5 UFC trilogies that ended up being shutouts in favour of one fighter

Over the years, the UFC has seen a number of rivalries that ended up becoming trilogies, often because a decider was needed after two fights went different ways. However, that’s not always been the case.

While it’s still rare to see, there have been a number of trilogies in the UFC that ended up being total shutouts, with one fighter failing to beat their rival in any of their three battles.

Naturally, it seems odd that the promotion would even book a trilogy with one fighter essentially 2-0 down after the first two bouts. However, to be fair, in all of the following cases, there was a good reason.

With that in mind, here are five UFC trilogies that ended up being shutouts in favor of one fighter.

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#5. Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway – UFC 245, UFC 251, UFC 276

Despite his best efforts, Max Holloway could not quite get past Alexander Volkanovski

The most recent trilogy that turned out to be a shutout saw its final chapter close this past weekend, as reigning UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski once again found a way to defeat former titleholder Max Holloway.

Not only was the victory a massively impressive one for ‘Alexander the Great’, but it probably closed the door on Holloway as a title contender for now. It also made Volkanovski into the consensus greatest 145lber of all time.

However, while the Australian was able to defeat his Hawaiian foe on three occasions, only the most recent bout was a clear-cut win for him. This past weekend saw Volkanovski essentially pick Holloway apart, limiting him to single shots while using a nasty jab to set up some big combinations that busted ‘Blessed’ up.

In the end, the fight was a clear-cut decision win for ‘Alexander the Great’, whereas his first two wins over Holloway were far closer.

Their first fight saw Volkanovski break the Hawaiian down with leg kicks, although Holloway did have plenty of success with his combinations. The second could well have gone the way of ‘Blessed’ had the judges seen things the way a number of fans did.

With that second fight being so close – and Holloway then beating Calvin Kattar and Yair Rodriguez – it was easy to see why the promotion decided to book the trilogy fight between him and Volkanovski.

Unfortunately for ‘Blessed’, though, it seems like ‘Alexander the Great’ simply has his number, no matter how good of a fighter he is.

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#4. Charles Oliveira vs. Nik Lentz – UFC on Versus 4, UFC Fight Night 67, UFC Fight Night 152

Charles Oliveira got the best of Nik Lentz in all three of their clashes

Okay, so essentially, this entry is a bit of an odd one, as while Nik Lentz failed to defeat Charles Oliveira in any of their three bouts inside the octagon, he didn’t technically lose all three fights either.

That’s because the first clash between the two men, which came on the UFC’s fourth event on the Versus network in 2011, ended in a controversial No Contest despite Oliveira initially claiming the win.

A back-and-forth first round saw both men get some good shots in, but in the second round, Oliveira drilled Lentz with a blatantly illegal knee coming out of a scramble.

However, referee Chip Snider missed the blow, and allowed Oliveira to take the back of ‘The Carny’. Seconds later, Lentz was tapping to a rear naked choke.

Despite the result being changed into a No Contest, it actually took the UFC another four years to book a rematch. Once again, the fight was a hugely exciting one, netting both men a bonus award of $50k – but early in the third round, ‘Do Bronx’ was able to force Lentz to tap again – legally this time – with a guillotine choke.

That probably should’ve ended the rivalry, but instead, the two men were matched up again in May 2019. Quite why this was the case was anyone’s guess, as Oliveira was at the beginning of his current dominant run while Lentz appeared to be sliding down the ladder somewhat.

Indeed, it didn’t take ‘Do Bronx’ long to dispatch of ‘The Carny’, this time finishing him violently with a second-round knockout to definitively win their trilogy.

Lentz would retire after just two more fights, while Oliveira ended up claiming lightweight gold just two years later.

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#3. Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn – UFC 112, UFC 118, Ultimate Fighter 19 Finale

Frankie Edgar's wins over BJ Penn marked the beginning of the end for the Hawaiian

Frankie Edgar’s trilogy with BJ Penn is a curious one to look at, purely because of the gap that came between the first two fights and the third bout – a gap of four years. Essentially, the UFC decided to indulge Penn with the third fight due to his status as a legend, only for the move to backfire on the Hawaiian badly.

When ‘The Prodigy’ first met ‘The Answer’ in April 2010 with the lightweight title on the line, basically nobody was giving Edgar a chance.

Sure, he’d picked up some solid wins over the likes of Sean Sherk and Tyson Griffin, but Penn was the most dominant 155lber to ever compete in MMA, and he essentially seemed unbeatable.

The entire UFC fanbase were left stunned, then, when Edgar’s volume striking and combination work was adjudged to have done enough to outpoint ‘The Prodigy’ over five rounds, despite Penn seemingly landing the heavier blows throughout the fight.

It came as no surprise when the promotion booked an immediate rematch just four months later, and most fans expected Penn to regain his title. Incredibly, though, Edgar outclassed him in every single area, doing everything but finding a way to stop ‘The Prodigy’ en route to a clear-cut decision win.

The defeat signalled a general slide in Penn’s fortunes, as he won just one of his next four fights before seemingly retiring in 2012, following a loss to Rory MacDonald.

However, 2014 saw the promotion announce that the Hawaiian would be making a return. Apparently, he’d begged the promotion for one more crack at Edgar, and was willing to drop to 145lbs for the first time to take the fight.

Unfortunately, any fans expecting a resurgence from ‘The Prodigy’ were sorely mistaken. Penn looked years past his prime in the bout, didn’t seem to have any semblance of a gameplan, and ended up being stopped in the third round.

The defeat largely signalled the beginning of the real end for Penn, who left the UFC in 2019 on the back of a seven-fight losing streak – and it also affirmed that despite the questionable result of the first fight, Edgar was definitely the better man.

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#2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Heath Herring – PRIDE 17, PRIDE Critical Countdown 2004, UFC 73

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira edged out Heath Herring for the third time in the octagon

Okay, so the first two bouts between heavyweight stars Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Heath Herring didn’t actually take place in the UFC – instead, they took place in the ring in Japan’s PRIDE promotion.

However, given that their third and final clash took place inside the octagon, it’s definitely worth mentioning this trilogy in this list.

In this case, it was understandable why the UFC wanted to book ‘Minotauro’ against Herring for a third time, despite the Brazilian already having beaten him twice before.

Both of Herring’s clashes with Nogueira in PRIDE were absolutely fantastic fights, filled with wild scrambles, crazy striking exchanges and the kind of pace that nobody really expected two big guys to be able to keep.

In both fights, though, Nogueira had always seemed one step ahead of ‘The Texas Crazy Horse’, and in their second clash, he was able to finish Herring off with his patented anaconda choke.

When they faced off in the octagon, though, both men were older and more shopworn, with Nogueira in particular not seeming in his best shape.

Sure enough, it looked like Herring would finally pull off a victory over his rival when he dropped him with a head kick in the first round. However, showing his renowned toughness, ‘Minotauro’ rose from the dead, and ended up doing enough to outpoint ‘The Texas Crazy Horse’ over three rounds.

Overall, the trilogy remains one of the best in the history of heavyweight MMA, as despite Nogueira claiming a 3-0 shutout, the fights were all close to call, with Herring doing more than enough to earn the respect of the fans.

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#1. Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock – UFC 40, UFC 61, UFC: The Final Chapter

Tito Ortiz's trilogy with Ken Shamrock was a remarkably one-sided one

Two decades on, it’s probably fair to say that the first clash between superstars Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock helped to save the UFC from going under altogether. Had the show that the bout headlined – UFC 40 – not done well on pay-per-view, Zuffa was reportedly ready to pull the plug on the promotion.

Thankfully, though, the event managed to draw 100k buys, and while it took the UFC a little longer to really break into the mainstream, it was a sign of things to come.

The bout itself, however, was largely one-sided in favour of the younger Ortiz. He was simply too good for the ageing Shamrock in all areas, and ended up beating ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Man’ down for three rounds until the veteran’s corner pulled him out before the fourth.

Despite this, Shamrock somehow managed to convince people that a rematch was warranted, blaming a serious knee injury on his poor performance.

Nearly four years later, then, the promotion acquiesced, and after using the third season of The Ultimate Fighter to rekindle their rivalry, Ortiz and Shamrock squared off for the second time in the summer of 2006.

This time, the fight was even more one-sided, with ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ quickly taking Shamrock down with a slam, but when he opened up with a series of elbows, referee Herb Dean appeared to step in prematurely.

The controversy meant that despite Ortiz clearly being the superior fighter, nobody was really happy with the finish – and so the promotion was forced to create an entire event to showcase the trilogy bout, which unsurprisingly, was won by Ortiz in the first round.

This trilogy remains probably the most one-sided in octagon history – but it will also go down as one of the most profitable, too, as all three bouts drew excellently for the promotion, making the whole thing largely worth it.