7 former Bellator champions who jumped to the UFC - and how they fared

#5 Will Brooks

Will Brooks struggled in the UFC and was released after 3 losses in a row

‘Ill’ Will Brooks signed with Bellator in 2013, putting together a 5-1 record before challenging Michael Chandler for the Lightweight title in 2014. Despite going in as an underdog, Brooks unseated Chandler to claim the title and then defeated him in more convincing circumstances in an immediate rematch. Two title defenses followed, but Brooks was never truly happy with how Bellator were promoting him, and so he moved to the UFC in 2016.

Unfortunately, the move didn’t pay off quite as well as he was expecting. A solid win over Ross Pearson was a good start to his UFC career, but Brooks then went on a slide, losing to Alex Oliveira, Charles Oliveira, and Nik Lentz before being released from the promotion in 2017.

While he doesn’t go down as a bust on the scale of Hector Lombard – largely because he didn’t garner quite as much hype coming into his UFC debut – it was still disappointing to see Brooks fail so miserably in the UFC.

It felt like his game, which is based around his excellent wrestling and cardio – just didn’t serve as well under the big lights, and his dismal record definitely asks questions of just how good Bellator’s Lightweight division actually is, particularly as Chandler quickly regained the title there once Brooks had left.