6. David Terrell
At UFC 51, in his second fight with the UFC, David Terrell fought Evan Tanner for the vacant UFC middleweight championship. On that night Tanner came out the victor, with a first round KO win. But for Terrell, he was only 27 at the time, lots of time for his career to bounce back.
He didn’t fight again for over a year, but when he finally did he was victorious over Scott Smith at UFC 59. After earning the 1st round submission win over Smith it looked like Terrell would bounce back and possibly again contend for the middleweight championship. He hasn’t fought since however.
Terrell has later said that he wasn’t happy while he was fighting in the UFC, and that may have played a factor in his decision not to return after UFC 59. He also complained of chronic sinus infections that hampered his training. For whatever the reason, David Terrell stopped fighting before he was 30 after once being a title contender.
He now owns and runs the Nor-Cal Fighting Alliance in California.
