5 unheralded UFC title challengers who came close to pulling off an upset win

#2. Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk – UFC 205

Karolina Kowalkiewicz nearly stunned the world when she dropped Joanna Jedrzejczyk in their title fight

When Joanna Jedrzejczyk put her UFC strawweight title on the line against Karolina Kowalkiewicz in November 2016, the majority of fans and observers were expecting another whitewash in favor of ‘Joanna Champion’.

At that point, Jedrzejczyk had held her title for just over a year, but she’d also dominated three challengers and generally looked head and shoulders above the rest of her competition. More to the point, while Kowalkiewicz had won three bouts in the octagon, she hadn’t stopped any of her foes.

Sure enough, the first three rounds were business as usual for the champion. The fight took place almost entirely on the feet and Jedrzejczyk looked comfortable, picking her fellow Polish fighter apart.

All of that changed in the fourth. In a brief exchange, Kowalkiewicz landed a crushing right hand, knocking the champion to the ground, and it looked like she was on the verge of going out. The crowd in attendance were stunned as Kowalkiewicz closed in for a finish.

Somehow, Jedrzejczyk willed her way back into the fight and ended up winning the final round to take a decision.

Regardless, though, Kowalkiewicz had come closer than any other challenger to dethroning one of the most dominant champions in the UFC at the time. Essentially, she’d also found a chink in Jedrzejczyk’s armor, one that Rose Namajunas would use to finally end her reign a year later.

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#1. Vitor Belfort vs. Jon Jones – UFC 152

Vitor Belfort almost shocked the world by coming close to submitting Jon Jones in 2012

By 2012, it was safe to say that Jon Jones was probably the most dominant champion that the UFC’s light heavyweight division had ever seen. After capturing the title from Mauricio Rua in early 2011, ‘Bones’ had destroyed everyone put in front of him, easily cutting through top contenders like Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida.

The summer of 2012 was supposed to see him face former PRIDE champion Dan Henderson. When Henderson went down with an injury, after a lot of controversy, Jones was matched with former champion Vitor Belfort.

Prior to taking the fight, though, ‘The Phenom’ had largely been fighting at 185 pounds and, despite his considerable skills, literally nobody was giving him a chance of defeating Jones, especially as he’d taken the bout with him on highly late notice.

However, when Jones took the Brazilian down in the early part of the first round, Belfort shocked him by quickly latching onto a tight armbar.

The hold looked remarkably deep and at one stage, it looked like ‘Bones’ would have to tap out in order to save his arm from being snapped entirely. Incredibly, though, he gutted it out, eventually freed his arm, and went onto dominate Belfort en route to a fourth round win.

After the fight, though, it was revealed quite how close the largely unfancied challenger had come to pulling off a miracle win. Jones admitted that his arm had been popping while he was caught in the holdand was actually numb after he’d freed himself.

Had his arm broken entirely, something that Jones said he’d expected to happen, the fight would have been called off and Belfort would’ve been crowned the new champion. In the end, it turned out to be the closest ‘The Phenom’ would get to ever holding UFC gold again.