NUMBER 6:
Vitor Belfort
Many people don't even know it, but for a brief moment, the Phenom himself was the king of the Light-Heavyweight inside the UFC. But as short as most of his fights went, so was his reign.
After having a pretty good run inside Pride, Vitor came back to the UFC where he originaly left the promotion with a 6-1 record, only losing to Randy Couture who at the time of his return, was the champion in the Light-heavyweight division. And so, after picking one win over Marvin Eastman, he had his rematch with Randy, for the Light-heavyweight championship.
You may be wondering again, "why is he on this list?", and the answer is in the question itself, there is a good reason for why very few remember him as the champion, because the way he got there. His second fight with Randy was nothing compared to the first one since in this one, all what happend was that Vitor threw a punch that cut Randy's eye and so the fight was stopped.
Later on his first title defense, a rematch was scheduled and this time Vitor got his ass kicked just like the first time he fought the old man, ironically by doctor stoppage, exacly like his first and only victory over Randy 8 months prior. Just for give him credit, it wasn't in the first round like his victory, instead it went in the 5 minute mark of the third.
Here is a video of the "fight" between him and Randy, where he won:
https://www.ufc.com.br/video/ufc-46-...-randy-couture
Vitor Belfort
Many people don't even know it, but for a brief moment, the Phenom himself was the king of the Light-Heavyweight inside the UFC. But as short as most of his fights went, so was his reign.
After having a pretty good run inside Pride, Vitor came back to the UFC where he originaly left the promotion with a 6-1 record, only losing to Randy Couture who at the time of his return, was the champion in the Light-heavyweight division. And so, after picking one win over Marvin Eastman, he had his rematch with Randy, for the Light-heavyweight championship.
You may be wondering again, "why is he on this list?", and the answer is in the question itself, there is a good reason for why very few remember him as the champion, because the way he got there. His second fight with Randy was nothing compared to the first one since in this one, all what happend was that Vitor threw a punch that cut Randy's eye and so the fight was stopped.
Later on his first title defense, a rematch was scheduled and this time Vitor got his ass kicked just like the first time he fought the old man, ironically by doctor stoppage, exacly like his first and only victory over Randy 8 months prior. Just for give him credit, it wasn't in the first round like his victory, instead it went in the 5 minute mark of the third.
Here is a video of the "fight" between him and Randy, where he won:
https://www.ufc.com.br/video/ufc-46-...-randy-couture
Last edited by Josefaldo; Sep 10, 2020 at 07:27 PM.
NUMBER 5:
Dan Severn
Here is another forgoten champ, in this case, not only for the championship fight itself (that spoiler alert, sucked), but also for the fact that it happend prior to the existence of weight divisions in the UFC, so it was an open-weight championship; with the then champion being awarded the title of "Super-fight champion". But still, this was a lineal championship, so The Beast himself qualifies for being on this list.
Prior to his title shot, Dan had already been in three single night tournaments, of which he won 2 and he had also fought with the then champion Ken Shamrock for the already mentioned Super-fight belt; acquiring a 8-2 record in the process.
With him being the toughest challanger around, a rematch was scheduled and nothing could go wrong in there, right?
Somehow it did, a few hours prior to the event start, the police came in and said to both Ken and Dan that whoever threw a strike in there, would get arrested. With both fighters being high level grapplers, you would think that it wouldn't change much the way the fight would go (especially knowing that a few fights earlier, Dan didn't even threw strikes at his opponents); but again, it did.
For the entirity of the 30 minutes duration of the fight, they just stared at each other, and then, with a few minutes left for the bell being hit, Dan decided that he was done with that shit. He shot in for the takedown, hit Ken a few times while in his guard, oppened some cuts and that was it, he won via Decision. Later on he would unify his belt in a bout against the way more roided Mark Coleman, he lost. But still, he is to this day the first and only Tripple Crown Champion (twice tournament champ, superfight champ) the UFC has ever had.
Dan Severn
Here is another forgoten champ, in this case, not only for the championship fight itself (that spoiler alert, sucked), but also for the fact that it happend prior to the existence of weight divisions in the UFC, so it was an open-weight championship; with the then champion being awarded the title of "Super-fight champion". But still, this was a lineal championship, so The Beast himself qualifies for being on this list.
Prior to his title shot, Dan had already been in three single night tournaments, of which he won 2 and he had also fought with the then champion Ken Shamrock for the already mentioned Super-fight belt; acquiring a 8-2 record in the process.
With him being the toughest challanger around, a rematch was scheduled and nothing could go wrong in there, right?
Somehow it did, a few hours prior to the event start, the police came in and said to both Ken and Dan that whoever threw a strike in there, would get arrested. With both fighters being high level grapplers, you would think that it wouldn't change much the way the fight would go (especially knowing that a few fights earlier, Dan didn't even threw strikes at his opponents); but again, it did.
For the entirity of the 30 minutes duration of the fight, they just stared at each other, and then, with a few minutes left for the bell being hit, Dan decided that he was done with that shit. He shot in for the takedown, hit Ken a few times while in his guard, oppened some cuts and that was it, he won via Decision. Later on he would unify his belt in a bout against the way more roided Mark Coleman, he lost. But still, he is to this day the first and only Tripple Crown Champion (twice tournament champ, superfight champ) the UFC has ever had.
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