Top 5 undeserving title challengers in UFC history

March’s UFC 248 now has its main event, as UFC Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is set to defend his title against Yoel Romero. But should this title fight really have been made by the UFC? It’s debatable.

Sure, Romero has been a high-level contender at 185lbs for years, but right now, it’s honestly hard to justify this shot at ‘The Last Stylebender’. Not only did ‘The Soldier of God’ lose his last fight – a showdown with Paulo Costa, who is reportedly still recovering from surgery – but he also lost his previous one.

In fact, the last time the Cuban made the 185lbs weight limit and won a fight was in November 2016, when he defeated Chris Weidman. Overall, Romero is 1-3 in his last 4, and in the lone win, he missed weight. However, while there’s an argument that ‘The Soldier of God’ is undeserving of a title shot right now, the following title challengers were probably more egregious.

Here are 5 of the most undeserving title challengers in UFC history.

Note: For the purposes of this article, challengers who stepped in on late notice due to injuries have not been considered

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#1 Jeremy Horn – Light-Heavyweight title vs Chuck Liddell (2005)

Jeremy Horn hadn't fought in the UFC for 4 years before his 2005 title shot against Chuck Liddell

When Chuck Liddell unseated Randy Couture to win the UFC Light-Heavyweight title in 2005, he immediately became the biggest star in what was then still a burgeoning sport. With ‘The Iceman’ ready to defend his newly won title soon after the victory, the question then became who would receive the first shot at him.

Would it be Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral, who was on a 8-fight win streak and had picked up an impressive submission on the same show that saw Liddell knock Couture out? Would the UFC be able to come to terms with Liddell’s great rival Tito Ortiz and promote a huge rematch between the two? Or would they simply book an immediate rematch with Couture, a legendary champion?

The answer was none of the above. Instead, the UFC turned to Jeremy Horn – who hadn’t fought in the promotion since 2001 and had primarily been competing at 185lbs on the regional circuit. Sure, ‘Gumby’ was on a 6-fight win streak, but none of the opponents were notable, and he also had a recent loss to Sobral on his record.

It felt like the UFC were simply giving Liddell a chance to avenge his first career loss; Horn had submitted ‘The Iceman’ way back in 1999 at UFC 19. The promotion tried to play up Horn’s chances of repeating the feat – but the fans didn’t buy it, and sure enough, Liddell destroyed him with strikes en route to a 4th round TKO.

#2 Justin Eilers – Heavyweight title vs Andrei Arlovski (2005)

Justin Eilers was coming off a KO loss when he challenged Andrei Arlovski for the UFC Heavyweight title

When Andrei Arlovski won the interim UFC Heavyweight title by submitting Tim Sylvia at UFC 51, the promotion found itself in a quandary when it came to the Belarusian’s next opponent at UFC 53 four months later; official champion Frank Mir was not ready to return from a broken leg for a unification fight, and Paul Buentello – who had debuted at UFC 51 with a knockout of Justin Eilers – was apparently not medically cleared to fight at the event.

The UFC turned to former Heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez – who had beaten Arlovski at UFC 32 in 2001 – but when ‘Ricco Suave’ couldn’t come to financial terms with the promotion, that idea was out of the window too. And so we ended up with a truly undeserving challenger instead – Eilers, who UFC fans had last seen knocked unconscious at the hands of Buentello.

It was hard to understand the UFC’s logic here, particularly when Buentello ended up being medically cleared anyway, only to be placed into an undercard fight on the show against newcomer Kevin Jordan. The UFC apparently wanted to build him up, but their decision left us with one of the weakest title fights of all time.

Unsurprisingly, Arlovski destroyed Eilers in the first round, causing him to break both of his hands by blocking the punches of ‘The Pitbull’ before his ACL gave out, leading to a TKO. Eilers would fight just one more time in the UFC after the fight, while Arlovski and Buentello finally matched later in the year – with Arlovski winning that fight in violent fashion, too.

#3 Chael Sonnen – Light-Heavyweight title vs Jon Jones (2013)

Chael Sonnen talked himself into a title shot at Light-Heavyweight champ Jon Jones in 2013

Chael Sonnen’s verbal tirades against Anderson Silva, beginning in 2010, brought him more notoriety than he’d ever enjoyed in his lengthy career, but they were unable to net him UFC gold. ‘The American Gangster’ came up short in two Middleweight title shots against Silva, and after his second loss to ‘The Spider’ at 2012’s UFC 148, it wasn’t clear where he would go next.

Nobody expected his next fight to be at 205lbs, let alone in a challenge for the UFC Light-Heavyweight title. But that’s exactly what happened, after a series of odd circumstances allowed him to jump the queue. Essentially, the story went a little like this:

Champion Jon Jones was pegged to face top contender Dan Henderson at UFC 151, but when Henderson blew his knee out literally days before the show, the first fighter willing to step up at late notice was Sonnen. But for reasons known only to him and to his coach Greg Jackson, Jones refused the challenge.

Much to the fury of the UFC, the entire show was cancelled, and Jones was hastily put into a title defense against Vitor Belfort later in the month. But after he won, the promotion decided to award Sonnen’s apparent willingness by handing him a shot at Jones in early 2013, with an entire season of The Ultimate Fighter to build the burgeoning rivalry.

Clearly, the UFC were trying to recreate the magic that’d occurred when Sonnen had talked so much trash on Silva to build their fight – but surprisingly, ‘The American Gangster’ was respectful during the TUF tapings – and then ended up losing the title fight by first round TKO, rendering the whole experience largely pointless.

#4 Brock Lesnar – Heavyweight title vs Randy Couture (2008)

Brock Lesnar had just 3 professional fights to his name when he challenged Randy Couture in 2008

It’s arguable that Randy Couture himself deserves a spot on this list; after all, ‘The Natural’ had retired in 2006 after two KO losses to Chuck Liddell at 205lbs, only to return in 2007 as a Heavyweight and be instantly granted a title shot against Tim Sylvia, but Couture was at least a UFC legend and at the time, Sylvia had no clear-cut top contender.

Brock Lesnar, on the other hand, definitely didn’t deserve a shot at Couture’s Heavyweight title in 2008. ‘The Beast Incarnate’ had only debuted in the UFC 9 months before the fight and he’d gone 1-1, bouncing back from his debut loss to Frank Mir by beating Heath Herring. He’d looked good against Herring, but still, it was only his third professional fight.

More to the point, due to Couture’s contractual dispute with the UFC keeping him out of action for over a year, the promotion had crowned an interim champion in the form of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. So surely a unification fight made more sense than simply awarding Lesnar a title shot?

The UFC evidently didn’t believe so, feeling that Lesnar’s popularity – stemming from his WWE days – would make him a huge box office smash against Couture. And so the former professional wrestler was awarded a hugely undeserved title shot.

In the end, Lesnar actually got the last laugh; he stunned everyone by knocking Couture out to claim the title, and when Frank Mir defeated Nogueira to win the interim belt, ‘The Beast Incarnate’ stopped him in a rematch too, unifying the titles en route to becoming the UFC’s biggest ever draw to that point.

#5 Alexander Gustafsson – Light-Heavyweight title vs Daniel Cormier (2015)

Alexander Gustafsson was coming off a bad knockout loss going into his Light-Heavyweight title fight with Daniel Cormier in 2015

When Jon Jones was stripped of his UFC Light-Heavyweight title after an unsavoury hit-and-run incident in early 2015, the promotion did the logical thing, and put together a fight between the division’s two top contenders – Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson – for the vacant title. In the fight that followed, Cormier came out on top, choking Johnson out in the third round to win his first UFC title.

The next deserving contender for Cormier appeared to be Ryan Bader; in a thin division, ‘Darth’ was on a 4-fight win streak, and had already verbally sparred with ‘DC’, with Cormier even claiming he’d be the easiest fight possible in the division. But despite the two having beef, the UFC decided to overlook Bader, instead turning to Swedish star Alexander Gustafsson.

The only problem? Gustafsson had suffered a nasty KO loss at the hands of Johnson in his previous fight, and hadn’t fought since. The last image UFC fans were given of ‘The Mauler’ was of a man coming round from unconsciousness, close to tears. Nobody was disputing his fighting skill – but it was hard to justify a title shot for him just 9 months after that major loss.

In the end, the fight turned out to be a fantastic one; in a back-and-forth five round war at UFC 192, Cormier edged out Gustafsson to retain the title. Bader meanwhile defeated Rashad Evans in the semi-main event of the show – but lost to Johnson by KO just a few months later, and was en route to Bellator by the end of 2016.