5 UFC prospects who turned out to be busts

In terms of predicting which blue-chip prospects will actually pan out and which ones will crash and burn instead, MMA has to be one of the toughest sports. For every Max Holloway or Chris Weidman who make it all the way to the top of the UFC after being highly touted in their early days, there are countless more prospects who turn out to be busts despite bright beginnings.

As the leading promoter, it’s only natural that the UFC takes chances on tons of prospects each year; some go on to huge success while others simply settle into a solid role as a reliable mid-card action fighter. Others though simply fail to come close to their early potential and end up flaming out completely. Here are five of the biggest busts in UFC history.

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#1 Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou

Some would actually argue that Sokoudjou wasn’t actually a “prospect” when he debuted in the UFC in December 2007 because he’d already knocked out a pair of top ten Light-Heavyweights over in Japan. But make no mistake about it; it was his great potential that everyone was fixated on rather than his prior accomplishments.

Here was a bonafide 205lber, just 23 years old, a winner of the 2001 US Open Judo tournament, and he’d used his insanely heavy hands to knock out both Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona in PRIDE.

There was a bidding war between the UFC and K-1 Hero’s for Sokoudjou’s services but he decided to go with the world’s biggest promotion and so his debut fight with Zuffa was announced in late 2007; he’d face the unbeaten Lyoto Machida at UFC 79.

While the fight seemed like a pick-em, many MMA fans felt that Sokoudjou would be able to rush and destroy Machida as he’d done with Nogueira and Arona. It didn’t go down like that as Machida used his striking to pick the Cameroonian apart en route to a second-round arm triangle submission.

Most fans figured the loss wouldn’t matter – Sokoudjou would bounce back. It looked that way when he knocked out Kazuhiro Nakamura at UFC 84, but a second loss – this time a knockout at the hands of Luiz Cane at UFC 89 – signalled a surprising release from his UFC deal.

In fact, it turned out to be a good move by the UFC brass – Sokoudjou has flamed out horribly since 2008, losing to such luminaries as Ikuhisa Minowa, Houston Alexander and Paul Buentello. His record now stands at 18-18.

Despite showing flashes of greatness early on, a combination of a weak chin, a weak ground game (surprising for such a skilled judoka) and a poor gas tank meant Sokoudjou never came close to living up to his potential.

#2 Papy Abedi

Papy Abedi was once considered a better prospect than Chris Weidman

The Congo-born, Swedish-based powerhouse Papy Abedi was signed by the UFC in 2011 on the back of eight straight wins on the European circuit. None of his victims were notable fighters, but the way Abedi destroyed them meant he came into the Octagon with some substantial hype – noted MMA journalist Leland Roling even ranked him above Chris Weidman on his list of prospects at 185lbs to watch for 2011.

When it was announced that he was dropping to 170lbs for his UFC debut, it seemed even more of a given that he’d be a success. At 5’11” he’d been a relatively short Middleweight, but seemed like the perfect size for a Welterweight, especially with his heavy hands and strong judo background.

He was matched with perennial contender Thiago Alves in his debut, and despite starting strong, Alves eventually took over, dropping Abedi with punches and finishing him with a rear-naked choke.

It seemed like a slight setback for ‘Makambo’, as after all, Alves had been a notoriously tough opponent to debut against. A second loss – a one-sided submission against the unheralded James Head – took the bloom fully off the rose, though, and a razor-close split decision win over Besam Yousef – also winless in the UFC – hardly steadied the ship. Abedi moved back to 185lbs for his next fight but was knocked out by middling TUFer Dylan Andrews and that was that for his UFC run.

In the end, it seemed like Abedi’s bullying style that had looked so good against lesser opponents just couldn’t cut it against the much tougher opposition he faced in the UFC – a big disappointment considering the promise he showed prior to his Octagon entry.

#3 Todd Duffee

Todd Duffee's career has been curtailed by injuries

Initially fighting out of American Top Team, Todd Duffee had made some early noise in late 2008 when he destroyed former UFC title contender Assuerio Silva in his native Brazil. That noise became deafening upon his UFC debut in August 2009 – he broke the record for the UFC’s fastest knockout by switching Tim Hague’s lights off in just 7 seconds at UFC 102.

The expectation was that the UFC had an instant contender for the Heavyweight title – Duffee was huge - 6’3” and 240lbs of solid muscle – clearly hit like a truck, and the word was that his ground game was excellent too. His second fight saw him paired with Mike Russow, and after hitting the tough Russow with his best shots for three rounds, he was caught with a lucky punch and knocked out – one of the most shocking endings in UFC history.

Duffee was expected to bounce back quickly, only to see his UFC career suddenly ended – released due to supposed “attitude problems”. He went on to lose to Alistair Overeem (no shame there) and then knocked out Neil Grove before being brought back, but the issue was his injury record – due to his time on the shelf, he was averaging just one fight per year.

Duffee knocked out Phil de Fries in his return to the UFC in December 2012, but it took him a year to return again with another knockout, this time of Anthony Hamilton. A big fight with Frank Mir was then set up – albeit seven months later – but Mir knocked him out and he hasn’t been seen since. That was two and a half years ago.

Basically, the problem with Duffee hasn’t been a lack of skill, but a penchant for picking up nasty and persistent injuries – the worst being a nerve problem called Parsonage-Turner syndrome. He might yet live up to his potential but at 31 with just three UFC fights in the last five years, he seems more likely to be labelled as a bust.

#4 Justin Levens

The story of Justin Levens is both sad and cautionary

Back in 2005, before the Zuffa takeover, there were few better feeder promotions for the UFC than World Extreme Cagefighting, or WEC. If you succeeded in the WEC you were likely headed for the big time, and that was the path taken by Justin ‘The Executioner’ Levens.

He exploded onto the WEC scene in 2005 with two exciting wins, and with a record of 7-0, it seemed he was destined for UFC success. A loss in January 2006 to Scott Smith seemed to curtail his UFC dream temporarily, but the fight was so exciting that Zuffa ended up signing him anyway.

Levens – a student of the legendary Marco Ruas – was matched with former Middleweight champ Evan Tanner in the UFC’s first show in California, UFC 59. It was a tough debut fight for Levens as it was a big step up in competition, and despite putting up a good fight he was submitted late in the first round.

Still, he’d proven that he could hang at the UFC level, right? Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Levens was knocked out by Jorge Santiago in his second UFC fight and from there he spiralled downwards.

A pair of wins on the smaller circuit – one in the WEC – were followed by five straight losses, leaving Levens with a disappointing record of 9-8. As one of the first fighters to wear Affliction clothing, he was signed to fight at the first Affliction show in 2008, but a positive test for banned painkillers forced him off the card and landed him with a suspension.

Just months later, Levens was dead at just 28 years old – he committed suicide in an apparent pact with his wife. It was a sad and cautionary tale of what could happen to a big-time prospect that just couldn’t live up to his early potential at the top level.

#5 Brandon Thatch

Brandon Thatch looked like a possible title contender in his initial UFC run

A sometime training partner for the likes of Georges St-Pierre and Nate Marquardt, Brandon Thatch gained a lot of steam as a prospect after racking up an impressive 9-1 record on the smaller circuit. Huge for a Welterweight, Thatch became known for his brutal Muay Thai techniques and rock-solid takedown defence. The word was that he was skilled on the ground too, though he hadn’t shown much of that game prior to entering the UFC.

In his first two UFC fights, he didn’t need to. He destroyed a pair of solid fighters in Justin Edwards and Paulo Thiago – taking both men out in under 2:30 with his violent kickboxing game, even forcing the tough Thiago to tap to strikes following a knee to the body. Stardom looked like it would follow and after some injuries kept him out for some time; he was matched with Benson Henderson in the main event of UFC Fight Night 60 in February 2015.

Thatch and Henderson put on a Fight of the Year Candidate over four rounds, but although Thatch landed some nasty shots, Henderson was able to outlast him and tapped him out in the fourth round. And from there, everything went wrong. He was dropped by Gunnar Nelson in his next fight before being choked out, and another period on the shelf followed.

A fight with kickboxer Siyar Bahadurzada was made for UFC 196, but rather than putting on a striking match, Bahadurzada used his little-known ground game to control Thatch on the ground before tapping him with an arm triangle. A last-chance fight with newcomer Niko Price ended in similar fashion – Thatch was tapped out in the first round that time.

The problem for Thatch seemed to be a combination of a weak ground game and his large size for 170lbs causing him to gas early. With some work, he could probably make it back to the UFC as he clearly has deadly skills standing, but for now, sadly, he goes down as a bust.