Weakest paths to a title or reign?

[NoSmilez]

Strickland

 

[filthybliss]

Brock. Got the title shot after his 1st UFC win and won the belt. His MMA record was 2-1.

And Anderson Silva has a reputation already and is well known in other orgs. like Pride, with names like Sakurai and Newton on his resume. Everyone who's into MMA that time knows he isn't a nobody or some kind of prospect when he came, except for Chris Leben, apparently.

i stand a 100% corrected. its definetely lesnar.

 

[ipowerslapmywife]

Hill

 

[Bluesbreaker]

Bustamante.

I discounted Menne because he won the inaugural title.

 

[Dr Fong]

Bustamante.

I discounted Menne because he won the inaugural title.

The pajama cuddlers were obsessed with Busta back in the day. His UFC/Pride record vs non-Japanese cans was 2-6 - (Nakamura was the only Japanese guy he fought I consider not a can and Busta lost to him). Lindland was the only guy worth a shit that he ever beat.

And yet the butt floppers were convinced he was Jesus.

 

[achoo42]

Kind of hard to top André Pederneiras.

 

[Goutfather]

Kind of hard to top André Pederneiras.


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well hey, he was technically undefeated

 

[HavokHarmon]

The Jones one is tough though. Same with GSP at mw or Volk at lw. Logic being that it is possible to earn a shot at the belt in a different division through your body of work by being a dominant champion in your own division.

If you accept that logic, then they are deserved title shots. If you don’t, then they aren’t.

 

[tritestill]

Think all the best answers have already been covered for the most part. All championships are not paved equal. That's for sure, as some fighters get gifted shots and others, UFC doesn't want them to have shots. UFC tends to want a win-win for them in terms of whomever is champ is best for business or clear favorites into who they want to win title fights.

 

[Takes_Two_To_Tango]

First name came to my mind is Brock Lesnar.

Easily him. He had only a 2-1 record.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

In light of the bald goofs recent comment,
“You become a f—king world champion in the UFC, you went through death f—king row of the baddest motherf—kers in the sport in your division that you can possibly fight,” he continued.

I was thinking:

Who had the easiest runs to a title and title reigns? We all know guys like Merab, Belal, and Tony could go on double digit win streaks and still get passed over for guys like Chito and Colby, so who are the guys that were seemingly gifted title shots, never having gone through “death f—ing row” to get or remain there?

I think Usman is a prime example, fighting Colby x2, Masvidal x2, and Giblert Burns in his reign.
Jon Jones is another, having only one fight at HW against Gane to become Champ.

What are some others?

Alex Pereira is the most obvious one currently. Andreas Michalids, Bruno Silva & Sean Strickland are not "Death's Row". He clearly got his title shot at MW due to his kickboxing history with Adesanya. Throw on to that getting a LHW title eliminator coming off a KO loss at MW and getting a LHW title fight with a SD win in your only LHW fight. Not meaning to sound like a hater as his fights are exciting but that is the easiest path to UFC championships in modern UFC history.

Conor had a path cleared for him but at least he earned his FW title with wins over Dustin, Mendes and ultimately Aldo. His LW title shot was gifted with ZERO FW title defenses and barely scraping by with a 1-1 record against Nate (Journeyman) Diaz. He won fair and square against Eddie Alvarez to get it but of course never defended anything and had to be stripped twice.

Colby got an Interim title with one top 10 win and seemingly dozens of Undisputed title shots for being a Trump sycophant. Glad he never became an actual UFC champion.

 

[HHJ]

techinically speaking and people are not going to like this but anderson silva. he got a title shot after one fight, not saying he didn't deserve it but literally nobody gets sling shotted that quickly to the belt.

Mw div was undeveloped at the time and there were MW's outside the UFC that were considered better than Franklin. I dont think anyone considered it undeserved at the time.

A different time. Not unusual for then.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

Brock. Got the title shot after his 1st UFC win and won the belt. His MMA record was 2-1.

And Anderson Silva has a reputation already and is well known in other orgs. like Pride, with names like Sakurai and Newton on his resume. Everyone who's into MMA that time knows he isn't a nobody or some kind of prospect when he came, except for Chris Leben, apparently.

Brock is 100% bang on. Got it off his Pro Wrasslin' fame.

Anderson comment is 100% bang on as well. The UFC didn't have much in the MW division. So many forget the Strike Force had more future UFC MW top 10's then the UFC had after the merger: Luke, Yoel, Kennedy, Jacare, Cung Le, Brunson.

I think all the pre Zuffa era answers are too clouded by the paper thin talent pools. Any inaugural champ is too easy. Last minute replacements when no one else was available like Bisping, Strickland don't work for me as answers either.

Champions who were dominant and moved up for an immediate title shot are OK with me. GSP, Jon Jones & Volk come to mind. I think Jon's shot at a vacant title against such an easy style match up with Gane who was never a champion was a bit dubious when they could have made it against Stipe who was the last champion before Frank left.

 

[BFoe]

Dana actually mentioned that Iaquinta is also eligible to win the belt hours before fight night. My memory also serves me right.

You nailed it with Conor's 155 title shot though. I think Alex in a way deserves it coz Jan is a former champ and credit that he stayed ready/injury free.

My pick would have been Masvidal's 2nd shot at Usman. He sat out a whole year and got a free title shot after a long break, and Nick Diaz getting his shot and a huge payday vs GSP after being inactive for a year and coming of a loss to Condit. (Love the Diaz brothers though)

Oh weird, I don’t remember that at all. That’s Dana for you when the fighter is over championship weight: “The NY Athletic commission doesn’t consider it a title fight, but the promotion does.”


I wonder if other commissions would’ve recognized it or not. Good one though, pulling that out of your memory!

 

[Natural Order]

He wasn’t eligible to win the belt that night though.
Conor at LHW, Poatan at LHW and MW both, actually. Brock’s road to the HW title.

That’s what makes Khabib’s title even more of a joke!

 

[Natural Order]

Lesnar is the correct answer

 

[BFoe]

Obviously Nicco Montaño

Let’s throw GDR in there too lol: she was on a pretty “meh” 2-fight win streak going into the title fight with Holly, hit her after the bell like 17 times, won the belt and immediately refused to defend it against the only other WFW they had in Cyborg
Hell of a reign.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

Oh weird, I don’t remember that at all. That’s Dana for you when the fighter is over championship weight: “The NY Athletic commission doesn’t consider it a title fight, but the promotion does.”


I wonder if other commissions would’ve recognized it or not. Good one though, pulling that out of your memory!

Its the same as Charles weight miss against Justin. The UFC could not call him the champion but they booked Charles for a title fight against Islam in his next fight. I suspect they would not be contractually obligated to pay Charles PPV points as he was not a champion defending against Islam but they likely did honor his contract as if he were champion or risk him not fighting and muddying the LW title lineage he had just established.

If Iaquinta had won the Khabib fight he would have fought for the "Vacant" title but the UFC would have called him champion. It would have been interesting to see if they would have brought in a belt had he won??? I wonder if they could just declare him the Interim Champion with that victory???

 

[BFoe]

Its the same as Charles weight miss against Justin. The UFC could not call him the champion but they booked Charles for a title fight against Islam in his next fight. I suspect they would not be contractually obligated to pay Charles PPV points as he was not a champion defending against Islam but they likely did honor his contract as if he were champion or risk him not fighting and muddying the LW title lineage he had just established.

If Iaquinta had won the Khabib fight he would have fought for the "Vacant" title but the UFC would have called him champion. It would have been interesting to see if they would have brought in a belt had he won??? I wonder if they could just declare him the Interim Champion with that victory???

I don’t think the commission would even recognize Iaquinta as interim champ because you have to be exactly on weight for that too. It’s so silly that NY wouldn’t approve Felder, who weighed in at 155 exactly, because he wasn’t ranked. The NY commission is straight up terrible. So are their refs.

 

[Fedora Millionankles]

The Jones one is tough though. Same with GSP at mw or Volk at lw. Logic being that it is possible to earn a shot at the belt in a different division through your body of work by being a dominant champion in your own division.

If you accept that logic, then they are deserved title shots. If you don’t, then they aren’t.

The quote from Dana is that they fought a “death f—ing row” in the division they became champion in. None of those 3 did, in that respect.