When UFC Underdogs DESTROY The Champion!

These are times when UFC underdogs completely  destroyed UFC champions to claim their belt!  Don’t we all get a thrill when a dominant  champion bites the dust and empires crumble?   Of course we do… especially when the fighter  who dethrones the champion is a huge underdog,   and today, we’re going to be looking at  8 champions who suffered this exact fate,   starting with Kamaru Usman, who’s reign got  destroyed by not only a massive underdog, but   also by one of the luckiest shots in UFC history… When Edwards fought Kamaru Usman for the first time   in their careers in 2015, he was thoroughly  dominated, but that defeat lit a fire in him,   inspiring him to a 10-fight and 7-year unbeaten run  in the division... The highlight of which was his   first title fight against Usman at UFC 278. Heading into the fight, Usman was the   pound-for-pound king on a 15-fight winning  streak... So naturally, he was a massive favorite.  Not only that, Usman was  also oozing with confidence...  Edwards was quieter as most underdogs  usually are... but he still spoke with   confidence whenever he got the opportunity… Edwards drew first blood inside the cage,   where he became the first man to take Usman down.  The Nigerian shook it off and bounced back to win   the next three rounds by out striking and  out grappling the Brit. Usman was cruising   to a dominant win when Edwards decided to go for  the kill...and less than a minute until the final   buzzer, he secured a cracking head kick knockout. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment that   even Usman appreciated… Unfortunately, not everyone   felt the way Usman did. Many called the win a  fluke, until Edwards won their rematch at UFC   286 comfortably and silenced his critics. After securing the belt, Edwards defended   it twice against Usman and Covington, two of  the best welterweights on the planet. In his   third title defense, Edwards took on Belal  Muhammad at UFC 304, where no one expected   what was about to happen next… The two first fought in 2021,   where Edwards had the better off the exchanges  before an eye poke ruled the fight a no-contest.  Heading into the rematch, Edwards  thought Belal was no match for him...  Despite being a sizable underdog, Muhammad  promised to put a beating on Edwards...  Nobody believed in Belal until he went out there  and dominated Edwards, out striking him and out   grappling him for three and a half rounds  to win the belt by a unanimous decision...  Edwards said he was feeling off because  of the timing of the fight, which took   place at 5am in Manchester, England... As far as Belal was concerned... He   was just happy to prove his doubters wrong... Defeats are certainly a tough pill to swallow,   especially for those who have a habit  of consistently winning. But for some,   like Ronda Rousey, a defeat can be  more than just a setback—it can be   enough to send them to the lowest of lows… Before Rousey met Holly Holm at UFC 193,   she was regarded as the scariest woman in MMA…  who decimated opponents with Judo throws and   armbars for years… So, she was naturally favored  to take down rising superstar Holly Holm too.  Heading into the fight, there was a ton of  animosity between the two... With Rousey saying   that she was the better striker… despite Holm  being a multiple time boxing and kickboxing champ…  The pre-fight face-off was INTENSE, with  Rousey later calling Holm a FAKE sweet person.  Needless to say, they refused to touch gloves... As soon as the bell rang, Rousey came forward with   the intention to kill, but Holm circled  off while tagging her with crushing left   hands. By the end of round one, Rousey was  exhausted with her nose badly busted up.  In round two, a desperate Rousey  was dispatched with a brutal head   kick followed by ground and pound... Heartbroken at her first career loss,   Rousey stormed out the cage...  and away from everyone's sight...  Holm cried too… but for  completely different reasons…  A few months after her loss, Rousey appeared  on Ellen and revealed that she felt like   dying by deleting herself after the loss... Almost a decade later, Rousey claimed that   she was already badly concussed before the  Holm loss… insinuating that she would have   beaten Holm if she was 100 percent. Holm believes Rousey is simply too   salty to give her the due credit… Like Rousey, Joanna Jedrzejczyk also   tried to bully an up-and-coming star,  but ended up taking one of the most   brutal humblings in women’s MMA history. From 2013 to 2017, the Polish legend was   regarded as the best strawweight in the world and  an honorable champion, who had 5 title defenses   by 2017. But somewhere along the lines, the  champ’s evil side started to take over... And   heading into her title defense against Rose  Namajunas at UFC 217... All hell broke loose.  Knowing that Namajunas, a +500 underdog, had a  history of mental health struggles, Joanna thought   getting in her head was going to be a cake walk... When trash talking failed, Joanna went a step   further and unleashed the bogeywoman... Namajunas was super chilled leading up   to the fight, but once she stepped into  the cage, she turned into an ABSOLUTE   beast as she dropped the champ twice and  made her tap out to a flurry of strikes.  Joanna took it on the chin and congratulated  her opponent for doing the unthinkable.  However, she later blamed the  loss on a bad weight cut...  Namajunas was commended for staying calm  despite her opponent’s nasty jabs… which   would have rattled most fighters…  but Thug Rose, couldn’t care less.  The two eventually rematched at  UFC 223, where Namajunas scored a   dominant decision to put an end to the rivalry… It's clear that underestimating challengers can   be a huge mistake, and Aljamain Sterling  learned this the hard way when he chose   to overlook a rising superstar and ended up  losing everything he'd worked so hard for.  Entering UFC 292, Sean O’Malley was  a mentally undefeated prospect who   many thought was fighting cans to pad his  record. Even the champ thought he was WEAK…  To be fair to Sterling, he had his reasons to  be MAD at O’Malley, because just three months   before facing the young gun, he had successfully  defended his title against Henry Cejudo. The UFC,   especially Dana White, literally  forced him into a quick turnaround…   and he was pretty annoyed with it. Sterling’s motive was to derail   O’Malley’s hype train in the worst of  ways possible… but unfortunately, he let   his rage and emotions get the better of him… At UFC 292, O’Malley was untouchable. He moved   around slickly to avoid takedowns and cracked  his opponent on counters… one of which landed   clean on Sterling’s chin in round two. Sterling  dropped like a sack of potatoes and was squished   with ground and pound moments later. That night, Sterling realized how   wrong he was about O’Malley… The newly-crowned champ was happy   to prove at least SOME of his doubters wrong… Former UFC middleweight champ Luke Rockhold also   dared to criminally underestimate his challenger…  and he paid the price by not only losing his belt,   but also absolutely fuming about it after… At UFC 199, Luke Rockhold was all set to rematch   Chris Weidman for the middleweight title,  but when Weidman pulled out due to injury,   the UFC offered Michael Bisping a shot at  the belt with just two weeks to prepare.  Since Rockhold had already beaten Bisping  a few years ago, and fairly comfortably,   he was expecting a walk in the  park in the rematch as well...  And although The Brit was a massive underdog  going into the rematch, he proved that he   was better prepared this time around and he  rocked the overconfident champ halfway through   round one with a crunching left hook. A few seconds later, Bisping was the   middleweight champion of the world. It was a dream that took almost two   decades to turn into a reality for Bisping…  and Rockhold didn’t take the loss lightly…  Despite big claims and excuses, Rockhold  went 1 and 3 in his next four fights   and parted ways with the UFC. Luke Rockhold’s excuses remind   us of Valentina Shevchenko, who had her  bag full of ifs and buts after not one,   but both of her fights against a tough underdog… Like Rousey and Jedrzejczyk , Valentina Shevchenko   was another dominant female world champion  with 7 successive title defenses when she   was booked to defend against Alexa Grasso. Grasso was a heavy underdog given Shevchenko's   stature in the division... Yet the  challenger refused to count herself   out since everyone has weaknesses. For some reason, Shevchenko thought   Grasso was taking shots at her,  so she opted to fire back at her…  Grasso had an excellent start to the fight  as she outboxed Shevchenko in round one,   but the champ came back in rounds two and three to  control Grasso with quick counters and wrestling.  The trend continued in round four... UNTIL  Shevchenko went for a spinning back kick   and Grasso immediately hopped on  her back and dragged her down.  Seconds later, Grasso choked her opponent out to  pull off one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.  In her post-fight interview, Shevchenko  LOWKEY called Grasso’s win a fluke…  For Grasso, it wasn’t a fluke  because she had it all PLANNED.  The two rematched a few months later at  Noche UFC… where the fight was ruled a   draw after a closely-contested battle. Valentina was once again left with   a bitter taste in her mouth… The two flyweight phenoms will   battle for the third time at UFC 306, where  either Shevchenko will level things up or   Grasso will end the GOAT once and for all. Israel Adesanya is another legend who has   fallen down the GOAT pecking order because of his  recent defeats, especially his most recent one,   where he underestimated a short notice  replacement fighter, who ended up giving   him one of the hardest fights of his career… Sean Strickland and Adesanya would’ve never   fought if it wasn’t for Dricus Du Plessis refusing  to challenge Izzy at UFC 293, because he was   apparently injured. Adesanya, however, wanted to  compete at the event in Australia, with or without   his noisy rival, so Strickland, a +300 underdog,  was brought in as a short-notice replacement.  According to Adesanya, the UFC tried its best to  keep Strickland as far away from Australia as they   could, because they didn’t trust him to keep a  check on his rowdy behavior in a foreign land…  The UFC had to give in to Adesanya’s demands,  and the next thing they knew, Strickland was   caught up trading fists on the streets… Strickland wasn’t only going wild on   the streets. He also went in on the  champ during the press conferences.  Adesanya was so mad at Strickland that he wanted  to inflict a serious amount of pain on him…  Heading into fight night, the odds were heavily  stacked in favor of Adesanya… but when the cage   door closed, Strickland blew everyone out  of the water by rocking Adesanya late in   round one. For the next four rounds, Adesanya  was the nail and Strickland was the hammer…  After five rounds of war… Strickland pulled  off one of the biggest upsets to win the   middleweight title by a unanimous decision… Strickland was over the moon for about   a minute… but then his feelings died down. None of this would have happened if Adesanya   wasn’t slow…according to Dana White. Izzy’s coach also thought that if his   pupil had fought at the best of his abilities,  he would have beaten Strickland fairly easily.  Truth or Excuses? So these were the times   when UNDERDOGS destroyed CHAMPIONS. Which upset did you see coming?  Let us know your thoughts in the  comments. If you enjoyed the video,   be sure to check out times where cocky fighters  got destroyed and humbled by their opponents!