The 10 biggest busts in UFC history

#4: Denis Kang

Denis Kang's great run in PRIDE didn't translate into UFC success

When the UFC bought out PRIDE in 2007, one of the biggest names that people wanted to see cross over into the Octagon was Middleweight Denis Kang. He’d torn through the PRIDE roster in their 185lbs Grand Prix in 2006, beating Murilo Rua, Amar Suloev and Akihiro Gono before losing a controversial decision to Kazuo Misaki in the finals.

But Kang chose to sign with K-1 instead, and lost in a pair of upsets to Yoshihiro Akiyama and Gegard Mousasi. He righted the ship with a pair of wins in 2008 though and finally made the move to the UFC. As one of the most exciting fighters to come out of Japan, everyone was salivating over his debut. Unfortunately for his fans, things went wrong straight away.

He was beaten in his debut by an Alan Belcher guillotine choke, struggled to a win over journeyman Xavier Foupa-Pokam, and then took a massive beatdown at the hands of Michael Bisping to end his UFC run at 1-2. The case may have been that Kang was past his prime when he came to the UFC – he’d been fighting since 1998 – but there’s also an argument for him simply being a poor defensive fighter. Either way, his run was painfully disappointing.