Conor McGregor, Renan Barao and more: 5 UFC champions who had an equally spectacular rise and fall
For any fighter, reaching the top of the mountain in the UFC and claiming gold in the octagon is not easy. However, staying at that peak is often even harder.
Over the years, we’ve seen numerous examples of UFC champions who had a spectacular rise to the top, only to suffer an equally spectacular fall.
Essentially, these champions looked unstoppable on their march to claiming gold, but once they lost their titles, they seemingly couldn’t buy a win.
Here are five UFC champions who had an equally spectacular rise and fall.
#5. Chris Weidman – former UFC middleweight champion
When Chris Weidman was signed by the UFC in early 2011, he was renowned as one of the hottest middleweight prospects in the world. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for ‘The All-American’ to live up to that reputation in the octagon.
Weidman reeled off five wins in his first 16 months with the promotion, including a violent finish of Mark Munoz. That was enough to set him up for a shot at reigning middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
By the time Weidman faced ‘The Spider’, the Brazilian was into his seventh year a champion. But despite being a huge underdog, ‘The All-American’ scored a second round knockout and then defeated the legend in a rematch, too.
Weidman's knockout of Anderson Silva shook up the world
No one could have imagined Silva's reign ending like this https://t.co/wSysNyfnM9
When he then defended his title successfully against Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort, it looked like the Weidman Era had begun. However, in his fourth defense, he ran into Luke Rockhold and ended up suffering a bad TKO defeat.
‘The All-American’ took nearly a year off following the loss. When he returned, he simply wasn’t the same fighter. It felt like he had simply taken too much damage in the fight with Rockhold, and his durability looked shot.
In the years that have followed, Weidman has won just twice in seven trips to the octagon, suffering five more TKO losses in the process. Whether he now returns at all is up in the air, meaning that his fall has definitely been as spectacular as his rise was.
Read here: Who are the current UFC Champions in 2022?
#4. Luke Rockhold – former UFC middleweight champion
The fighter who dethroned Chris Weidman and took his UFC middleweight title, Luke Rockhold, had arguably an even more spectacular rise and fall than ‘The All-American’ did.
Rockhold first burst onto the scene in 2011 when he claimed the Strikeforce middleweight title. Despite suffering a loss to Vitor Belfort in his octagon debut, he quickly recovered to defeat four opponents in a row, including Michael Bisping and Lyoto Machida.
A shot at Weidman followed and, in a brutal fight, Rockhold was able to secure top position and punish the champion for a fourth-round TKO win.
Most observers expected his title reign to last for a lengthy period, particularly as he didn’t appear to have any weaknesses. However, his first defense against old foe Bisping saw him come in far too confidently, and he suffered a shocking knockout loss in just over three minutes.
From there, Rockhold’s career quickly spiraled downwards. Injuries kept him out of action for over a year and while he returned with a win over David Branch in late 2017, a 2018 knockout loss to Yoel Romero sent him firmly out of title contention.
Since then, Rockhold has fought just twice, suffering defeats at the hands of Jan Blachowicz and Paulo Costa before retiring after the most recent loss.
"I gave it my all ... I'm f---ing old."
Luke Rockhold was full of emotions as he announced his retirement after #UFC278 https://t.co/QsJvGcH2sB
While Rockhold’s woes can mostly be blamed on injuries and a focus on his career outside the octagon, it’s safe to say that his spectacular downfall probably ended up overshadowing his equally fast rise to the top.
#3. Johny Hendricks – former UFC welterweight champion
When Johny Hendricks fought longtime UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre in late 2013, it felt like the changing of the guard. Hendricks had skyrocketed through the ranks at 170lbs, beating the likes of Carlos Condit, Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck. It looked like he was about to become only the third man to defeat GSP, too.
However, in a controversial decision, St-Pierre was given the win over ‘Bigg Rigg’, only to hang up his gloves shortly after. When Hendricks then claimed the title by defeating Robbie Lawler, most observers figured he’d become the new dominant fighter in the division.
Remarkably, though, that wasn’t the case. After winning the title, Hendricks took time off to heal some nagging injuries and then suffered a shock defeat to Lawler in a rematch upon his return.
A win over Matt Brown just three months later seemed to signal a return to form. However, ‘Bigg Rigg’ was then forced out of a top contender’s bout with Tyron Woodley due to weight cutting issues. From there, everything went downhill.
Hendricks ended up losing five of his next six bouts, suffering three TKO defeats along the way. After a move to 185lbs ended in failure, he hung up his gloves in late 2017.
Paulo Costa finishes Johny Hendricks with the second-round TKO! Is this the end for Big Rigg? https://t.co/D2QdFL4tYB
Quite what caused Hendricks to have such a spectacular downfall remains a question mark, particularly as his rise up the ranks had been so incredible. Either way, he remains one of the prime examples of a UFC champion who didn’t last long at the top.
#2. Renan Barao – former UFC bantamweight champion
Few fighters in UFC history ended up cutting such a swath through their division en route to claiming the title as former bantamweight kingpin Renan Barao.
The Brazilian debuted in the octagon in mid-2011 after a successful WEC run, and he brought with him a ludicrous unbeaten streak of 26 fights. It didn’t take long for him to find success in the UFC as he won three fights before defeating Urijah Faber for the interim bantamweight title in the summer of 2012.
‘The Baron’ was upgraded to undisputed champion shortly after. When he defended his title successfully three times, it looked like he’d go onto the same kind of dominant reign as his teammate Jose Aldo.
However, his fourth defense against T.J. Dillashaw saw him absolutely destroyed, and from there, he never really recovered his old form.
Barao ended up winning just two more fights in the octagon as he slid rapidly down the ladder, losing not only to the likes of Aljamain Sterling, but also far lesser opponents such as Andre Ewell and Luke Sanders.
Luke Sanders just KO’d Renan Barao in the second round. Fourth loss in a row for Barao. How the mighty have fallen.
In the end, he was released by the promotion in late 2019 after a dreadful run of five losses in a row, making his fall arguably the most spectacular of any champion in UFC history.
#1. Conor McGregor – former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion
It’s probably fair to argue that no fighter in UFC history enjoyed such a spectacular rise as Conor McGregor. ‘The Notorious’ was largely an unknown when he first entered the octagon in early 2013, but in less than two years, he’d essentially transformed himself into the hottest fighter in MMA.
Not only did the Irishman possess huge amounts of charisma and phenomenal trash-talking abilities on the microphone, he also looked like a once-in-a-lifetime fighter when it came to his striking skills.
However, for as good as he looked in his bouts with Dustin Poirier and Chad Mendes, few people thought he’d starch legendary featherweight champion Jose Aldo – and nobody saw a 13-second knockout coming.
When McGregor then added the lightweight title to his collection by beating Eddie Alvarez after splitting two fights with Nate Diaz in between, it was hard not to imagine him dominating the entire promotion for the foreseeable future.
However, rather than stay in the octagon and defend at least one of his titles, ‘The Notorious’ instead pursued a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. With that, he ended up missing well over a year of action. This also meant that he had to give up all of his gold.
When he returned, he was comfortably beaten by new lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov. Since then he’s fought just three times, beating Donald Cerrone but suffering two losses to Poirier, both of which saw him stopped via TKO.
Essentially, while he remains the promotion’s biggest star, it’s safe to say that McGregor’s time as a top-level fighter now seems to be behind him. Even his work on the microphone now seems forced in comparison to the wit he once showed.
Whether his foray into the boxing ring is to blame, or whether the fame simply went to his head is a fair question to ask, but one thing is for certain: his fall has been just as spectacular as his rise was.