Top 5 UFC Upsets of All Time

Top 5 UFC Upsets of All Time

After the past weekend and watching UFC 227 that has inspired us to make the top 5 biggest UFC upsets ever. Here is number 5....

5. Chris Weidman vs Anderson Silva, July 2013, UFC 162: Going into this fight some saw the fight as the matchup that could end Silva’s run as Middleweight Champion. Since Weidman could wrestle which Chael Sonnen showed in his fights with Silva was his weakness, and Weidman brought some striking to the game but not comparable to Silva’s, an upset was seen as a maybe but very unlikely. Silva just defended his belt 10 times in a row which was a UFC record for the time. While also riding a 16 fight winning streaks. Silva had the belt for 2,547 days which is the largest amount of days a title reign has gone on for in UFC history. He looked unstoppable. Weidman was unbeaten going into the fight. At 9-0 he just came off a win over Demian Maia, and a vicious elbow KO finish over Mark Munoz. Silva didn’t want to hear anything about losing this bout. Silva even went in very cocky going against the number one rule of fighting, he put his hands down to taunt Weidman, this would be his downfall. As Silva left his hands down playing with Weidman; Weidman comes with a hook hits Silva on the button, drops Silva, Weidman pounced on Silva’s barley conscious body, Herb Dean breaks up the fight, and the upset was complete.

4. Holly Holm vs Ronda Rousey, Nov 15 2015, UFC 193: Everyone who was watching at the time remembers the superstar feeling around Ronda Rousey going into the fight. She was the first ever women’s UFC Champion, and seemed to be a true one. She was a Judo silver medalist and arm bar queen which did her justice in many of her fights. She defended the UFC women’s bantamweight six times up to this point and was 12-0. As champion Rousey looked unstoppable only Miesha Tate got out of the first round against her in her title reign. Her last three fights going into the Holm fight Rousey KO’d Alexis Davis in 14 seconds, submitted Cat Zingano in 16 seconds, and knocked out Bethe Correia in 34 seconds...unstoppable. Holm’s was 9-0 going into this fight but to get the title shot she won two fights one by unanimous decision and the other by spilt. Not fast or easy like the champion made her fights look. Going into the fight Holm’s chances at winning were low but had hope as she was a kick boxing champion. Knowing that Rousey’s weak point in her game was striking this gave her a shot but slim. The fight was not close Holm’s used her advantage and got into a striking battle with Rousey. Giving the champ all she could handle. Even making Rousey look like a fool by diving not shooting diving at Holm’s legs. Holm in the second gets Rousey to turn her back and with a nasty head kick completes one of the biggest upsets ever and the first the women’s division has seen.

3. 3 TJ Dillashaw vs Renan Barão, May 2014, UFC 173: UFC 173 had a lot of drama just filling in the main event. First it was suppose to be Chris Weidman vs Vitor Belfort for the middle weight strap that was cancelled after Belfort was caught using TRT. Then Lyoto Machida said he would step in but then in March Weidman went out with a knee injury and moved the fight to July. The UFC looked to move Raphael Assunção against the dominant Bantamweight champion Renan Barão. Assunção pulls out because of a rib injury he suffers at 170. The UFC looks to save the card by giving Barão someone named TJ Dillashaw. Who was a new comer in the UFC and at the time really had no business being in this fight. He just lost to

Assunção by spilt decision the October before. Dillashaw was 9-2 going into this fight and if he lasted till the third Vegas saw that as going above the expectations. Barão was on a 21 fight winning streak going into the fight. Defending his belt for the third time after just beating Urijah Faber twice one by decision for the belt, and the other by TKO. Also beating Michael McDonald by submission and Eddie Wineland by a vicious knockout. Barão looked like he was about to start a dominant championship run until Dillashaw walked into the squared circle that day. After the feel out round of round 1 was over Dillashaw turned up the heat. Putting the pressure on the champion with strikes bringing Barão game to him. Barão looked overwhelmed and shocked by the surprising contender. Completely surprised by his 2nd round knock down. Dillashaw dominates Barão through the fight and ends it in the 5th giving Team Alpha Male a world champion....man do times change.

2. Henry Cujado vs Demetrius Johnson 2 UFC 227: The most recent of the upsets the one that actually inspired the list. Demetrius Johnson maybe the most dominant champion in MMA history. For almost six years he was the only champion the UFC flyweight ever saw. He was the first flyweight champion and didn’t look like their was suppose to be a new one anytime soon. Johnson broke Anderson Silva’s title defense record by having eleven straight title defenses all in dominant fashion. Just like Silva going into his Weidman fight coming into the fight with Cujado for the second time Johnson was talked about as the greatest to ever do it. Johnson knocked out Cejudo in two minutes forty-nine seconds two years before the second fight. In Johnson’s last two fights he tapped out Wilson Reis who said he would of rather been dominated any other way. Being tapped out hits hard for Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts. Johnson flying armbar for the win against Ray Borg he was looking like Superman. Cujado said he made many strides to beat Johnson but he was knocked out so fast how could anyone think he could beat the pound for pound best in the world maybe of all time. After the first loss to Johnson Cujado loses to Joesph Benavidez by spilt decision in his next fight. Benavidez lost to Johnson twice. Cujado goes on to beat Wilson Reis by KO and Sergio Pettis by decision, and now wants his shot. Which he gets since DJ has cleared out the division for so long. No one thought Cujado would win we just wanted a competitive fight for Johnson to defend his belt against, and Cujado a gold medalist and mental strength gave us hope for that. However the fans got much more than that. The first round DJ strikes the legs as he does throughout the fight, the fight stays standing as DJ wins the striking battle to the take the round by Cujado is already doing better than last time. The second round the fight stays standing until Cujado looks to bring Johnson into his world. As he takes down Johnson and is competitive on the feet giving Cujado round two. Round three was much like round one and round four much like round two. Round three was much like round one and round four much like round two. Making it two-two going into the final championship round. The fans are on their feet. A fight no one expected. The fifth strikes going back and forth Cujado tagging Johnson, Johnson tagging Cujado. With about two minutes left to go Cujado takes Johnson down to some gave him the victory since DJ didn’t even attempt one take down. The fight went to the score cards and two judges out of three crowned a New Flyweight Champion by split decision.

1 Matt Sierra vs George St Pierre 1, April 2007 UFC 69:

The biggest upset in UFC history still stands to be when the GOAT falls to the hands of Matt Serra. The UFC was finally starting to get big at UFC 69 and with GSP fighting people will tune in. GSP was in the young part of his career and wasn’t the greatest of all time like we know him today. However he was still pretty great. He came into the fight with Serra at 13-1 while riding a 5 fight winning streak. He just won the Welterweight title back after getting revenge against Matt Hughes. Before that fight he beat B.J. Penn and Sean Sherk two UFC legends. Matt Serra was 9-4 before the fight started in Houston. He just won the Ultimate Fighter 4 Welterweight tournament in a spilt decision against Chris Lytle to get his shot at the title. The fight was set for UFC 69 George St. Pierre was going to defend his belt for the first time against super underdog Matt Serra. How big of an upset this was the betting odds in Vegas had GSP as -1300 favorite. Largest of his career. The fight did not take long to get exciting. As Serra knocked GSP to the floor early with an over hand right. GSP could never get his legs under him again. Stumbling avoiding shots GSP was constantly getting knocked down. Then with about 2 minutes left Serra hit him one more time on the chin that put GSP to the floor one last time. Serra pounces on him and lets the punches pour forcing the ref to step in and make the biggest upset of all time official.