The 10 biggest busts in UFC history

#1: Mirko Cro Cop

Mirko Cro Cop never came close to reaching expectations in his UFC runs

Mirko Cro Cop is undoubtedly an MMA legend, but he also has to go down as the greatest bust in UFC history.

Signed to a mega-money deal in 2006 after winning PRIDE’s Openweight Grand Prix, Cro Cop had basically cut a path of destruction through the Japanese promotion, beating everyone there was to beat outside of the consensus top two fighters in the world – Fedor Emelianenko and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

With the UFC’s Heavyweight division being seen at the time as weaker, Cro Cop was expected to win the UFC title pretty easily.

A UFC debut saw him beat prospect Eddie Sanchez, but in his second outing he fell prey to one of the all-time great upsets – Gabriel Gonzaga knocked him out with a head kick Cro Cop himself would’ve been proud of.

A further loss to Cheick Kongo cemented his spot as a bust, and he left the UFC to return to Japan. In 2009 though a surprising UFC return was announced, and he came back to stop Mostapha Al-Turk.

A loss to Junior Dos Santos was then followed by two wins – over Anthony Perosh and Pat Barry – but before a possible run to the top could happen, he suffered three straight KO losses – to Frank Mir, Brendan Schaub and Roy Nelson – and that was that.

Cro Cop did return for a one-off in 2015, avenging his loss to Gonzaga, but even that only brought his UFC record to 5-6.

It seemed that Cro Cop could simply never adjust to fighting in a cage, as he’d become so used to cutting off his opponent’s movement inside a ring instead. But considering he was a man who was signed to dominate a division, nobody else really comes close to him in the bust stakes.