Name a fighter that you thought had the talent and the skillset to become a UFC champ, but, for whatever reason, they never got it done. I’ll start off the thread with Rory MacDonald. I remember when people were anointing him as the heir apparent to George St-Pierre. Sure, he never had GSP’s athleticism or natural talent. But he was a damn good fighter. He was extremely well rounded as an mma fighter, and he had a pretty good fight IQ as well. He had a very few glaring weaknesses as well. He had setbacks against the heartbreaking third round beatdown by Condit, and the decision loss to Lawler. I remember when he went on a streak beating Maia, Woodley, and Saffiedine, I thought it was finally his time to win the title. He was in his prime and firing at all cylinders. But then Lawler nearly killed him in a fight for the ages when he finally got his title fight. Lawler was just a nightmare match up for Rory. An extremely tough, power punching southpaw with strong takedown defense. Rory had solid wrestling, but he was never a natural at using his striking to set up shot attempts like GSP was. And it cost him badly in that fight. I remember screaming when he hit Lawler with a head kick and was battering him up against the fence with elbows and punches at the end of the third round. I knew with the amount of damage Rory had already sustained and the energy he had already expended that this was going to be his one opportunity to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. But like a warrior, Lawler weathered the storm and came back with a vengeance to crush Rory in the fifth. Who are some fighters that you thought were championship material but never wore the strap?
Yes Rory MacDonald was very good and was champion material in my opinion. He was a significantly better fighter than fighters such as Michael Bisping, Tyrone Woodley, Matt Serra etc etc who were UFC champions.
Masvidal/Usman i thought after the first fight on short notice he did decent and in the second fight he would do much better and edge him. but him getting obliterated was not on my radar.
I wasn´t paying much attention to Makhachev and really thought that Poirier would become champ. Actually I figured that Poirier or Gaethje would be the one to take the throne after Khabib. But then Chandler popped in and got an undeserved, surprise shot at the belt. This opened the door for Oliveira who was followed by Makhachev. Funny that if it weren´t for Chandler then we might have seen Poirier or Gaethje become the champ, they were the top 2 guys at the time. I always figured that Wonderboy would at least get another title shot, even after the Pettis KO. Dude should have retired years ago, unfortunately.
Thiago Alves looked like a beast during his heyday, I thought for sure he would have had a title run.
This is a good pick as well. He looked like a world better when he beat Hughes and Koscheck. A lot of people at the time thought a striker with devastating leg kicks and great takedown defense would be a nightmare style match up for GSP. But GSP was just so great, that he was able to get his takedowns anyway despite the resistance, and do enough damage on his feet to keep Alves constantly off balanced. Alves definitely had some good talent and skill.
