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

#7 Zach Makovsky

Zach Makovsky faced extremely tough opponents during his UFC stint

Another Bellator champion who largely gets forgotten these days, Zach Makovsky actually won the inaugural Bellator Bantamweight title in 2010, winning all three of his tournament fights via decision. Despite winning a pair of non-title fights as champion, he was beaten by Eduardo Dantas in his first title defense and then ended his Bellator career with a tight loss to Anthony Leone.

That was the catalyst for Makovsky to move down to 125lbs, and after 2 wins on the regional circuit he signed with the UFC in late 2013. Wins over Scott Jorgensen and Josh Sampo seemed to put him into title contention, but a loss to Jussier Formiga sent him back down the ladder and after defeating future title contender Timothy Elliott in 2015, he then lost 3 straight fights and was released from the promotion.

To be fair to Makovsky, he hardly had the easiest opponents in his UFC run – losses to Formiga, John Dodson, Joseph Benavidez, and Dustin Ortiz are hardly something to be ashamed of after all. And in reality, had the UFC been more focused on the Flyweight division, he may well still be competing there today. With that in mind, despite only earning 3 wins inside the Octagon I’d actually call ‘Fun Size’ a mild success in the UFC.