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The past decade has seen the emergence of some of the greatest fighters in UFC history; incredibly, the likes of Conor McGregor, Amanda Nunes, Kamaru Usman and Khabib Nurmagomedov have all entered the Octagon for the first time since the dawning of 2010.
The eventful decade has also seen plenty of UFC fighters come and go – some with a bang, but some with more of a whimper. The following 5 fighters were once major UFC stars – and are no longer with the promotion as the decade comes to an end. Here’s a look at where they are now.
#1 Shane Carwin
Hulking wrestler Shane Carwin debuted with the UFC in 2008 and quickly became recognised as one of the world’s most dangerous Heavyweights. He destroyed Christian Wellisch, Neil Wain and Gabriel Gonzaga before the end of the last decade, and as 2010 dawned he was in line for a UFC title shot.
At UFC 111 in March 2010, Carwin faced Frank Mir for the interim UFC Heavyweight title, and demolished the submission specialist in brutal fashion by TKO in the first round. That set up a unification match with champion Brock Lesnar, and although he had ‘The Beast Incarnate’ badly hurt during the first round, the second saw Carwin run out of steam, and Lesnar was able to secure a takedown and submit him with an arm triangle choke.
Injuries then sidelined the former NCAA Division II wrestling champion for a year, and when he returned, he took on Junior Dos Santos for another shot at the title. Carwin again came up short, this time by decision. Following this, he took more time off before coaching the 16th season of The Ultimate Fighter against rival Roy Nelson.
Unfortunately, the fight with Nelson never came to fruition due to Carwin suffering injuries to his knee and back. Never able to fully recover, in 2013 he announced his retirement from MMA. 2016 saw him announce a comeback, and he secured his release from the UFC in the hopes of fighting with Rizin or Bellator MMA – but injuries have curtailed those hopes, too.
At the time of writing, Carwin is 44 years old and is likely retired for good.
#2 Brian Bowles
At the start of the decade, Brian Bowles was the reigning WEC Bantamweight champion, as he’d defeated longtime titleholder Miguel Torres by knockout at WEC 42 in August 2009. 2010 started poorly for him, though; he broke his hand in a title defense against Dominick Cruz and lost the belt he’d worked so hard to gain.
Following that, Bowles was sidelined for a year, before entering into the UFC when the WEC was folded into the larger promotion in 2011. The Mark Wahlberg look-alike won his first two fights in the Octagon, defeating Damacio Page and Takeya Mizugaki, but an attempt to gain another title shot saw him come up short in a fight with Urijah Faber.
Injuries then saw Bowles miss almost two years of action, and when he returned, things went from bad to worse. UFC 160 saw him lose by TKO to George Roop, and following the fight he was suspended for 9 months due to elevated testosterone levels.
The former WEC champ would never return to the UFC; in January 2015 Bowles was arrested by Georgia State police, who discovered methamphetamine, diazepam and various guns at his residence. He was charged with 7 felonies, including intent to sell drugs, and as per the most recent reports on his case, remains incarcerated.
#3 Efrain Escudero
Coming into 2010, the UFC looked like they had a potential Mexican star on their hands in the form of Efrain Escudero. The winner of the 8th season of The Ultimate Fighter, Escudero was unbeaten at 12-0 and had knocked out Cole Miller in his first post-TUF Octagon appearance.
The first month of 2010 saw him pick up his first loss in a tough fight with Evan Dunham, but he quickly bounced back by beating Dan Lauzon, only to be submitted by Charles Oliveira in a fight that also saw him miss the Lightweight division’s 155lbs limit by 4lbs. That was enough to trigger the UFC to release him, in a curious move given his status as a rising star.
‘Hecho en Mexico’ then went on to put together a 5-1 record on the smaller circuit before returning to the UFC in December 2011 – but another two losses sent him back into the wilderness. A third UFC stint came in 2014, and this time Escudero picked up his first two Octagon wins since 2010, beating Rodrigo de Lima and Drew Dober.
Those wins set up a chance for him to coach on the second season of TUF: Latin America, but on the finale of that show, he was defeated by Leandro Silva. A second successive loss, this time to Kevin Lee in April 2016, saw him released by the UFC for the third and final time.
As of writing, ‘Hecho en Mexico’ is still competing in MMA, most recently in Russian promotion Absolute Combat Akhmat, but he has not picked up a victory since a submission of Jason High in August 2018.
#4 Costas Philippou
Cypriot striker Costas Philippou first came onto the UFC scene in 2010 as a contestant on the 11th season of The Ultimate Fighter, but after being submitted in the pre-house fights, he was given another chance in the world’s biggest MMA promotion in 2011, stepping in as a late replacement to fight Nick Catone at UFC 128.
When Philippou lost the fight, it was expected that he’d simply vanish back onto the regional scene, but a second late-notice fight saved his UFC career; he defeated veteran Jorge Rivera on the main card of UFC 133 after taking the fight on around 14 days' notice, and then went on a run of 4 straight victories to cement himself as a potential title contender.
Philippou was forced out of a likely #1 contender’s match with Ronaldo Souza in mid-2013, and from there, the wheels quickly fell off for the New York-based fighter. He was defeated by Francis Carmont at UFC 165, unable to stop the Frenchman’s takedown, and then suffered a TKO at the hands of Luke Rockhold.
2014 saw Philippou get back on track by knocking out Lorenz Larkin, but injuries then sidelined him for a year, and when he returned, he was defeated by Gegard Mousasi. That was enough to force the 35-year-old fighter to retire – and he’s essentially fallen out of the public eye since, even deleting his Twitter account following his retirement from the sport.
#5 Norman Parke
2012 saw a one-off series of The Ultimate Fighter subtitled ‘The Smashes’, featuring a team of fighters from the UK against a team of fighters from Australia. One of the more eventful seasons of TUF, the show was a lot of fun to watch – but it had one problem. Most of the fighters on show just weren’t quite UFC quality. The main exceptions were the winners.
We all know what happened to Welterweight victor Robert Whittaker; he went on to become the UFC Middleweight champion and held the title from 2018 to 2019, but what about Lightweight winner Norman Parke? The Northern Irishman was outstanding on the show, blending his boxing and grappling together to defeat Richie Vaculik and Brendan Loughnane before overcoming Colin Fletcher in the final.
‘Stormin’ Norman’ actually went on a 5-fight unbeaten streak in the Octagon, but as he made the step up to the elite level, he began to struggle. Back-to-back losses to Brazilian veterans Gleison Tibau and Francisco Trinaldo in 2015 left him with his back to the wall, and although he steadied the ship with a win over Reza Madadi, a loss in 2016 to Rustam Khabilov resulted in him being cut from the UFC.
Parke has continued to fight since his release, going 7-1 largely in Poland’s KSW promotion. He’s currently on a 5-fight win streak, and won KSW’s Interim Lightweight title in September. At 32 years old, there’s every chance he could return to the UFC in the near future.
