5 most obscure title challengers in UFC history

#2. Yana Kunitskaya – Women’s featherweight title challenger (UFC 222)

The thin nature of the women's featherweight division meant that Yana Kunitskaya was given an instant title shot in 2018

Ever since it was introduced to the UFC in early 2017, the women’s featherweight division has largely been devoid of talent, with the promotion largely choosing to ignore it and therefore not making all that many big signings there.

Essentially, the division was brought in to build Cris Cyborg into a genuine UFC star. To an extent, that worked, as she defeated Tonya Evinger for the vacant title and then picked up a big win over Holly Holm in her first title defense.

However, due to the fact that the promotion simply hadn’t filled the division at that stage, when it came to picking the next challenger for the Brazilian, they essentially had to pluck a fighter from obscurity to fill the gap.

The fighter chosen was Russia’s Yana Kunitskaya, who had never fought in the UFC previously and who had actually been competing largely as a bantamweight in the Invicta promotion. Did she really deserve a UFC featherweight title shot? Probably not.

It came as no surprise, then, when Cyborg comfortably defeated her by TKO in the first round of their clash. Although ‘Foxy’ has since claimed a number of victories in the octagon, she hasn’t come close to gaining another title shot.

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#1. Joe Soto – Bantamweight title challenger (UFC 177)

Joe Soto was plucked from obscurity to fight for UFC gold in 2014

While he was always a solid fighter in his own right, it’s probably safe to say that the most obscure title challenger in UFC history remains Joe Soto, who debuted in the octagon in a bantamweight title bout with T.J. Dillashaw in 2014.

At the time, Soto was probably best known for his brief run in Bellator MMA. While he’d won six fights in a row and had clearly earned a chance in the UFC, he almost certainly didn’t deserve an instant crack at the gold.

Of course, Soto’s title challenge was never the initial plan and only came to fruition when Renan Barao, who was supposed to rematch Dillashaw for the title he’d lost earlier that year, collapsed after a weight-cutting issue prior to the event.

With the event already losing a number of other bouts due to injuries and various other reasons, the promotion could simply not afford to lose its headliner.

Therefore, with Soto being more credible than Anthony Birchak, who was supposed to face the former Bellator star, he was quickly pushed into the slot.

Unsurprisingly, many UFC fans had no clue who Soto was and a one-sided defeat to Dillashaw didn’t help matters, even if he later picked up three wins in the octagon.