Andrei Arlovski
From early on in his MMA career, Andrei Arlovski fought for the UFC and would go on to win their heavyweight title and defend it twice, before losing to Tim Sylvia in back-to-back title bouts.
Undeterred, Arlovski went on a three-fight winning streak against Marcio Cruz, Fabricio Werdum and Jake O’ Brien to move into title contention again as his contract ended.
The Pitbull’ didn’t stick around though as he was lured into signing a money-spinning deal with the up-and-coming Affliction promotion in 2008 and got off to a great start with KO wins over Ben Rothwell and Roy Nelson.
That set up a blockbuster fight against a prime Fedor Emelianenko, but Arlovski suffered a devastating first round KO, followed by a disastrous run in the Strikeforce promotion where he lost to Brett Rogers, Antonio Silva and Sergei Kharitonov.
To his credit he managed to fight his way out of that rut with six wins and a draw from his next eight bouts, which led to him being re-signed by the UFC in 2014, where he still competes to this day.