5 UFC champions who failed to win gold in their first title shot

#2. Francis Ngannou – current UFC heavyweight champion

Francis Ngannou failed in his first attempt to dethrone Stipe Miocic in 2018.

After his victory over Ciryl Gane last weekend, there’s simply no disputing that Francis Ngannou is the best UFC heavyweight on the planet right now. The reigning UFC champion now looks like a force of nature inside the octagon, and it’s difficult to see anyone stopping him any time soon.

However, fans who believe that ‘The Predator’ is a completely unbeatable fighter should be reminded of his first bid to become a champion in 2018. That failed pretty miserably at the hands of Stipe Miocic.

Leading into the bout, it looked like a formality that Ngannou would claim the title from Miocic. After all, he’d been destroying every fighter put in front of him, even foes who gave the champion some trouble, such as Alistair Overeem.

Sure, Miocic was a battle-tested, proven champion with excellent skills. However, he simply didn’t possess the same kind of explosive power and athleticism as ‘The Predator’ did.

Nevertheless, it quickly became clear that if he was to claim victory, it wouldn’t come easy. Ngannou landed some of his trademark haymakers in the opening round, but for the first time in his UFC career, his opponent remained standing.

From there, ‘The Predator’ began to tire. Miocic then willed his way back into the fight, beginning to secure takedowns and beating Ngannou up on the ground. Eventually, the way the fight was going became clear, and Miocic claimed a unanimous decision.

The loss derailed Ngannou badly for a while, and he produced a career-worst performance in his next bout. However, ‘The Predator’ didn’t need long to recover. When the two men met in a rematch in 2021, Ngannou proved that he’d learned from his earlier mistakes, as he took out Miocic violently to claim the gold.

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

Georges St-Pierre admitted that he felt overwhelmed in his first UFC title shot.

Perhaps the most famous example of a UFC legend who failed in his first attempt to become a champion is legendary former welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre. In fact, it’s probably arguable that GSP’s first failed title shot played a key part in the greatness he went onto achieve later in his career.

The Canadian’s octagon career was just two fights old when he was offered a title bout against former champion Matt Hughes. The latter was looking to reclaim the title he’d lost to BJ Penn, who subsequently vacated it to leave the promotion for pastures new.

St-Pierre had looked impressive in his wins over Karo Parisyan and Jay Hieron, but Hughes was a different animal entirely. Despite his loss to Penn, he was still widely recognized as the greatest 170 lber of all time.

GSP couldn’t even look him in the eye during their staredown. While he had some success, landing some good strikes on Hughes and even taking him down at one point, he eventually made an error on the ground, and fell prey to an armbar.

Nevertheless, the fight opened the Canadian’s eyes to two things: it showed him the level he needed to be at to become a UFC champion, and it also showed him that with a little more work, he could make it to the top.

Sure enough, the next year, GSP returned to the octagon with a vengeance, and reeled off wins over Jason Miller, Frank Trigg, Sean Sherk and Penn to set up a second shot at Hughes.

And as everyone knows, he went on to win that fight, and go on to become the greatest champion in UFC history.