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#2 Dominick Reyes (lost to UFC light heavyweight champion)
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After the former football player transitioned to MMA in 2014, Dominick 'The Devastator' Reyes went on a 12-fight win streak.
After making his entry in the UFC's light heavyweight division, he defeated big names such as Ovince Saint Preux, Volkan Oezdemir, Jared Cannonier and former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman. That earned him a title shot against then UFC light heavyweight champion and pound-for-pound king, Jon 'Bones' Jones.
Jones was looking to make a move to the UFC heavyweight division at the time. He decided to have his last fight at light heavyweight against top contender Reyes at UFC 247.
Challenger Reyes pushed Jones to the limit, unlike any fighter has done since Jones' outing with Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165. The fight turned out to be as close a fight as Jones' bout with Gustafsson, if not more.
Like the Gustafsson bout, many people from the fight community had scored the fight in the challenger's favor. However, it was Jones who was given a decision win in this fight.
'The Devastator' has been on a two-fight losing streak since the loss to Jones. He faced a loss to Jan Blachowicz in their fight for the vacant UFC light heavyweight title after Jones left the division to compete in heavyweight. His second loss came against newcomer Jiri Prochazka.
#1 Israel Adesanya (lost to UFC light heavyweight champion)
Although Israel 'The Last Stylebender' Adesanya is on this list, he remains undefeated in the UFC middleweight division.
Israel Adesanya has 20 wins in his professional MMA career at middleweight. His record includes wins over Derek Brunson, Anderson Silva, Kelvin Gastelum, Robert Whittaker, Yoel Romero and his predecessor on this list, Paulo Costa.
'Stylebender' faced his first professional MMA defeat when he made the move to light heavyweight to challenge UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz.
With Adesanya's use of distance management complemented by his height and reach, it was speculated that the shorter fighter Blachowicz would only do as good as Paulo Costa did against Adesanya. It was also speculated that Blachowicz's only path to victory was through grappling against Adesanya, as he was the bigger fighter between the two.
However, the outcome of the fight was totally different. Jan Blachowicz not only out-grappled Adesanya but also outstruck him. Blachowicz saw through all of Izzy's cards. The light heavyweight champion exposed the flaws in Israel Adesanya's striking as no other fighter had done before. The fight went to the end of the fifth round before Jan Blachowicz was declared the winner by unanimous decision.
