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#4. Tim Elliott vs. Demetrious Johnson – The Ultimate Fighter 24 Finale
By late 2016, Demetrious Johnson was widely seen as one of the most dominant champions in UFC history. The holder of the promotion’s flyweight title since its inauguration in late 2012, ‘Mighty Mouse’ had reeled off eight straight title defenses and had beaten basically all of his viable opponents.
The UFC seemed to recognize this. In order to push Johnson as a bigger star, they built an entire season of The Ultimate Fighter around finding a fresh opponent for him. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go to plan.
Rather than a new fighter like Alexandre Pantoja or Kai Kara-France coming out on top of the tournament, veteran Tim Elliott, who’d been in the promotion for a while and held losses to former Johnson victims Joseph Benavidez and Ali Bagautinov, ended up winning the title shot.
Nobody was giving Elliott any kind of chance in his clash with ‘Mighty Mouse’, but to the shock of everyone, he nearly achieved the unthinkable in the very first round. Latching onto a brabo choke, Elliott appeared to have Johnson in an inescapable position, and it seemed academic that the champion would submit.
Incredibly, though, Johnson was able to free his head somehow and eventually began to dominate the fight en route to a decision win. Regardless, though, Elliott had come closer than anyone could’ve expected to dethroning the champ – even if it turned out to be his high point in the octagon.
#3. Thiago Santos vs. Jon Jones – UFC 239
By the time Jon Jones began his second reign as UFC light heavyweight champion in late 2018, it’s probably arguable that he wasn’t quite the same awesome fighter he’d been a handful of years before. However, by that stage, he’d also beaten almost every decent challenger possible.
When the UFC matched him with former middleweight Thiago Santos in the summer of 2019, then, nobody was really giving ‘Marreta’ a chance. Sure, he’d been on a good run, knocking out the likes of Jimi Manuwa and Jan Blachowicz, but he was still the same fighter who’d lost to opponents like Gegard Mousasi and David Branch.
Incredibly, though, when it came to fight time, it looked like Santos’ kick-heavy striking attack might actually prove to be Jones’ kryptonite.
The Brazilian took the fight to ‘Bones’ in the early going, clearly landing the better shots, particularly to the body and legs. Jones did come back, but the fight remained back-and-forth throughout the five rounds, and in the end, little could separate the two fighters.
The judges ended up handing Jones a split decision win, with one dissenter scoring the bout 48-47 for Santos. When it was revealed that ‘Marreta’ had suffered a major knee injury in the second round, UFC fans across the world were even more stunned.
For all intents and purposes, had he not suffered the injury, Santos could well have dethroned Jones, shocking everyone in the process. As it happened, he only came close, but that was a bigger achievement than most had thought possible.
