5 UFC fighters who slipped down the ladder overnight
Climbing to the top of the UFC is often an impossible task for even the best fighters. At times, though, staying at the top is even harder still.
Over the years, we've seen a number of examples of UFC fighters who climbed to the top of the ladder - even reaching the summit - only to slip down in sudden and scary fashion.
Often, these fighters never recovered from this slide, and in some instances, their careers came crashing to an end soon after.
Here, then, are five UFC fighters who slipped down the ladder overnight.
#5 Dominick Reyes - UFC light-heavyweight contender
This weekend, Dominick Reyes is probably fighting for his UFC career when he faces off with Dustin Jacoby. If he loses, it's likely that he'll lose his spot on the roster too.
'The Devastator' was once considered the brightest prospect in the light-heavyweight division after he made an explosive octagon debut back in 2017.
Reyes needed just 29 seconds to dispatch Joachim Christensen, and then reeled off a further five wins, including victories over Ovince St. Preux and Volkan Oezdemir.
The streak fired him into contention, and set him up for a shot at then-champion Jon Jones. When he lost to 'Bones' in a remarkably close call, it only seemed to elevate his reputation in the eyes of the fans.
Jones vacated his title shortly after, and Reyes was put in a bout against Jan Blachowicz to decide the new champ. Unfortunately for 'The Devastator', he lost via second round KO, the first time he'd been finished in his career.
Since then, he's never been able to recover. Reyes has only fought twice more, losing both fights via knockout, and his last loss, to Ryan Spann, lasted just over a minute.
Essentially, the chances of 'The Devastator' recovering if he loses his fifth bout in a row against Jacoby are very slim. To say his slide down the ladder has been sudden and unexpected would be an understatement.
#4 Chris Weidman - former UFC middleweight champion
When Chris Weidman produced one of the greatest upsets of all time to down longtime middleweight champion Anderson Silva in 2013, it felt like the UFC had entered a new era at 185 pounds.
The win was the culmination of a quick rise for 'The All-American', who had already won his first five bouts in the octagon prior to his shot at 'The Spider'.
When Weidman then beat Silva in a rematch and defended his title against Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort, the idea that the next dominant reign had begun only grew.
However, Weidman fell to Luke Rockhold in devastating fashion in his fourth defense, and never truly recovered.
In the near-decade that has followed since his title loss, 'The All-American' has won just three times. He's also lost six fights, suffering five knockout defeats in the process, both at 185 pounds and 205 pounds.
What caused Weidman to slip down the ladder so rapidly? It's hard to say, but most theories center around the beating that he took from Rockhold taking its toll, as well as a number of brutal weight cuts in order to make the middleweight limit.
Overall, though, few fighters have slid down the mountain as quickly as 'The All-American', and over a decade on, the memories of that win over Silva now feel like a lifetime ago.
#3 Renan Barao - former UFC bantamweight champion
When Renan Barao defeated Urijah Faber to claim the interim bantamweight title in the summer of 2012, the win didn't just net him UFC gold. It also moved his unbeaten streak to 31 fights, something practically unheard of in MMA.
Barao continued to win following his victory over 'The California Kid', and went onto successfully defend his title three times.
However, in his fourth title defense, he was beaten by TJ Dillashaw in a major upset, suffering a fifth round TKO.
Nobody wrote Barao off after the fight. After all, most lengthy winning streaks tended to come to an end at some point in the octagon, and Dillashaw had fought brilliantly.
However, when the Brazilian then botched his weight cut for a planned rematch - knocking himself out in the process and preventing the fight - his career flew off the rails.
He lost the eventual second bout with Dillashaw in worse fashion than before, and a move up to 145 pounds was also unsuccessful.
In the end, Barao's UFC career came to an end in 2019 off the back of five straight defeats, each one coming against a lesser opponent. It was a run that would've been unthinkable in his pomp, and marked how far he'd fallen after that initial loss.
Quite what triggered Barao's rapid fall remains a mystery, but it's fair to say that few fighters have slipped down the ladder as dramatically and quickly.
#2 Josh Koscheck - former UFC welterweight contender
The downfall of former welterweight contender Josh Koscheck can be tracked back to a single fight - his 2010 title bout loss to Georges St-Pierre.
However, the sudden fall down the ladder of the TUF 1 veteran was still surprising and dramatic. He went from being one of the world's most feared 170 pounders to looking completely shot basically overnight.
Koscheck garnered a reputation of a top-class wrestler with brutally heavy hands on his way to the top. He defeated the likes of Frank Trigg, Paul Daley and Anthony Johnson to earn his title shot, and many fans thought he stood a good chance against 'GSP'.
Unfortunately for him, St-Pierre had other ideas, and used a ramrod jab to crush his eye socket en route to a five-round decision win. Koscheck was essentially never the same again.
He did return to defeat UFC legend Matt Hughes a year after the defeat, but from there, it was all downhill. After a tight 2012 loss to future champ Johny Hendricks, Koscheck suffered bad knockouts at the hands of Robbie Lawler and Tyron Woodley.
Essentially, the loss to St-Pierre not only made him gunshy, it also left him barely able to take a punch.
In the end, his octagon career ended with two nasty submission defeats, finishing his time there with five straight defeats. It was a swift and unfortunate downfall for a fighter who, just a couple of years prior, was at the top of his game.
#1 Tony Ferguson - former interim UFC lightweight champion
It's arguable that no fighter in UFC history has suffered such a swift and shocking slide down the ladder as Tony Ferguson.
'El Cucuy' went from being one of the world's most feared lightweights to a fighter who looked like a broken shell of his former self seemingly overnight. While he's scheduled for another fight this summer, realistically, his career at the top level is all but over.
The idea of Ferguson hitting such a slide was unthinkable as recently as the early part of 2020. At that time, the TUF 13 winner was riding a 12-fight win streak dating back to 2012, and seemed to be on a collision course with then-155 pound champ Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The bout, which had been put together and then cancelled on numerous occasions beforehand, was set to take place in April 2020, with Khabib's title on the line.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented Khabib from entering the US, and instead, an interim title bout between 'El Cucuy' and Justin Gaethje was made instead.
Taking the fight with 'The Highlight' turned out to be the biggest mistake of Ferguson's career. He suffered a horrific beating and was eventually stopped with strikes in the fifth round.
The loss put Ferguson on a seemingly irreversible slide. He was defeated first by Charles Oliveira seven months after the Gaethje bout, and has since fallen to a further five straight losses.
The fighter that was feared by every other 155 pounder in the UFC now seems long gone, and his run at the top feels like it came from a different career entirely. Quite how a fighter as good as 'El Cucuy' was slid down the ladder so quickly remains baffling, even to longtime observers.