5 greatest UFC fighters never to hold a title in the promotion

#5 Gray Maynard

Gray Maynard came remarkably close to winning the UFC Lightweight title on two occasions

Hard-nosed wrestler Gray Maynard’s UFC career might not have ended so well; ‘The Bully’ won just 2 of his final 8 Octagon appearances before being released from the promotion in 2018, but prior to that, he was widely recognised as one of the best Lightweights on the planet – and still stands as probably the best 155lber to not hold the UFC title.

Maynard’s UFC career began with his stint on the 5th season of The Ultimate Fighter; just 2-0 in professional MMA at the time, the wrestler made it to the semi-finals before being submitted by the far more experienced Nate Diaz. When he made it into the UFC proper though, he was largely unstoppable.

‘The Bully’ reeled off 8 straight wins – including a win over Diaz, avenging his loss on TUF – to set up a title shot at UFC 125 against then-champion Frankie Edgar. And given that Maynard already had a previous win over ‘The Answer’, it seemed likely that he’d finally get his hands on the gold.

Early on in the fight, it looked like that’d be the case. Maynard took the fight to Edgar, beating the stuffing out of him in the first round and having him on the verge of being finished more than once.

But somehow ‘The Answer’ survived, and managed to work his way back into the fight to the shock of everyone watching. Eventually, the fight was declared a split draw – leaving Maynard just inches away from winning the title.

The UFC understandably booked an immediate rematch, and incredibly, the fight followed the same pattern; ‘The Bully’ once again destroyed Edgar in the opening round, but once again he failed to put him away. And this time, when ‘The Answer’ fought back, he was able to land a killer blow and put Maynard away.

The second loss to Edgar eventually led to Maynard’s slide in form; a bizarre win over Clay Guida preceded a 4-fight losing streak, but due to how close he came to holding the Lightweight crown on two separate occasions – as well as his stellar record prior to his slump in form – he remains one of the best fighters to never hold a UFC title.