5 fighters who failed to win UFC gold but became legends elsewhere

#2. Jorge Santiago – former UFC middleweight contender, middleweight champion in Sengoku

Jorge Santiago became one of the world's highest-rated middleweights thanks to his run in Sengoku

When the UFC suddenly exploded in popularity during the initial TUF boom of 2005 and 2006, the promotion quickly needed to sign a lot of fighters to bulk their roster out for the extra events they found themselves putting on. One such fighter was Brazil’s Jorge Santiago.

A longtime veteran of smaller promotions like King of the Cage, Santiago held an impressive record of 11-5 when he was inked by MMA's premier promotion in 2006. When he knocked out Justin Levens in vicious fashion in his octagon debut, it looked like he had the potential to make some real noise.

However, Santiago’s fragile chin quickly betrayed him. A pair of knockout losses to Chris Leben and Alan Belcher sent him tumbling out of the promotion as 2007 began.

Rather than stop fighting, though, the Brazilian regrouped in remarkable fashion. First, he won a much-hyped four man, one-night tournament in Strikeforce, and then moved to Japan with the up-and-coming Sengoku promotion.

Suddenly, it seemed like Santiago simply couldn’t stop winning. He reeled off five wins in a row in Sengoku, all via finishes, ending in a win over PRIDE veteran Kazuo Misaki to claim the Sengoku middleweight championship.

A loss to Mamed Khalidov followed, but Santiago quickly avenged the defeat to reclaim his title. He made one more defense in a rematch with Misaki before the promotion largely crashed.

It was no surprise when the UFC then brought him back. While he had no more success there than in his previous run, dropping two fights in a row, his run in Japan had made him a much bigger deal than he’d ever been before, making him a prime example of a fighter who thrived outside the UFC.

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#1. Nick Diaz – UFC welterweight contender, welterweight champion in Strikeforce

Nick Diaz's run in StrikeForce turned him into the superstar he is today

Nick Diaz is undoubtedly one of the biggest stars that the UFC has seen, but it’s probably fair to say that his run inside the octagon hasn’t quite been as successful as his drawing power might suggest. In fact, the Stockton-based fighter actually holds a losing record of 7-8 in the promotion.

So how exactly did Diaz become one of MMA’s biggest stars without producing massive success in the UFC? It’s safe to say that his drawing power was largely developed during his run in Strikeforce from 2009 to 2011.

Diaz’s initial run in the UFC wasn’t bad by any means, but it wasn’t enough to turn him into a genuine star. His clashes with Diego Sanchez, Karo Parisyan and Joe Riggs, as well as his unusual charisma, made him a cult favourite of sorts, but he never really came close to title contention.

When he left the promotion in 2006, though, that all changed. Diaz’s first post-UFC bout saw him shock the world by submitting PRIDE poster-boy Takanori Gomi, but it was his move to Strikeforce in 2009 that really cemented him as a star.

The promotion, the second-biggest in the world behind the UFC at the time, immediately pushed him as a big deal. When he defeated Frank Shamrock, he quickly positioned himself as the organisation’s poster-boy.

When he went onto defeat the likes of Scott Smith, Marius Zaromskis and Paul Daley in thrillers, it was hard not to be impressed. Suddenly, he was seen as the best 170lber not in the UFC and the biggest threat on the planet to the dominance of UFC welterweight king Georges St-Pierre.

Unsurprisingly, then, when Strikeforce’s roster was slowly absorbed into the UFC following the promotion’s buyout in 2011, it was Diaz who all of the fans wanted to see back in the octagon. That hasn’t really changed in the decade that has followed.

Would Diaz have achieved the same success had he stayed in the octagon from the start? It’s honestly doubtful, and it shows that in some instances, leaving the world’s biggest promotion can be a good thing.