March - 2015
SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
32
5. Johny Hendricks vs. Jon Fitch – UFC 141
2. Georges St-Pierre vs. Matt Hughes II – UFC 65
1. Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin – UFC 64
4. Cain Velasquez vs. Brock Lesnar
3. Junior dos Santos vs. Fabricio Werdum – UFC 90
My theme for this rendition of the list is hind-
sight. I’m looking at fights, that at the time were
upsets, but looking back we can see they were
just the beginning of championship careers. For
my first item of the list takes us back to UFC
141. Fitch was a -240 favorite, Hendricks a
+190 underdog. Hendricks knocks Fitch’s head
across the cage in 12 seconds and goes on to
win the UFC welterweight championship. Fitch,
on the other hand, got cut by the UFC only two
fights after that and recently failed his pre-fight
drug test for his World Series of Fighting welter-
weight championship bout.
Hughes had already beaten GSP before their sec-
ond encounter at UFC 65. With only a second
left in the first round at UFC 50, Hughes was
able to make GSP tap due to an armbar in their
bout for a vacant welterweight title and start
his second run as king of the division. It would
make sense for him to be the slight favorite in
their rematch, but now we know it was the start
of a hall of fame, GOAT-status title reign (minus
the setback against Serra) for Georges St. Pierre
This, in my opinion, would be the easiest fight to
look back at and say, “how in the world was he
not the favorite” leading up to the middleweight
championship bout at UFC 64 between. Again,
hindsight is our friend for this list, because looking
back at we can see the level of talent that Frank-
lin had defended his middleweight was going to
do absolutely nothing to prepare him for Silva.
Silva had just come off an impressive UFC debut
against Chris Leben and watching his highlight
finish over Franklin is like seeing highlights of
Michael Jordan winning his first championship
in 1991.
Velasquez wasn’t an underdog by a massive mar-
gin (+125) and he’s easily the best heavyweight
on the planet when he’s healthy. We know that
now, we know that there’s not another heavy-
weight in the promotion that has shown the
ability to hang with a 100% Velasquez. Lesnar
(-155) was coming off his epic, comeback win
against Shane Carwin and his popularity was at
an all-time high. We all know the rest, Velas-
quez steam rolled through Lesnar and is still the
UFC heavyweight champion. Now we just need
him to stop getting hurt.
Coming off back-to-back finishes against Ga-
briel Gonzaga and Brandon Vera was starting to
build a little bit of hype for Werdum leading into
his upcoming fight against the 6-1 promotional
newcomer Junior dos Santos. Flash forward to
now and there’s a chance we see the second edi-
tion of this fight depending the unification bout
for Werdum’s interim UFC heavyweight belt and
Velasquez’ actual championship. Both fighters
have had historic careers in the heavyweight di-
vision, but I’m including this on the list because
I don’t think many people had the slightest hint
of how devastating dos Santos would become
in the UFC.
Ferguson’s List
