Four MMA legends who never won a UFC tournament
The UFC is an abbreviation for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. That was once a title to be won, not just the name of the most successful MMA organization in the world.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship was a tournament to decide the best MMA fighter in the world. UFC 1, 2 and 4 were won by Jiu-Jitsu expert Royce Gracie. The diminutive Brazilian demonstrated that skill and not size was the key factor in the fight game and revolutionized the sport of fighting.
Eight UFC Hall of Famers were tournament winners. The aforementioned Gracie, two-time tournament winners, "The Beast" Dan Severn, Mark "The Hammer" Coleman, Don Frye, UFC 13 tournament winner "The Natural" Randy Couture, UFC 16 tournament winner Pat Miletich, UFC Japan tournament winner Kazushi Sakuraba and The Ultimate Fighter 4 tournament winner Matt Serra.
It is an exclusive club that will grow with future Hall of Fame inductions. The traditional UFC tournaments ceased to be from UFC 23 onwards. That event held on November 19, 1999, was subtitled UFC Japan 2 and hosted an all Japanese elimination tournament to crown the first-ever (and ultimately only ever) UFC Japan Champion. That title was won by Kenichi Yamamoto.
This slideshow will look back at the early years of the UFC between 1993 and 1999 when the tournament format was crucial to UFC's success and those legendary fighters from the 1990s who enjoyed great success in the company and MMA but never won a tournament final.
So, without further delay, let's delve into the archives and look back at the four most famous names from that period who will never possess a UFC tournament title on their resume.
Are there any names we have missed?
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below!
#4 Tank Abbott
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride is not phraseology you would commonly associate with David "Tank" Abbott, but that sentence would definitely sum up his UFC career accurately.
Tank holds the record for most UFC tournaments competed in with five, yet he never won one of them.
Tank burst onto the MMA scene way back in July 1995, wherein he competed in the UFC 6 tournament. He battered John Matua and Paul Varelans as he reached the final, only to succumb to the greater wrestler, Oleg Taktarov via rear naked choke.
He made the semi-finals of Ultimate Ultimate 1995 and UFC 11 before he again reached a tournament final at Ultimate Ultimate 1996. This time, he faced the fearsome striker and grappler, Don Frye. After initially rocking Frye with a trademark right hand, Tank was caught in a rear naked choke to deny him the Ultimate Ultimate title.
Tank's final tournament appearance came at UFC Japan in December 1997 and although he won his first round bout, he withdrew from the competition due to injury.
Despite being so closely associated with the early UFC tournaments, the legend never did win the big one. In fact, he never won a MMA title of any kind during his long career.
Always the bridesmaid, indeed.