5 unheralded UFC title challengers who came close to pulling off an upset win

Vitor Belfort nearly snapped Jon Jones' arm in 2012 in what would've been a huge upset

This past weekend at UFC 275, Brazilian contender Taila Santos came close to one of the biggest upsets in MMA history when she fell slightly short in her bout with reigning flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko.

.@BulletValentina says Taila Santos gave her "exactly what [she] wanted" as "an opponent who is not giving up from the first second."

"In this kind of fight, you can really show what you’re made of, your character..."

Full #UFC275 post-fight scrum ▶️ youtu.be/dRcPNlcAIOQ https://t.co/j1Phhe9pIb

Over the years, we’ve seen a number of largely unheralded title challengers in the UFC who were able to come close to an upset victory, only to fall at the final hurdle.

Sometimes, these fighters were able to go onto capture gold in the octagon later down the line. For others, their initial title challenge proved to be their highest point.

With that in mind, here are five unheralded UFC title challengers who came close to pulling off an upset win.

#5. Taila Santos vs. Valentina Shevchenko – UFC 275

Taila Santos came remarkably close to defeating Valentina Shevchenko in their recent title bout

The most recent example of an unheralded title challenger who almost pulled off a massive upset came this past weekend at UFC 275. Taila Santos came into her flyweight title bout with Valentina Shevchenko on the back of a four-fight win streak. But unsurprisingly, nobody was giving her a chance.

Not only had Shevchenko seemingly defeated better fighters before – the likes of Jessica Andrade and Katlyn Chookagian, for instance – but she also appeared to have absolutely no weaknesses that Santos could exploit.

Incredibly, though, that didn’t quite turn out to be the case. The fans in attendance in Singapore were stunned when the Brazilian challenger took ‘Bullet’ down in the opening round and came close to a rear-naked choke victory, but that wasn’t her only high point in the fight.

Santos actually continued to take the fight to Shevchenko throughout the early going, taking her down and arguably winning both the second and third rounds before the champion came back in the fourth and fifth, edging things with her striking.

In the end, two of the three judges sided with Shevchenko, surprising many viewers who’d scored the fight in favour of the challenger. Regardless, though, Santos came close to pulling off a result that nobody could’ve anticipated coming into the fight.

Wow!! A heck of a fight and Santos got robbed vs the champ Shevchenko for the Flyweight title.

#UFC275 https://t.co/r6XBK1UUot

What happens from here? It’s highly likely that a rematch will be booked. Although Santos will probably be confident, Shevchenko has claimed that a foot injury she suffered prior to the bout hampered her, meaning the Brazilian may well have missed her best opportunity of becoming a champion.