5 dullest title fights in UFC history

#2. Jens Pulver vs. Dennis Hallman – UFC lightweight title (2001)

Jens Pulver's dull lightweight title bout with Dennis Hallman marred UFC 33

UFC 33 is widely recognized as one of, if not the, worst MMA shows of all time. Part of the reason for that is the fact that all three title bouts on the card ended up being disappointing. However, the dullest of the three, by far, was Jens Pulver’s lightweight title fight with Dennis Hallman.

Hopes were actually high for a barnburner between the two men, largely because there was a very real personal issue between them dating back to their days as enemies in high school, but also because Hallman had submitted Pulver’s teammate Matt Hughes twice.

However, ‘Little Evil’ was clearly well aware of Hallman’s skills on the ground and made it his goal to ensure that the challenger wouldn’t get a chance to tap him out by keeping the fight standing.

Unfortunately, while Pulver’s takedown defense was on point, Hallman simply wasn’t willing to engage with any kind of striking battle with the champion. Instead, ‘Superman’ simply flopped to his back at every given opportunity, hoping to entice ‘Little Evil’ to join him on the ground.

Naturally, Pulver wasn’t willing to oblige and so the fight was filled with stalling, staring and very little in the way of meaningful action. In the end, the crowd unsurprisingly booed both men out of the octagon, despite Pulver being highly popular beforehand.

While ‘Little Evil’ retained his title, he hardly seemed proud of his performance afterwards.

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#1. Anderson Silva vs. Demian Maia – UFC middleweight title (2010)

Dana White was utterly horrified by Anderson Silva's dull fight with Demian Maia, as were the fans

While this weekend’s fight between Rose Namajunas and Carla Esparza was badly received, it certainly didn’t produce the same amount of scorn that Anderson Silva’s middleweight title defense against Demian Maia did. Despite taking place well over a decade ago now, the bout still stands as the worst title fight in UFC history.

All of the other dull title bouts at least featured fighters who looked like they were attempting to win, even if their gameplans didn’t work or produce anything entertaining to watch. In this case, though, it looked like Silva wasn’t interested in entertaining or winning.

Instead, the legendary champion seemed to have decided that he was so much better than Maia that he wouldn’t even try to put him away, instead choosing to dance around the octagon and play air guitar at points.

The weirdest thing was that it didn’t need to be that way. Maia actually tried his best to take Silva down, but simply couldn’t get close to ‘The Spider’ and seemed woefully outgunned. Basically, it looked like if he wanted to, Silva could’ve put Maia away at any time.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t his intention. Instead, after hurting him badly in the early going, Silva chose to largely ignore his opponent entirely. In the end, even referee Dan Miragliotta had enough, threatening to deduct a point from him for passivity.

When the fight was over, Dana White was so disgusted that he refused to present him with his title.

Silva is undoubtedly one of the greatest champions in UFC history, but it’s fair to say that this title defense was more infamous than anything else and it remains the most dull title bout in the promotion’s history.