5 times legendary UFC champions lost badly

#2 Matt Hughes vs. Georges St-Pierre – UFC 65

Georges St-Pierre brutally dismantled legendary Welterweight champ Matt Hughes

In late 2004 at UFC 50, former Welterweight champion Matt Hughes fought hot prospect Georges St-Pierre for the title he’d lost to BJ Penn – who was subsequently stripped – a few months prior. It was a surprisingly tricky fight for Hughes, who, Penn fight aside had looked largely untouchable for years before. He still came out on top though – catching St-Pierre with an armbar in the very last second of the opening round.

Just over two years later, the two men would face off again; Hughes had regained his dominant aura, defeating Frank Trigg, Joe Riggs, Royce Gracie and finally Penn in a rematch, but it was St-Pierre who’d been on the more interesting journey.

The young Canadian bounced back from his first career loss by beating journeyman Dave Strasser and prospect Jason Miller, and then embarked on a run of fights against former Hughes victims – Trigg, Sean Sherk and Penn – and beat them all, arguably in more impressive fashion than Hughes had managed to do.

Many fans were still favouring the vastly more experienced Hughes in the rematch, but it turned out that they were badly mistaken. St-Pierre came in like a man on a mission; clearly, he’d underestimated his own skills in the first fight with Hughes and wasn’t about to make the same mistake again.

What followed was one of the most one-sided title wins in UFC history. St-Pierre systematically broke Hughes down in the first round – hitting him with leg kicks, spinning kicks, stuffing the champion’s only takedown attempt, and finally dropping him with a superman punch and a short left hook in the final seconds of the round.

If Hughes’s corner had figured he’d do better in the second round, they were quickly proven wrong when St-Pierre dropped him with a low kick before hitting him with a left high kick to the side of the neck and head. Hughes went down, and a series of elbows later, the UFC had a new Welterweight champion.

It was an absolutely savage beating that largely ended the career of Hughes as a top-level Welterweight, as despite picking up another handful of wins, he never came close to regaining his title. His status as ‘the greatest Welterweight of all time’ would also be usurped by St-Pierre – who never suffered a defeat quite like this throughout his career.