire undefeated, but for the first time the current UFC lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov is teasing us with that faith. Although there’s a real possibility that even he will be defeated when he meets ‘The Notorious One’, Conor McGregor, next month in what is being touted as the biggest fight in UFC history. Last year alone saw many huge undefeated stars be beaten.
UFC 228 on Saturday night saw Liverpool's Darren Till taste defeat for the very first time in his Mixed Martial Arts career. The Gorilla boasted an impressive 17-0-1 record before falling at the hands of the welterweight champion, Tyron Woodley, via a second-round submission. The defeat came out of nowhere, as no one had expected Till to lose the way he did, or Woodley to have as much of an ability to dominate the other fighter. Unfortunately for Till, although he survived a huge number of hard blows, he was not able to last and while trying to defend himself, pulled Tyron too close. In the end, he had to tap out from the D'Arce Choke.
We're going to take a look at the 5 fighters with the most victories before being on the wrong end of the result for a change.
#1 Douglas Silva de Andrade
D' Silva achieved a record of 22-0 before losing for the first time but that's only half the story. The Brazilian actually suffered his first career defeat on his UFC debut after racking up the 22 victories fighting locally in his home country without any notable names on that list. Silva has however recently notched his most impressive victory to date, comfortably defeating Marlon Vera by unanimous decision back in February. Could this be the start of another impressive streak for the bantamweight?
#2 Sean Sherk
'The Muscle Shark' makes the list as he racked up a record of 19-0-1 before losing to Matt Hughes at UFC 42 for the welterweight title. Though not defeating anyone of note during the streak, Sherk did go on to beat the likes of Nick Diaz, Kenny Florian and Evan Dunham. Sherk is also a former UFC lightweight champion, however that reign was rather brief as he was stripped of the title after failing a post-fight drug test after his first defence.
#3 Justin Gaethje
'The Highlight' assembled a perfect record of 18-0 before meeting the former lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez. On route to 'The Underground King', Gaethje knocked off the likes of Melvin Guillard and Michael Johnson. Many fans were surprised that the streak went on for as long as it did, when you factor in his wild style in the Octagon.
Gaethje suffered a second straight defeat at the hands of the top contender, Dustin Poirier, but recently got back in the wins column after he knocked out James Vick last month.
#4 Darren Till
Number 4 is the man who prompted this list.
As mentioned earlier, Till went into his title match with a record of 17-0-1. The British fighter earned this shot after two very impressive victories over former title challengers Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone and Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson. Saturday may not have been his night but you can be sure that 'The Gorilla' will be back. Many feel his time at welterweight is up, is a move to middleweight on the horizon?
#5 Joanna Jędrzejczyk
Rounding off the list is former women's strawweight champion, Joanna Jędrzejczyk.
Joanna racked up an impressive and dominant record of 14-0 before bumping into Rose Namajunas. During her dominant reign at the top of the strawweight division, she defeated Claudia Gadelha on two separate occasions, as well as defeating Carla Esparza, Jessica Penne, Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Jessica Andrade.
Despite being beaten twice already by the champion, Joanna is still ranked #1 in the strawweight division after returning to winning ways against Tecia Torres and has as much of a claim for a title shot as anyone else at 115 pounds. Though that is the case, it is widely expected that the former champ will move up to the newly formed flyweight division to take on a former foe, Valentina Shevchenko, for the title which was recently stripped from Nicco Montano.
