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It takes a colossal amount of hard work and dedication to become a UFC champion, but getting to the top does not guarantee that a fighter will stay there forever.
On the one hand, there are champions like Khabib Nurmagomedov, who have retired undefeated, or Kamaru Usman, who is yet to lose in the UFC. But some fighters have endured terrible losses in their careers and have won the gold anyway.
Following are the five worst defeats suffered by the current UFC champions:
5. Rose Namajunas def. by Jessica Andrade - UFC 237
'Thug' Rose did not put up a poor performance for her second title defense at UFC 237. She dominated her opponent Jessica Andrade for the better part of the first round but failed to capitalize on her advantage in the second.
Jessica Andrade took home the women's strawweight belt with a brutal body slam in the second round. Following the defeat, Rose Namajunas contemplated retiring from the sport but has made a dominating return ever since. She avenged her loss to Andrade with a split decision win at UFC 251 and followed it up by reclaiming the strawweight title with a stellar head kick KO over Zhang Weili.
Watch the full fight below:
4. Aljamain Sterling def. by Marlon Moraes - UFC Fight Night 123
Despite the extremely controversial nature of his win, Aljamain Sterling is indeed the current bantamweight champion with a streak of six wins, including the one against Petr Yan. However, he lost quite insignificantly against Marlon Moraes in December 2017. After suffering an early onslaught by 'Magic,' Aljamain Sterling took a knee straight to the face and dropped down cold on the mat.
Here's a video of the KO along with crowd reaction.
3. Jan Blachowicz def. by Thiago Santos - UFC Fight Night 145
Jan Blachowicz almost wrote himself off as a journeyman in the octagon when he clawed his way back up with three back-to-back wins over Luke Rockhold, 'Jacare' Souza and Corey Anderson. He then beat Dominick Reyes to win the light heavyweight title and defended it against middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
Also Read: 5 journeymen fighters who became UFC champions
However, before building up his current streak, Jan Blachowicz suffered the most difficult defeat of his career to Thiago 'Marreta' Santos in a third-round knockout. Referee Herb Dean gave every opportunity to the future light heavyweight champion to recover, but the striking power of Thiago Santos proved too much for Jan Blachowicz.
Catch the highlights of the fight below:
2. Amanda Nunes def. by Cat Zingano - UFC 178
Before amassing her current streak of 12 UFC wins, the featherweight and bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes suffered a vicious TKO loss to Cat Zingano. In her only UFC loss to date, Amanda Nunes succumbed to a barrage of punches and elbows while being pinned on the ground by Cat Zingano.
Amanda Nunes then defeated the biggest names in women's MMA in the days to come, going through Valentina Shevchenko, Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Holly Holm, Cris Cyborg, and more, while Cat Zingano lost three in a row. However, MMA fans continue to remember Zingano as the only fighter to have outclassed the fighter considered the female GOAT of the sport.
Watch the fight below:
1. Charles Oliveira def. by Paul Felder - UFC 218
MMA is a sport where it does not take long for tables to turn. Charles Oliveira, who recently became the new UFC lightweight champion, suffered a TKO loss a little over three years ago to Paul Felder, who recently retired from the sport.
The submission tactics that Charles Oliveira is so well-known for did not quite work against 'The Irish Dragon,' even though the latter found himself in difficult positions a few times. In the end, Paul Felder walked away with a second-round TKO win; thanks to the big elbows he landed on 'Do Bronx' by the fence.
Watch the fight below:
