The world of UFC is very tough. It is one of the hardest places to survive and one of the toughest places to maintain the title as well as to gain the title. There are a lot of strong and famous fighters, though they have not reached any massive success throughout their careers. This is similar to Leonardo Dicaprio not receiving the Oscar for his incredible roles, though everybody knew he deserved several of them.
2020 has been a tough year for the sports industry in general, and every sports team and sportsmen have been affected by the highly unproductive period. The pandemic has stopped teh time, and thus many events and matches have been postponed or cancelled. Yet, now when everything is getting back to normal some games and matches have already taken place. Among them is the MMA industry. Some of the most popular and discussed matches of 2020 have shown some new stars of the industry.
Moreover, the matches have shown that there are some athletes who almost had their career peak during 2020.
Yoel Romero
While talking about Romero, we all remember some of the scariest fights of the MMA of all times. Romero is known for having simultaneously three cracks in the ring of the Octagon, in the attempt of having the UFC title. Yoel Romero is known to be the “Soldier of God“. He had a constant problem with weight. This is what stopped him from winning the UFC 221 belt. He was simply too heavy.
Despite the fact that he is unable to control the weight and win the UFC title, we all remember his scary fights and Romero still manages to be the most feared fighter of all time, even at the age of 43. At his last fight, he was defeated by the current one of the best fighters Israel Adesanya on March 8th this year.
Nick Diaz
Nick Diaz is one of the most popular MMA fighters of all time. Despite the fact that he has been chosen as the best fighter several times, he has never won any of the UFC titles. Nick has had a tough career, with constant battles and constantly having to prove his strength and potential.
The first time he released that there was a decent potential in him and that he was capable of doing more, was when he won the titles in the WEC and Strikeforce. This was the moment he had both the ambition and potential as well. Though as mentioned before, odds may not always be in the favor. Nick was defeated first by Carlos Carlos and George St-Pierre. Those were two battles that stopped him from winning the UFC belt.
Nate Diaz
Nate is another famous fighter in the Diaz family. Though Nate is also one of the best fighters, just like his brother has never won the UFC title. Nate has been in the shadow of his brother for quite a long time, but once he had a battle with Conor McGregor, Diaz’s surname became even more important in the MMA world.
He attempted to find the gold back in 2012 against Benson Henderson, though he could not fulfill the attempt. Nat lost a lopsided decision for the UFC lightweight title and has never received another chance to become the owner of the UFC title ever again. While he has never been a gib winner, he has obviously left a footprint in UFC history, by beating McGregor and for the inaugural BMF title.
Alistair Overeem
Another UFC star, Alistair Overeem started his career in IFC back in 2011. Before signing the contract with the UFC, he was fighting in Strikeforce and Dream. He was quite successful there as well. His career and success are not dependent on odds this time. Alistair began very well, with the great debut defeating Brock Lesnar in Octagon. This was indeed a big deal and a great chance to win UFC gold. Though, he managed to fail the drug test just before the battle.
Overeem had his last battle against Harris on May 16th. This was once again a chance to grab the UFC Gold, but the battle never finished in his own favor. Overeem had a great fight and not only the match had a big audience, but a lot of people were betting on the fighters. Alistair has been a favored fighter for many and many betting and gambling operators have been inspired by him. 2020 was also a good time for the online casino promotions as there were quite a few fights that were extremely interesting to bet on. This is not the first time, UFC has become the reason for people to watch the show and then to play, and the most interesting is yet to come.
Urijah Faber
Urijah Faber is one of the most popular fighters as well, who always has some very interesting fights to show. He is one of the best light-weight fighters of his own generation. He has been the California Kid for quite along.
He joined UFC after his success with WEC banners. He had a real chance to win the UFC Gold, yet he failed and lost four titles in a row.
Demian Maia
Not being able to receive the UFC title, for someone who has already won twenty-two fights, is rather strange. Demian Maia has won them all across two weight divisions at the UFC. This is one of the most impressive results you shall ever come across in the UFC world. Some of the names Demian has defeated include Chael Sonner, Jorge Masvidal, Ben Askren, and many more.
Demian is 42 and is soon expected to leave the sport, which is very expected at this age. Though, despite his numerous wins, he won’t be able to find any UFC titles while looking back at his career. He had two chances of winning the title, that he lost to Anderson Silva and Tyron Woodley.
Alexander Gustafsson
Alexander Gustafsson is one of the most successful and one of the most prominent Scandinavian fighters of all time. He definitely has some of the shocking shows for the audience, one of them being back in 2013, when he took Jon Jones to the distance at UFC 165. This shook the whole MMA world.
The Sweden fighter received his second UFC title chance, against Daniel Cormier and took him all the way before losing on the judges scorecards. This was already the second time. Alexander won TKO the second time while battling Jones. He is known to be one of the best fighters to come from Europe.
Dan Henderson
Dan is one of the best fighters of all time who held the Pride welterweight and middleweight titles. This is not everything. Henderson is one of the very few fighters who can boast of deafening the heavyweights. In the case of Henderson, the heavyweight was a legendary Fedor Emelianenko. Despite these facts, Henderson never got a chance to claim the UFC belt.
He then moved to Japan, fighting both the middleweight and the lightweight fighters. Though he lost his chance of getting the belt, with failing the fight to Rampage Jackson and Silva.
Joseph Benavidez
Joseph Benavidez is one of the best fighters and one of the most surprising fighters not to have won the UFC belt yet. He is the greatest fighter and one of the best known in the MMA industry overall. It is said that Benevidez is one of the best to climb until the very peak and fail the last step of putting the flag. This is how he lost some of the most important matches to Demetrious Johnson and Deiveson Figueiredo.
One way or another, Benavidez shall stay one of the best fighters of all time, even without a belt.