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Seeing a heavily-favored fighter lose in the UFC and in the wider world of MMA is always entertaining, and over the years, some major upsets have become truly iconic.
With some truly great UFC and MMA champions suffering upset losses, it’s hard to narrow things down to a short list of all-time classics.
However, the following upsets were truly stunning, with very few fans, even well-educated ones, seeing them coming.
Here are the 7 most shocking upsets in UFC and MMA history.
#7. Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn – UFC 112
This upset comes with a slight caveat, purely because many observers felt that Frankie Edgar didn’t actually deserve the nod from the judges over BJ Penn at UFC 112.
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However, the fact that he even took ‘The Prodigy’ the distance was a massive shock at the time, and in hindsight, it’s easy to see why the bout was scored in favor of ‘The Answer’.
At the time, Edgar was seen as a highly-regarded fighter, if a little small for 155 lbs. He’d earned his lightweight title shot by winning six of his seven bouts in the UFC, but to say nobody gave him a shot at dethroning Penn would be an understatement.
‘The Prodigy’, on the other hand, looked truly invincible, having destroyed the likes of Kenny Florian, Diego Sanchez, and Sean Sherk. With a razor-sharp boxing game and world-class grappling, the Hawaiian seemed to have no weaknesses.
However, Edgar’s stick-and-move boxing style proved to be difficult for Penn to handle, and despite some early success, the Hawaiian began to tire as the rounds ticked by while Edgar began to land the better shots.
Could Penn have been awarded the win? Sure, but in the end, Edgar picked up a stunning decision victory, leaving the MMA world in absolute shock.
#6. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira – PRIDE 33
Upsets were a semi-regular occurrence in Japan’s PRIDE promotion, largely because so many apparent mismatches took place in their ring.
However, probably the most shocking came in the penultimate PRIDE show in early 2007 when Antonio Rogerio Nogueira faced off with debutant Sokoudjou.
Nogueira was widely considered one of the world’s top 205lbers, holding wins over the likes of Dan Henderson and Alistair Overeem.
Sokoudjou, on the other hand, was almost a complete unknown. ‘The African Assassin’ had just three professional fights to his name, with his most recent being a loss.
To say nobody was giving the native of Cameroon a shot would be an understatement. However, just 23 seconds into the fight, he connected cleanly with a left hand – and knocked Nogueira senseless.
Everyone watching was left stunned, and unsurprisingly, the result turned Sokoudjou into an overnight sensation. He went on to pull off another upset in his next PRIDE bout, knocking out Ricardo Arona.
While he didn’t quite live up to the hype in the UFC after that, his name remains a byword for upset in the world of MMA.
#5. Forrest Griffin vs. Shogun Rua – UFC 76
When the UFC bought out rival promotion PRIDE in 2007, MMA fans across the world salivated over the idea of their biggest stars heading to the octagon.
One such star was Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, who was widely recognized as the world’s top 205lber. He not only held a win over UFC champion Quinton Jackson, but he’d also beaten the likes of Ricardo Arona, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, and Alistair Overeem.
When he entered the octagon for the first time, he was faced with a perennial underdog in the form of inaugural TUF champion Forrest Griffin.
Griffin was seen as a remarkably tough fighter, but also one who was not that technically skilled. In his biggest fights – against Tito Ortiz and Keith Jardine – he’d come up short.
Against Shogun, though, Griffin found another level entirely. Despite suffering a brutal cut in the second round, as the fight ticked on, it was clear that while Shogun was tiring, the TUF champion was only getting stronger.
In the end, with just 15 seconds remaining, Griffin finally gained a dominant position on the Brazilian, taking his back – and moments later, Shogun tapped out to a rear naked choke.
When the fight was finally over, it felt like Griffin, as well as the fans, couldn’t quite believe what had happened. This was a huge upset, and afterward, nobody would ever overlook the TUF champion again.
#4. Michael Bisping vs. Luke Rockhold – UFC 199
Middleweight rivals Luke Rockhold and Michael Bisping first faced off in late 2014 in what was a highly-anticipated bout. Unfortunately for Bisping, the clash couldn’t have gone much worse. Rockhold put him down with a head kick and submitted him with a guillotine choke in just two rounds.
Unsurprisingly, then, when a rematch was announced less than two years later, nobody was giving Bisping a chance. By that stage, Rockhold was UFC middleweight champion, while ‘The Count’ was taking the fight on late notice to replace an injured Chris Weidman.
Rockhold himself seemed to buy into the narrative, literally strutting to the octagon like he’d be able to dismantle ‘The Count’ with no trouble whatsoever.
Remarkably, though, that couldn’t have been further from the case. When the champion came in with his hands far too low, Bisping – who was hardly known for his knockout power – capitalized.
‘The Count’ destroyed Rockhold with a pair of left hooks, leaving him senseless and shocking the world in the process to become the new champion.
Not only was this an upset for the ages, but it also marked the end of Rockhold’s time as a top-level fighter, as he won just one more fight before retiring in 2022. Seven years on, it remains one of MMA’s all-time shocking moments.
#3. Fabricio Werdum vs. Fedor Emelianenko – StrikeForce: Fedor vs. Werdum
Despite the accomplishments of Cain Velasquez, Francis Ngannou, and Stipe Miocic, for many MMA fans, the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time remains Fedor Emelianenko.
‘The Last Emperor’ rose to fame in PRIDE in the 2000s, winning the heavyweight title and defeating the like of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko Cro Cop, and Mark Hunt.
A concussive puncher with a world-class ground game and insane powers of recovery, Fedor basically had no weaknesses.
Once PRIDE crashed, he was one of the few fighters not to make his way to the UFC, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to crush top heavyweights. He defeated former UFC champions Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski, and in 2009, made a mega-money move to upstart promotion StrikeForce.
By 2010, Fedor had not lost in nearly a decade, but of course, even the greatest fighters have to lose at some point.
The Russian did indeed suffer a defeat that year – but in a huge upset, it came at the hands of an opponent nobody expected to pull it off.
Fedor was matched with Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Fabricio Werdum that summer, and given how easily he’d dealt with a similar fighter in Nogueira, nobody was giving ‘Vai Cavalo’ a chance.
Not only did he pull off the win, though, he made it look strangely easy. After ending up on the bottom, Werdum simply threw up a triangle choke, locked it in, and moments later, Fedor tapped out – shattering his aura of invincibility.
The finish was almost anticlimactic, but it remains one of the biggest upsets in MMA to this day, as it signaled the end of an era.
#2. Matt Serra vs. Georges St-Pierre – UFC 69
Former UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre is widely recognized as the greatest MMA fighter of all time. One of the signs of his greatness was the fact that he was able to avenge both of his career losses.
However, while one of those losses came early in his career against the great Matt Hughes, the other still stands as one of the biggest upsets in MMA history.
The bout in question, of course, was St-Pierre’s first title defense against underdog Matt Serra in early 2007.
‘GSP’ was coming into the fight off the back of his huge title win over Hughes, and he’d been destroying top contenders for two years prior to that fight.
Serra, on the other hand, had fought most of his career as a lightweight and had only earned his shot by winning TUF 4. In reality, he hadn’t beaten a top contender in years.
Nobody was giving ‘The Terror’ a chance of dethroning the new champ, who had never really shown any weaknesses inside the octagon.
Incredibly, though, Serra stayed calm under fire, and moments into the fight, he seized his chance. He threw a wild overhand right that connected with St-Pierre’s temple, wrecking his equilibrium, and suddenly, the champion was slipping all over the place.
From there, Serra simply didn’t let up, dropping ‘GSP’ with a series of clean punches before finishing him on the ground.
Nobody could really believe what they were seeing, and in a year full of upsets, this one was easily the biggest.
Sure, St-Pierre avenged his loss a year later, easily dispatching Serra to prove who the better fighter was, but this fight made ‘The Terror’ a legend of the UFC. More than a decade later, it remains one of the biggest upsets in MMA history.
#1. Julianna Pena vs. Amanda Nunes – UFC 269
While Matt Serra’s upset of George St-Pierre was huge, the truth is that ‘GSP’ was only just beginning his rise to legendary status at the time. The best was yet to come for him.
Julianna Pena’s upset win over Amanda Nunes, on the other hand, saw her defeat the consensus GOAT of female MMA at the peak of her powers – making it probably the biggest upset in UFC history.
Nunes was coming into the bout – the sixth defense of her bantamweight title – having not lost inside the octagon since 2014. She’d destroyed a who’s who of great fighters, including Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Cris Cyborg, and Holly Holm, and had barely even been tested.
Pena, on the other hand, seemed to be getting her shot at glory purely because there was nobody else left to face ‘The Lioness’. She’d only fought four times since 2017 and had only won two of those bouts.
To say nobody was giving ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ a chance would be an understatement.
However, after a difficult start to the fight, Pena quickly began to thrive, particularly when it became clear that she was more durable than she’d been given credit for.
By the second round, remarkably, it looked like her straight punches were beginning to find their mark, and suddenly, for the first time in years, Nunes looked hurt.
Still, nobody really expected Pena to land a takedown, and from there, secure a rear naked choke for the tapout. When the fight was over, it was almost hard to compute quite what had happened, such was the size of this upset.
Like ‘GSP’, Nunes avenged her loss shortly after, but despite this, Pena will probably go down as a legend of MMA regardless. After all, it’s arguable that she pulled off the greatest upset of all time.
