5. Luke Rockhold UFC on FX: Rockhold vs Belfort
Luke Rockhold came into the UFC with a lot of hype behind him. He went 9W-0L in Strikeforce, on route to capturing the promotion’s middleweight championship (and defending it twice). He won the Strikeforce middleweight title by defeating Jacare Souza, and then defended it successfully against Tim Kennedy and Keith Jardine. Those are top tier opponents so Rockhold was expected to be an immediate contender at the top of UFC’s middleweight division.
Things didn’t start well for him however. Belfort KO’d Rockhold midway through the 1st round of his debut and the former Strikeforce champion had his stock taken down a notch just minutes into his UFC debut. It was Rockhold’s first loss in five and a half years.
Rockhold would bounce back of course, and after notching 4 straight wins he then defeated Chris Weidman for the championship.
