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The UFC has been home to some great champions over the years, but naturally, even the best fighters get old and end up past their primes.
While some former UFC champions retire at the right time, others stick around for too long and end up suffering embarrassing losses, often outside of the UFC.
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Usually, age, wear and tear and injuries are to blame for these losses. But given who they often come at the hands of, they’re still difficult for UFC fans to stomach. After all, nobody really wants to see one of their heroes fall to a much lesser talent, do they?
With that in mind, here are five former UFC champions who suffered embarrassing losses after leaving the promotion.
#5. Tito Ortiz – former UFC light heavyweight champion
Once considered the most feared MMA fighter on the planet, former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz fell on hard times once he lost his title back in 2003.
Despite claiming numerous big wins in the years that followed, Ortiz could never quite climb back to the top of the mountain. And by 2012, it was painfully clear that his best years were behind him. ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ found himself on a losing streak and simply couldn’t stay injury-free.
After one final loss to Forrest Griffin at UFC 148, Ortiz decided to hang up his gloves, supposedly for good. The UFC even entered him into their Hall of Fame. Surprisingly though, a little more than two years later, the former champion embarked on a comeback with Bellator MMA.
This comeback wasn’t bad by anyone’s standards as Ortiz went 3-1 in the promotion and picked up a couple of memorable wins. However, he departed Bellator in 2017. Outside of a couple of odd fights, he seemed to finally be embracing retirement.
That was until this past weekend, when ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ decided to return at the age of 46. He took on fellow former UFC champion Anderson Silva in a boxing match for Triller Fight Club.
The idea seemed bad from the off, particularly as Ortiz had never been renowned for his striking game even during his peak years as UFC champion.
And naturally, the whole thing went painfully and embarrassingly wrong. The slightly less shopworn Silva needed just over a minute to knock Ortiz completely unconscious with a quick combination.
Plenty of fans seemed to enjoy the knockout, but for those who once enjoyed watching ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’, this debacle was simply sad. Whether or not Ortiz now returns to retirement, however, is up in the air.
#4. Tim Sylvia – former UFC heavyweight champion
When he departed the UFC in 2008, Tim Sylvia was still widely recognized as one of the world’s best heavyweights.
Sure, he left the octagon following a loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but there was no shame in that. In the same way, there was no shame in his subsequent loss to Fedor Emelianenko under the Affliction banner months later. However, it didn’t take long for the former UFC heavyweight champion to suffer a truly embarrassing loss, one that his MMA career never really recovered from.
For reasons known only to him, ‘The Maine-iac’ decided to accept a bizarre fight with former WBO heavyweight boxing champion Ray Mercer at a regional show promoted by his own manager Monte Cox.
The fight was originally promoted as a boxing match, only for it to be switched to hybrid rules, and finally full MMA rules at the behest of Alabama’s boxing commission. And given that Mercer was pushing 50 at the time, few people figured he’d give Sylvia a lot of trouble.
Nobody gave ‘Merciless’ that memo, though, and just nine seconds into the fight, he slipped a sloppy jab and landed a crushing right hook to the jaw of Sylvia. The shot knocked the former UFC champion silly.
‘The Maine-iac’ fell to the ground in such an exaggerated fashion that it looked like Mercer had tackled him. Much to Sylvia's embarrassment, the fight was immediately called off.
Footage of the knockout instantly went viral. Essentially, Sylvia’s career as a top-level MMA fighter was over. Affliction MMA quickly dropped him and despite a number of wins on the regional circuit, he never did make it back to the UFC.
#3. Johny Hendricks – former UFC welterweight champion
When Johny Hendricks announced his retirement from MMA in 2017 following a loss to Paulo Costa at UFC 217, it felt like the right time for him to go.
The former UFC welterweight champion had been on a slide ever since losing his title to Robbie Lawler at UFC 181. Following that loss, he’d won just two of his next seven fights in the octagon.
More worryingly, Hendricks was stopped by strikes in three of those five losses, suggesting that his chin was thoroughly shot after a decade of high-level MMA competition.
Naturally then, UFC fans were concerned when they heard he’d be returning to action in 2018 in the form of a bare-knuckle boxing career. This path had already been trodden by a number of former UFC stars. It had rarely led to anything good.
Hendricks was signed to fight former Bellator tournament champion Brennan Ward in his bare-knuckle debut. However, it seemed like Lady Luck was on his side when Ward withdrew from the fight days before the event, citing a contract dispute.
The WBKFF promotion replaced Ward with Dakota Cochrane, a journeyman MMA fighter who had spent the majority of his career at lightweight and had never fought bare-knuckle before. Given that Cochrane, who also earned fame as a gay porn star, was largely known for his grappling, it seemed like a winnable fight for ‘Bigg Rigg’.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The smaller Cochrane managed to hurt Hendricks with a combination in the second round. Moments later, the former UFC champion wilted under the power of a flurry, going down to a TKO.
It was a horribly embarrassing loss, and only served as a reminder to Hendricks that his time in combat sports was almost certainly up.
#2. Chuck Liddell – former UFC light heavyweight champion
Once considered the UFC’s poster boy and their biggest star, former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell was renowned for his brutal knockout power and killer instinct for years.
However, after he lost his title to Quinton Jackson in 2007, things quickly went downhill for ‘The Iceman’. Sure, there were some flashes of the “old” Chuck, most notably in his wild victory over Wanderlei Silva. But by 2008, it was clear that his time at the top was up.
Liddell suffered three straight losses against Rashad Evans, Mauricio Rua and Rich Franklin, all by knockout. That was enough for UFC President Dana White to coax him into retirement in mid-2010.
However, part of Liddell’s retirement package involved an office job with the UFC. It was essentially a token of the promotion’s appreciation for his years of hard work. When the UFC was bought out by Endeavor in 2016 and began to embark on cost-cutting measures, Liddell’s job was one of the first things to go.
This left ‘The Iceman’ needing some money. Sadly, that meant a return to fighting, something that everyone but Liddell seemed to know was a bad idea. Incredibly, in 2018 it was announced that Liddell would be facing his old rival Tito Ortiz, who he’d beaten twice in the UFC. The bout took place under the Golden Boy MMA banner.
The fight was immediately condemned by MMA fans worldwide. Nobody thought the near-50-year-old Liddell ought to be fighting. They were quickly proven right.
Liddell appeared to be moving through treacle during the fight and quickly succumbed to a first-round knockout loss at the hands of his rival. The loss was painfully embarrassing for ‘The Iceman’, particularly given the rivalry between him and Ortiz. It came as no surprise that he announced a return to retirement shortly after.
#1. Tyron Woodley – former UFC welterweight champion
Whether or not Tyron Woodley’s first loss following his UFC departure could be considered embarrassing is probably up in the air. That depends on your thoughts on the fighting skills of his opponent.
However, considering Woodley held the UFC welterweight title as recently as 2019 and had only ever lost to elite fighters like Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington, it’s hard not to shudder at the thought of his recent loss to YouTube star Jake Paul.
Sure, there were plenty of caveats surrounding the fight. Firstly, it took place in the boxing ring. While Woodley had been renowned for his knockout power in the octagon, he reached the top of the UFC primarily by using his wrestling.
Secondly, ‘The Chosen One’ was substantially outweighed by Paul in the fight. He also hadn’t really been at his best for over two years by the time the two men stepped into the ring. In fact, he hadn’t won a fight since his 2018 victory over Darren Till.
And thirdly, Woodley did at least take ‘The Problem Child’ the distance. He even stunned him with a big right hand at one stage.
However, Woodley’s loss was still hard to stomach, particularly for UFC fans who’ve become a little sick of Paul’s anti-MMA act. They were desperate to see someone shut him up for good and were left disappointed when Woodley failed to do so.
Was the loss as embarrassing as the ones suffered by fighters like Sylvia and Liddell? Perhaps not, but it was still a tough watch. No former UFC champion should lose to a YouTuber, after all.
