3 Unheralded UFC Fighters Prior to TUF

My post about the 5 worst UFC Champions had an interesting response, hopefully it wont ruffle as many feathers as the previous post did.

So here it is, some great fighters from the SEG era (for the most part) that some new mma fans that started watching UFC when TUF came out. Hope ya enjoy.

Carlos Newton - hey since he was ultimately the reason for this post I figured I would start with him. Carlos was a great grappler who I honestly thought got screwed at UFC 17 against Dan Henderson. He lost via split decision. He left the UFC wit ha 2-1 record before fighting Kazushi Sakuraba in one of the greatest mma grappling matches I have ever seen at Pride 13. He went 5-1 after losing to Sakuraba and was brought into face Pat Miletich for the UFC Welterweight Title at UFC 31. He scored one of the craziest chokes in UFC history to pull out the upset. He lost his very next title defense in a classic fight against Matt Hughes. Big career victories over Jose Pele-Landis, Pat Miletich and Renzo Gracie. 15-14 career record is very misleading. Losses to Anderson Silva, Matt Hughes (twice), Kazushi Sakuraba, Renzo Gracie and Dave Menne.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqzNgC02MEc

Murilo Bustamante - Some may argue but let me make mine first. Entered the UFC at UFC 25 with a 5-1 record coming off his spectacular upkick ko of Jerry Bohlander at the famous Pentagon Combat event. Bustamante would beat Yoji Anjo, at UFC 33 he lost a UD to Chuck Liddell, at UFC 35 he won the UFC Middleweight title when he stopped Dave Menne, he defended his title at UFC 37 choking out Matt Lindland in the 3rd round. It was one of the craziest fights in MMA history, in the 1st round Bustamante clearly gets an arm bar and Lindland taps. Big John does not stop the fight and restarts it. Eventually Bustamante submitted Lindland again in the 3rd round. He would never fight in the UFC again. He would go to Pride and have mixed results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGgpcYPGkZY

Tsuyoshi Kohsaka - Tsuyoshi Kohsaka was the least known of the 3 founders of the Alliance. Frank Shamrock brought catch wrestling, Maurice Smith brought the striking and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka brought the guard. Kohsaka was so fun to watch because his guard was like no one else's seen in the UFC at that time. We all now refer to it as a variation of the butterfly guard but at the time it was referred to as, "the T.K. guard". At UFC 16 he defeated Kimo in a minor upset. At Ultimate Brazil Kohsaka pulled off a huge upset when he beat Pete Williams (who was coming off his ko of Coleman). At UFC 18 he would lose a controversial fight to Bas Rutten, there were some questionable stand-ups and stoppages in this one. He would go 1-2 in his next 3 UFC fights beating TIm Lajik and losing to Ricco Rodriguez and Pedro Rizzo. He was still a very fun fighter to watch. Oh ya, also had the honor of being Fedor's only loss for a long time.

Thought when I first saw the chuck/Murillo fight that Murillo might win the decision. It was a surprisingly close fight.

Newton was always an interesting guy.

As for kohsaka, you left out that he was the first guy to beat fedor. Had he not won that fight, then we could have seen randy fight fedor.

Another legend worth looking at is Mazakatsu funaki. Has some great wins over a lot of great fighters.

Pat was already dropping off when Newton beat him, still a nice win and upset, but we could sit here and name other guys with notable upset wins. All he did was lose after that, some to top guys, but yeah there's a lot of guys who have careers litered with losses to top guys. His best showing before that win was a close fight with Hendo.

boomer sooner wrote:

Thought when I first saw the chuck/Murillo fight that Murillo might win the decision. It was a surprisingly close fight.

Newton was always an interesting guy.

As for kohsaka, you left out that he was the first guy to beat fedor. Had he not won that fight, then we could have seen randy fight fedor.

Another legend worth looking at is Mazakatsu funaki. Has some great wins over a lot of great fighters.

I mentioned the Randy win, just didnt go in depth since it wasnt in UFC