Alex Pereira, Brock Lesnar and more: 5 UFC fighters who proved they didn't need experience to succeed in the octagon

This weekend sees Alex Pereira, who has just seven professional MMA bouts to his name, challenge for the UFC middleweight title. Meanwhile, prospect Bo Nickal is receiving massive hype just three fights into his career.

Over the years, although it’s definitely rare, we’ve seen a number of examples of fighters who seemingly didn’t need much experience at all to succeed in the UFC.

Sometimes these fighters even went onto win titles in the octagon right away, although some took a little longer path to the top.

Here are five UFC fighters who proved that they didn’t need experience to succeed in the octagon.

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#5. Alex Pereira – UFC middleweight contender

Despite having just a handful of fights, Alex Pereira could claim gold in the octagon this weekend

The latest example of a fighter who simply didn’t need experience to climb directly to the top of the UFC is middleweight contender Alex Pereira, who will attempt to claim gold when he faces 185lbs champion Israel Adesanya this weekend.

‘Poatan’ has risen up to become the top contender in the middleweight division after just three fights inside the octagon. That isn’t overly rare in itself – the likes of Michael Chandler and ‘Rampage’ Jackson challenged for titles after just one bout in the octagon – but the Brazilian is different in that he didn’t have much experience before arriving in the promotion.

Pereira’s MMA career dates back to 2015, when he debuted with a loss on the Brazilian regional circuit, but after following that defeat with two wins, he then didn’t fight again until 2020. One more win triggered Dana White and company to sign him, and the rest is history.

Of course, while Pereira lacked MMA experience upon his arrival in the UFC, he was hardly a neophyte in combat sports. ‘Poatan’ has one of the most extensive kickboxing records in octagon history, with a record of 33-7 dating back to 2012.

More to the point, Pereira was able to become a two-division champion in the renowned GLORY promotion, claiming their middleweight and light-heavyweight titles.

Whether ‘Poatan’ is a fully-rounded mixed martial artist these days is still up for debate, as while he’s destroyed all three of his opponents in the octagon thus far, all three decided to stand and strike with him.

However, with Adesanya being a striker by trade too, it’s definitely possible that Pereira won’t need to show any well-rounded skills before he reaches the very peak of the mountain.

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#4. BJ Penn – former UFC lightweight champion

BJ Penn made his MMA debut in the octagon, and went onto become a legend

In the UFC’s modern history, only a small handful of fighters have outright made their professional MMA debut in the octagon. Most of them, like James Toney and Marcio ‘Pe De Pano’ Cruz, hardly set the world alight.

However, former lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn remains a major exception to that rule. ‘The Prodigy’ had never fought in MMA when he first stepped into the octagon back in 2001, but before a year was out, he was fighting for gold.

Like all of the entries on this list, Penn wasn’t exactly a neophyte when it came to combat sports prior to his octagon debut. A year before joining the promotion, he’d received his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt from Ralph Gracie, reportedly earning it in a faster time than any other jiu-jitsu artist.

The Hawaiian went onto become the first non-Brazilian to win the black belt division of the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, and it was that achievement that first drew the eye of Dana White and company to his talents.

It didn’t take long for Penn to make an impact in the octagon. After crushing Joey Gilbert in his debut, he then needed a combined 2:53 to dispatch Caol Uno and Din Thomas – two highly credentialed and experienced lightweights – to set himself up for a title shot.

And while ‘The Prodigy’ lost to Jens Pulver in his first attempt at claiming gold, he later lived up to all the hype he’d garnered by winning two titles in the promotion, defeating Matt Hughes for the welterweight crown in 2006 and claiming the vacant lightweight belt in 2008.

Two decades after his debut, he is now recognized as one of the all-time greats, and he’s one of the best examples of a fighter who did not need experience to succeed in the octagon.

#3. Cain Velasquez – former UFC heavyweight champion

Cain Velasquez had just two fights outside of the UFC before joining, but quickly became a champion

Plenty of outstanding wrestlers have made their way into the UFC over the years, but the majority of them gained experience on the regional circuit before arriving on the big show. That wasn’t really the case for former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez.

Highly touted by his teammates at the American Kickboxing Academy before he’d even made his MMA debut, Velasquez fought just twice prior to his octagon debut, squashing a pair of overmatched foes on the regional circuit.

After that, though, it soon became impossible for him to gain any more experience – largely because, according to his teammates and coaches, nobody was willing to face off with him.

Due to that, his camp decided to go down a different route and invited some of the UFC’s brass to view Velasquez training, where they witnessed him dominating his teammates and couldn’t help but be impressed.

Days later, it was announced that he’d signed with the promotion, and from there, things simply snowballed. He quickly reeled off three wins over far more experienced opponents, and in his fourth trip to the octagon, he dealt with highly ranked contender Cheick Kongo.

Just three fights later, Velasquez dethroned Brock Lesnar for the heavyweight title, meaning that he’d gone from being an MMA debutant to the top fighter on the planet inside only nine bouts, a crazy statistic by anyone’s standards.

Essentially, Velasquez proved to be one of the rare fighters whose sheer talent and ferocity was able to overcome any kind of experience differential.

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#2. Gray Maynard – former UFC lightweight contender

Gray Maynard's wrestling skills made up for his lack of experience in his early days in the octagon

If Bo Nickal really wants to make it to the top of the UFC, he could do worse than to look to copy the blueprint of former lightweight contender Gray Maynard. ‘The Bully’ didn’t end up holding gold in the octagon, but his rise from MMA neophyte to world class fighter was done perfectly, and meant that he never needed to worry about his lack of experience.

A three-time NCAA Division I All-American wrestler at Michigan University, Maynard came into MMA after being recruited as a sparring partner for BJ Penn, who was preparing to fight top-level wrestlers such as Matt Hughes and Georges St-Pierre.

It didn’t take him long to jump into the sport himself, though, and after two wins on the regional circuit, he found himself as part of the TUF 5 cast, where he was able to overcome two more experienced foes before falling to Nate Diaz in the semi-finals.

From there, ‘The Bully’ made his octagon debut proper, and while his first bout ended in a bizarre No Contest, he quickly began to climb the ladder, beating veterans like Dennis Siver and Rich Clementi before overcoming high-level contenders like Jim Miller, Roger Huerta, Diaz and Kenny Florian.

Each time, Maynard made the step up in competition brilliantly, improving his skills along the way despite still lacking in MMA experience overall.

Sure, he eventually fell to Frankie Edgar in his title challenges – going to a draw with ‘The Answer’ in their first clash and then losing via TKO in their second – but had he fought any less durable champion, he could easily have claimed the gold.

Overall, ‘The Bully’ remains one of the prime examples of a fighter who simply didn’t need experience in MMA to climb to the top of the UFC – he instead used his natural talent to get there while gaining experience along the way.

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#1. Brock Lesnar – former UFC heavyweight champion

Brock Lesnar's monstrous power allowed him to climb to the top of the UFC with basically zero experience

Not only did Brock Lesnar not need experience in MMA to succeed in the octagon, he was able to secure the UFC heavyweight title in just his third fight with the promotion, despite actually losing his debut by submission.

Of course, ‘The Beast Incarnate’ was a very different proposition to other fighters who entered the promotion. While his ability to succeed in MMA came from his background as a standout amateur wrestler – he won the 2000 NCAA Division I heavyweight title while competing for the University of Minnesota – his star power came from his time in the world of WWE.

When he inked a deal with the world’s top MMA promotion, then – after just one professional fight in Japan – the spotlight was always going to be on him, and Dana White and company refused to give him a softball, matching him with former heavyweight champ Frank Mir for his debut.

Lesnar lost that bout via first round kneebar, but it was a wild, back-and-forth affair and it was immediately clear that ‘The Beast Incarnate’ had serious potential.

However, nobody expected him to be handed an instant heavyweight title shot after his first octagon victory over veteran Heath Herring.

The circumstances did seem to make sense, though; reigning champion Randy Couture had been on the outs with the promotion for over a year and part of his agreement to return was a bout with Lesnar, as ‘The Natural’ assumed the fight would sell well on pay-per-view.

What he didn’t count on was Lesnar shocking everyone by knocking him out in the second round, meaning that despite his lack of experience, the former WWE champion had claimed gold in the octagon too.

Lesnar would go onto prove his worth as champion by beating Mir in a rematch and then finishing Shane Carwin, and while he then dropped his title to Cain Velasquez, his achievements in the octagon remain remarkable given his late start in the sport and his lack of experience.