However, it appears another difficult situation is often overlooked. As a champion, there can be no greater pain than losing your title, and recovering from this setback takes real courage and guts. Nevertheless, this does not always go to plan. Ronda Rousey can attest to this, with her return to the Octagon following the heart-breaking loss to Holly Holm ending in a 48 second TKO defeat to UFC bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. With the idea of the ex-champion being on a two fight losing streak unthinkable less than 18 months ago, it seemingly follows that the initial defeat had a significant impact on momentum and confidence, leading to the second.
This situation is certainly not an uncommon one among ex-UFC champions. In fact, if we look at the stats, this has happened on 23 occasions, representing 60 per cent of all champions. The list of names is astonishing, including the original heavyweight champion Mark Coleman, Anderson Silva, BJ Penn, Tito Ortiz, Vitor Belfort, Chuck Liddell, Lyoto Machida, Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture - twice! Hardly transitional champions, I think you'll agree!
As you can see, minus flyweight, which has yet to see a former champion, this transcends a wide range of weight classes and time periods, from Rafael dos Anjos at lightweight through to Kevin Randleman at heavyweight, and has made its way into the comparatively fledging women's division, affecting every former bantamweight champion. Sure, there are more heavyweights on this list than any other, but that makes sense given the number of champions in that division versus the rest.
So if there are no trends that can be identified by weight class or time period, is there a reason behind this? The obvious argument to make would be momentum, and how the loss of one fight can very easily lead to declining confidence, resulting in further defeats. However, this is undermined by some additional statistics. The eagle-eyed (or perhaps MMA-nerds) will have noticed that the above list neglects to mention those that did not lose their belts inside the Octagon. The likes of Tim Sylvia, Frank Mir, Dominick Cruz and Jon Jones were either stripped of their titles, or were forced to relinquish due to injury or contractual issues. No momentum loss for them, you may think?
If not momentum, were these former champions simply outclassed by the same opponent? Again, no. Of the 48 former champions, only three have lost consecutive bouts to the same foe. Belarusian heavyweight Andrei Arlovski suffered a shock KO defeat to Tim Sylvia in April 2006, before losing the rematch by decision three months later, while BJ Penn lost consecutive unanimous decisions to Frankie Edgar in 2010. Most recently, the greatest of all time, Anderson Silva, was famously knocked out by Chris Weidman while clowning in the cage, before suffering a horrendous broken leg in the rematch in 2013. While I'd argue that the latter shouldn't really be counted in the same way as a KO or decision defeat, the loss remains on his record, so requires inclusion.
The answer is unlocked when we look at the statistics from the UFC's greatest rival, Bellator. While comparatively in its infancy, the promotion has had a total of 26 previous champions across its male and female divisions. Surprisingly, nearly a quarter of those have already either been stripped or relinquished the title, meaning that we have a measurable sample size of 20 ex-title holders. Of those, just 35 per cent lost back to back fights, a significant departure from the majority seen in the UFC.
When you look at some of the cards put out by mixed martial arts' secondary organisation, it's easy to see why. Outside of the main and co-main, there is a distinct lack of strength in depth at Bellator, meaning that an ex-champion can ease themselves back into the title picture with a win over a fighter that really isn't in their league. Meanwhile, look at the top 10s of all of the UFC's weight classes. Apart from the heavyweights, it's a murderers row, and there are no easy fights to recover. For example, look at each of the most recent ex-champions' return fights in the UFC, and judge for yourself:
- Heavyweight - Fabricio Werdum vs Travis Browne
- Light-heavyweight - Jon Jones vs Ovince Saint-Preux
- Middleweight - Chris Weidman vs Yoel Romero
- Welterweight - Johny Hendricks vs Matt Brown
- Lightweight - Rafael dos Anjos vs Tony Ferguson
- Featherweight - Jose Aldo vs Frankie Edgar
- Bantamweight - TJ Dillashaw vs Rafael Assuncao
- Women's Bantamweight - Miesha Tate vs Raquel Pennington
- Women's Strawweight - Carla Esparza vs Julianna Lima
With the awareness of MMA growing seemingly by the day, and the number of individuals taking up the sport also on the rise, this is an issue that is only going to become more pronounced as the quality of fighters continues to improve. With this in mind, it will be interesting to see not just the returns of the likes of Eddie Alvarez, scheduled to face Dustin Poirier, Luke Rockhold, Robbie Lawler and Dominick Cruz, but to see how future defeated champions are able to cope as they are thrust back into the hungry lions' den that is mixed martial arts competition.
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