5 times that a UFC fighter switched up their style to find success

#2. Fabricio Werdum – former UFC heavyweight champion

Once considered a pure grappler, Fabricio Werdum developed a wicked striking game that led him to UFC gold

When former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum made his PRIDE debut back in 2005, he brought with him a reputation as one of the greatest grapplers on the planet, something he demonstrated quickly in wins over fighters such as Alistair Overeem and Alexander Emelianenko.

However, losses to fighters like Sergei Kharitonov and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira demonstrated that his stand-up skills lagged far behind his ground game. That problem followed him to the octagon and led directly to his losses to Andrei Arlovski and Junior dos Santos.

The latter defeat saw Werdum washed out of the promotion, but after a strong run in Strikeforce, ‘Vai Cavalo’ returned to the octagon in 2012 as an entirely different animal.

Sure, his biggest win away from the UFC came via submission over the legendary Fedor Emelianenko, but he’d also developed a violent striking style based around pressure and clinch work that made him more dangerous than ever.

Werdum demonstrated those skills by battering Roy Nelson on his return to the octagon. He then continued to use his stand-up to great effect, eventually knocking out Mark Hunt to claim the interim heavyweight title before brutalizing Cain Velasquez in the clinch to earn the undisputed title too.

Sure, Werdum’s love for the stand-up game did cost him his title to Stipe Miocic in 2016, but it’s safe to say that his switch of styles away from a purely ground-based game definitely led him to huge success.

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#1. Georges St-Pierre – former UFC welterweight champion

Once considered a striker, Georges St-Pierre developed his wrestling until nobody could stop his takedowns

Perhaps no other fighter in UFC history has switched their style up to find quite as much success as former welterweight great Georges St-Pierre. The Canadian held the promotion’s 170-pound title from 2008 through to 2013, defending it successfully on nine occasions in the process.

It might’ve been hard for some newer fans to believe, but when ‘GSP’ debuted in the octagon in 2004, he was widely recognized as a karate-based striker with a bit of a Brazilian jiu-jitsu game to fall back upon.

St-Pierre’s debut win over Karo Parisyan gave fans a glimpse of his grappling, but that was quickly forgotten when he used his striking to knock out Jay Hieron on his second visit to the octagon.

‘GSP’ would continue to rely on his striking first and foremost throughout his early years, famously knocking out Matt Hughes to claim UFC gold for the first time in 2006. However, after he was stopped by Matt Serra in a huge upset in 2007, he clearly decided to switch his style up for good.

St-Pierre began to focus on a more wrestling-based attack, largely looking to ground his opponents rather than stand with them. To say it worked well would be an understatement.

The Canadian largely dominated every opponent he faced in the octagon from that point onwards, from B.J. Penn and Jon Fitch to Thiago Alves and Nick Diaz. St-Pierre’s wrestling became so good, in fact, that he even considered switching to the sport for the 2012 Olympics and would routinely take down even highly credentialed wrestlers in the octagon.

While he came under criticism for a supposed safety-first approach at times and also used his striking against foes like Jake Shields and Josh Koscheck, nobody could really argue with his success, as he’s still renowned as arguably the greatest champion in the promotion’s history.