Seven-to-one underdog Michael Bisping stunned middleweight champion Luke Rockhold in the first round on Sunday to become the first Englishman to ever capture UFC gold.
The 37-year-old has never truly received his due respect in mixed martial arts. And I am as guilty as the rest. Regular Roar readers will recall I dropped an article just last week detailing how implausible it was for the California-based boxer to leave The Forum in Inglewood, California as the UFC champ.
I was absolutely wrong.
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Bisping, who accepted the championship fight on just 17 days notice, was aggressive from the word go. He threw punches in bunches, pressuring the champion, and eventually ringing his bell with a sudden overhand-right.
The challenger pounced on his wounded opponent, connecting with another pin-point accurate right-hand, before finishing the job with a pair of coffin nails to cement his name into the history books as just the eighth middleweight champ in UFC history.
It’s one of the most unexpected title changes in recent memory, and will be remembered as one of the biggest upsets in MMA history.
Let’s take at the most shocking of the shocking.
5. Kevin Randleman def. Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic – Pride Total Elimination 2004
In 2004, Filipovic, a six-foot-two, 110-kilo kickboxer from Croatia, was on a collision course with Pride Fighting Championships heavyweight king Fedor Emelianenko, the Russian all-rounder who most perceived as the world’s greatest fighter.
The two heavyweight superstars were the top seeds in a 16-man tournament, with both on track to meet in the quarter-finals if they advanced past their first round opponents.
Emelianenko lived up to his end of the bargain, submitting former UFC heavyweight champion Mark Coleman, but ‘Cro Cop’ did not, losing to Randleman – a blown up middleweight on a two-fight losing skid.
The decorated wrestler from Ohio State University stunned Filipovic with an out-of-nowhere left hand that sent the Croatian contender crashing to the floor.
A few decisive blows later, and Randleman, not ‘Cro Cop’, booked a second-round appointment with the baddest man on the planet.
4. Michael Bisping def. Luke Rockhold – UFC 199
Heading into the five-round championship bout on Sunday, most had already written the book on Bisping.
“Always the bridesmaid, never the bride,” they said. He was a fighter who many doubted would ever compile a strong enough case to fight for a UFC title – let alone win the belt.
The veteran never got over the hump in his prime, and as the shark-infested middleweight waters got deeper and deeper, his championship window shrunk.
The Briton only received a title shot due to an injury from American wrestler Chris Weidman but took advantage of the opportunity to capture the UFC title, despite the fact that he’s a lot closer to his 40th birthday than his 30th.
The jury is still out on whether or not Bisping can defend his position on the throne, but for right now, he’s the king of the middleweight castle – and those are words I never expected to write.
3. Rameau Theirry Sokoudjou def. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira – Pride 33
“Who?”
That was the response by fans and reporters alike when Sokoudjou was announced as Nogueira’s opponent at Pride 33, the Japanese promotion’s premiere in the United States.
An unknown prospect with a 2-1 record and a recent loss to the then-unheralded Glover Teixeira, Sokoudjou was expected to simply be a warm body for Nogueira – one of the top title contenders in the middleweight ranks – to style on.
The fight lasted 23 seconds, but it was Sokoudjou landing the decisive blows, not the Brazilian boxer.
According to pro gambler Luca Fury, Sokoudjou toppling Nogueira still stands as MMA’s biggest upset in terms of the gambling odds.
2. Fabricio Werdum def. Fedor Emelianenko – Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum
In a sport that is so often defined by the reigns of it’s most dominant athletes, nobody has compiled an unbeaten run that matches Emelianenko.
For almost a decade, ‘The Last Emperor’ ruled the roost in the sport’s heaviest division, building a legacy in the now-defunct Pride promotion.
By the time Emelianenko joined Strikeforce in 2009, the Russian Sambo champion had shown signs of deterioration, but still never stumbled under the bright lights.
That all changed with Werdum, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion who trapped the former Pride king in a triangle armbar, forcing him to submit after just 69 seconds.
1. Matt Serra def. Georges St. Pierre (UFC 69)
For my money, Serra’s stunning knockout of St. Pierre is one of the most shocking upsets in sports – not just MMA – history.
Serra, a natural lightweight, became an unlikely title challenger for St. Pierre’s 170-pound crown by winning a heavily ridiculed season of the UFC’s reality series The Ultimate Fighter.
The season took UFC rejects who had washed out of the company and pitted them in a tournament to crown a new-number-one contender.
Serra, who had a laughable 4-4 record in the UFC, won the season, ‘earning’ a title fight with St. Pierre, a French-Canadian prodigy who would go on to carve a legacy as one of the sport’s all-time greats.
The New Yorker, to the surprise of almost everybody, clipped the champion with a right hand early, before closing the book on the MMA’s greatest upset with a series of machine-gun-like strikes.
Honorable mentions: Holly Holm def. Ronda Rousey (UFC 193), TJ Dillashaw def. Renan Barao (UFC 173), Gabriel Gonzaga def. Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic (UFC 70).
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