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7. Shady title shots awarded

The UFC on the whole, has actually done a fairly decent job (relative to other promotions) of not handing out title shots that haven’t been earned, or preventing non-marketable fighters from receiving title shots. There has been exceptions to this however.

Most notably is when Brock Lesnar met Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight Championship at UFC 91.

It was just Lesnar’s 4th professional fight, and 3rd in the UFC. He was only 1W-1L in the UFC, and hardly in a position to challenge for a belt. A contributing factor to this fight getting booked however, was Dana White’s desire to get back at current champ Randy Couture.

Couture and White had been going back and forth debating the terms of Couture’s contract, and his ability to organize a fight outside the UFC with Fedor Emelianenko at the time. The UFC won and Couture was legally required to fight for them, so they threw him in there with a guy who outweighs him by 60lbs.

Recently another shady title shot has been awarded in the middleweight division to Dan Henderson. Technically Henderson had a victory over the current champion, which does give one a claim to a title fight.

Only that Jacare Souza had more or less been promised a title shot if he beat Vitor Belfort, and was not pleased that the 45-year old Dan Henderson, who plans to retire after the bout, was given the opportunity instead of him.

YouTube video

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Ian is a MMA writer based out of Toronto, ON Canada. An avid mixed martial arts enthusiast and passionate fan since he was born, Ian has been writing about mixed martial arts for over 5 years.