5 UFC legends who hung on for too long

This week saw a piece of surprising news for the UFC, as it was announced that Brazilian veterans Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will be facing off for the third time at UFC 250 in May.

Despite the legendary status of both men, neither has been on the best run as of late; Shogun is coming off a draw with Paul Craig that many fans felt he deserved to lose, while Nogueira was most recently knocked out in violent fashion by Ryan Spann.

At 38 and 43 years old respectively, if we’re frank there are serious question marks over whether either man should still be competing in the world’s biggest MMA promotion – but it’s hardly surprising that they are. After all, we’ve seen plenty of top MMA fighters hang on and continue to fight for way too long in the past.

Here are 5 once-great fighters who held on for too long.

#1 BJ Penn

Penn damaged his legacy with losses to the likes of Ryan Hall

Still arguably the best Lightweight champion in UFC history, BJ Penn ruled the 155lbs division with an iron fist from 2008 to 2010, defending his title against dangerous contenders like Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez.

But when he lost his title to Frankie Edgar at UFC 112, a move back to 170lbs – where he’d won the UFC Welterweight title in 2004 – didn’t go so well. A win over Matt Hughes led to a controversial draw with Jon Fitch, and when he was then beaten badly by Nick Diaz at UFC 137, ‘The Prodigy’ hung up his gloves.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the last time we’d see Penn in UFC action – not by a long shot. His initial retirement lasted just over a year before he returned to take a severe beating at the hands of Rory MacDonald, and another “retirement” ended just as quickly with the Hawaiian returning to lose in a third fight with Edgar, this time at 145lbs.

Things didn’t end there, though, and Penn continued to fight – and bizarrely, the UFC continued to book him despite him being clearly miles past his prime. After some nasty legal issues reared their head in late 2019, ‘The Prodigy’ was finally released by the promotion – but only after losing his last 7 fights in one-sided fashion, basically ruining his legacy.

#2 Chuck Liddell

Chuck Liddell made an ill-advised comeback to fight old rival Tito Ortiz in 2018

Perhaps no other fighter stands as a better example of how quickly a legend can fall from the top of the mountain in MMA than former UFC Light-Heavyweight champion Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell.

At the end of 2006, Liddell was the promotion’s biggest star and strongest drawing card, but in his first fight of 2007 he was knocked out by Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and lost his title.

Liddell bounced back at the end of that year by beating PRIDE legend Wanderlei Silva, but a hamstring tear sidelined him for the majority of 2008, and when he returned, he seemed to have aged overnight and was violently knocked out by Rashad Evans. Another nasty knockout followed – this time at the hands of ‘Shogun’ Rua, and it appeared that Liddell’s once-granite chin had been cracked for good.

‘The Iceman’ retired from action, but ended up returning a year later, only to once again be knocked out, this time at the hands of Rich Franklin.

This time UFC President Dana White promised we’d never see Liddell in action again, and he was good to his word – handing him an office job with the promotion – but the UFC’s buyout at the hands of Endeavour in 2016 saw that job canned, and so ‘The Iceman’ made an ill-advised return to action in 2018 at the age of 48 to be knocked out by old rival Tito Ortiz. He hasn’t fought since, and hopefully won’t step into a cage again.

#3 Jens Pulver

Jens Pulver's career should've ended in the WEC in 2010 - but he held on for a lot longer

A genuine UFC legend, Jens Pulver won the UFC’s inaugural Lightweight title back in 2001 by outpointing Caol Uno, and went on to defend it successfully on two occasions over top contenders Dennis Hallman and BJ Penn. A contract dispute in 2002 forced him out of the UFC, but after some moderate success in PRIDE, ‘Little Evil’ returned in 2006 and was matched with Joe Lauzon.

A knockout loss to ‘J-Lau’ stunned everyone and was considered one of the year’s bigger upsets, but at just 31 it was widely thought that he had plenty more in the tank, and so the UFC booked him as a coach on the 5th season of The Ultimate Fighter against his old rival Penn, with a fight between the two booked for the Finale.

Penn choked out Pulver in that fight, and the loss was enough of a catalyst for ‘Little Evil’ to drop to 145lbs, moving to the UFC’s sister promotion the WEC in the process. His first fight went well – he submitted Cub Swanson in just 23 seconds – and that was enough to earn him a shot at WEC Featherweight champ Urijah Faber in one of the promotion’s first true marquee fights.

Pulver was outpointed by ‘The California Kid’ in that fight, but it was after this that his slide truly began. Losses to Leonard Garcia, Faber in a rematch and finally Josh Grispi left him without a win in nearly 2 years, and fans began to call for his retirement. One more WEC loss – a bad showing against Javier Vazquez – followed, and it appeared that Pulver was ready to retire after the promotion let him go.

Incredibly though, ‘Little Evil’ hung on for another 3 years following his loss to Vazquez, losing 6 of his 11 fights to end his career with a disappointing record of 27-19-1. Realistically, Pulver carried on for far too long, and should’ve retired in the WEC.

#4 Andrei Arlovski

Andrei Arlovski remains on the UFC's roster despite being far past his prime

This piece is about fighters who held on and continued to compete for too long; unfortunately, Andrei Arlovski is slightly different in that he’s still competing today, despite being 41 years old and with nearly 50 fights and two decades of experience to his name.

At his best, ‘The Pitbull’ was one of the greatest Heavyweights in the sport, blending his speed, athleticism and power together to win the UFC Heavyweight title in 2005.

Many fans felt the Belarusian should’ve hung his gloves up in 2011 following 4 straight losses – 3 by KO – but instead, Arlovski put together a surprisingly strong run of 7 wins and just 1 defeat to find himself brought back to the UFC in mid-2014. And there he surprised everyone further, reeling off another 4 wins in a row to move into title contention.

A knockout loss to Stipe Miocic in early 2016 stopped all that, though, and it put Arlovski on an eventual slide of 5 straight losses. ‘The Pitbull’ probably should’ve hung it up there, but bounced back with a pair of wins before losing another 4 in a row (one of which was overturned due to opponent Walt Harris failing a drug test). Most recently, Arlovski suffered another violent knockout loss at the hands of Jairzinho Rozenstruik.

Currently booked to face Philipe Lins in May, there’s no doubt that ‘The Pitbull’ should now be retired; his once tremendous striking game has been reduced to swinging a big right hook, his speed has begun to wane and his chin is almost completely cracked. Continuing on is simply going to damage his future health.

#5 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira's body betrayed him years before his 2015 retirement

Once widely considered the best Heavyweight fighter on the planet, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira reigned at the top of PRIDE’s mountain for years until Fedor Emelianenko defeated him in 2002. Even after losing his title, though, Nogueira remained one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, defeating the likes of Mirko Cro Cop, Josh Barnett and Heath Herring before PRIDE closed shop in 2007.

Nogueira unsurprisingly joined the UFC later that year, but upon his arrival, ‘Minotauro’ didn’t quite look in as good physical shape as he had done in Japan. That didn’t matter though, as he quickly defeated both Herring and Tim Sylvia to claim the interim UFC Heavyweight title.

A fight with Frank Mir for the title was then booked, but despite being a heavy betting favourite, Nogueira ended up being knocked out – the first time he’d been stopped in his lengthy career.

The Brazilian returned to action in 2009 and defeated Randy Couture in one of his best showings, but a knockout loss to Cain Velasquez followed, and ‘Minotauro’ spent the rest of 2010 on the shelf following surgery to both of his knees and hips.

Despite being just 35 at the time, Nogueira was clearly far past his physical prime at that point and probably should’ve hung up his gloves.

Instead, he returned again, and despite pulling out wins over Brendan Schaub and Dave Herman, his body betrayed him in fights with Mir, Fabricio Werdum, Roy Nelson and Stefan Struve; the former two fighters broke his arm while Nelson knocked him out in a frightening scene.

By the time he finally retired in 2015, ‘Minotauro’ looked physically broken, needing multiple surgeries and being practically blind in one eye. To say he hung on too long would be an understatement.