MMA On Point - Podcast

Kinda crazy to think that someone who has nothing to do with a major MMA event can overshadow the whole thing, but that's exactly what's happened in these cases. What a better example than what just happened at UFC 309 when Tom Aspinall vs Jon Jones became a much bigger story than the actual main event vs Stipe Miocic.

Was this the end of their careers? Turns out not, but it certainly looked like it. In the case of Bisping or Aldo as pictured in the thumbnails, it was about as far down the line a loss could take you. How did they bounce back?

If you guys were watching around the time Werdum beat Fedor, you'd remember how much Dana White gloated that Werdum was a reject and that's how bad Strikeforce was. Fast forward a couple years and yeah, Werdum became UFC champion. That's what today's video is about; those who were kicked out of the UFC and became champions around the world and not just in the UFC.

Ahead of UFC 310, Kai Asakura is getting an immediate title shot at Alexandre Pantoja after being Rizin champion. Makes sense right? Champ vs champ is a fun idea. Well the UFC is pretty inconsistent about this. Actually, it's way more common for the UFC to deny a title shot for champions coming directly over even when it's made a ton of sense.

Jon Jones just thoroughly dominated a 42 year old Stipe Miocic who look every bit his age after 4 years off and basically semi-retired. What did this prove? What did this do for Jones' legacy that he keeps going on about? And more importantly, why did this have to happen instead of the Aspinall fight?

Most of the time fights get called off for pretty mundane reasons right? A fighter gets sick or injured? PED failures aren't great but are fairly common. In these cases though, it's almost like an act of god prevented them from going forward. Think of the last Tony vs Khabib booking? A Pandemic? What? That's the kind of thing you can expect to see on this list.

There's no doubt about it at this point. Jon Jones is ducking Tom Aspinall and he clearly wants to fight everyone, but Tom Aspinall - including Stipe Miocic this weekend at UFC 309 and in the future with Alex Pereira. But what about the other times fans have accused champions of doing this? Turns out there are a fair few more.

One big win can mean a massive amount in MMA and in this video that's exactly what catapulted these fighters from obscurity to stardom, but what happens when the fighter can't win after that? The two big examples we've highlighted are Kron Gracie and Houston Alexander who just couldn't keep the wins going after blowing up from that initial victory.

Going into Jon Jones' first title defense against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309, it's easy to forget how big a challenge Ciryl Gane was meant to be when he first won the title, because well... Jones just made it look so easy. That's what this list today is about. Those who were perceived as huge challenges, that just got immediately dealt with in the cage.

There is nothing like a first defense in MMA and just like Ilia Topuria's shocking KO of Max Holloway, the only question left is where does something like this rank among the best of all time? We answer that for you today.