{"id":747332,"date":"2026-06-19T19:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/747332\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T19:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:44:13","slug":"opinion-the-greatest-upset-in-mma-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/747332\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: The Greatest Upset in MMA History"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nEditor\u2019s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those
\nof the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of
\nSherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company,
\nEvolve Media.* * *
\n
\nThe way
\nUFC White House: Freedom 250<\/a> played out couldn\u2019t have been
\nscripted better by Hollywood. All seven fights ended by knockout.
\nThe pageantry and prestige of the walkouts featuring Medal of Honor
\nrecipients and first responders, plus music from the United States
\nMarine Band, was perfect for the occasion. There was even a foiled
\nterrorist plot, though we didn\u2019t find out until a couple days
\nafter. To top everything off, the main event saw the American
\nunderdog, Justin
\nGaethje<\/a>, upset previously undefeated Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a> for the lightweight title to cap the evening. While
\nthere were undoubtedly those rooting for Topuria, there wasn\u2019t
\nanyone who was sad to see Gaethje rise up to the moment and claim
\nthe undisputed title, attaining the one thing that had been eluding
\nhim. It was truly a storybook night.<\/p>\n

As soon as Marc Goddard<\/a>
\nwaved off the fight, there was immediately a debate of just how big
\nof an upset Gaethje\u2019s victory was. It was certainly a massive
\nupset, but was it the greatest of all time? Was it bigger than
\nMatt
\nSerra<\/a> upending Georges St.
\nPierre<\/a>? Or Holly Holm<\/a>
\ndelivering the head kick heard around the world on Ronda
\nRousey<\/a>? I would argue it is bigger than either.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s break down Serra\u2019s upset at UFC 69<\/a>
\nfirst. Having bounced out of the
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a>, Serra managed to secure a title
\nshot against GSP as a reward for claiming \u201cThe Ultimate Fighter\u201d
\ncrown for Season 4. It was hardly a definitive victory either,
\nsecuring a split decision over Chris Lytle<\/a> in
\nwhich each scorecard was 30-27 and no one thought a scorecard was
\naskew. That hardly paints a picture of a man deserving of a title
\nshot, much less be the man to end the reign of GSP.<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s two factors that bring down the accomplishment
\nbelow Gaethje\u2019s upset. First, St. Pierre wasn\u2019t GSP yet. The
\ncontest against Serra was GSP\u2019s first after he claimed the title
\nfrom Matt
\nHughes<\/a> at UFC
\n65<\/a>. He didn\u2019t have a single successful title defense under his
\nbelt at that point. It could be argued that loss is what created
\nthe version of GSP that managed to close out his career with 13
\nconsecutive victories, including nine title defenses. GSP never
\nunderestimated an opponent again.<\/p>\n

Second, the manner of victory is important to consider too. Serra
\nmanaged to clip GSP and put him away in the first round. In other
\nwords, GSP got caught: It happens to everyone. Unfortunately for
\nGSP, Serra caught him good. In the case of Gaethje and
\nTopuria, it wasn\u2019t a single punch that did the job. It was a brutal
\nbeatdown that left Topuria bruised, bloodied and blind. That isn\u2019t
\nto say Topuria didn\u2019t have any success during the contest, but he
\nwas a broken man by the end of the fight. Given it is generally the
\nlevels of toughness and durability that separates the elite from
\nthe rest, that\u2019s a feat that is believe is being overlooked in all
\nthe spectacle that has surrounded the event. Gaethje didn\u2019t get
\nlucky. He was undeniably the better man in the cage, even if just
\nfor the night.<\/p>\n

So, what about Holm and Rousey? Holm didn\u2019t just catch Rousey. Holm
\nbattered Rousey from pillar to post for just over a round before
\nmercifully putting her out of her misery with the head kick. Not to
\nmention Rousey was the biggest mixed martial arts star on the
\nplanet at the time and was at the peak of her powers. Even to this
\nday, nearly a decade later, Rousey remains one of the most
\nrecognizable MMA practitioners despite having roughly a minute of
\ncage time since that loss. Essentially, the reasons I\u2019ve given for
\nwhy Gaethje\u2019s upset was superior to Serra\u2019s aren\u2019t applicable in
\nthis case.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a bit more nuance to my argument here, but it is just as
\nviable. Any serious follower of any sport can attest star power
\ndoesn\u2019t always equate to ability. For instance, Conor
\nMcGregor<\/a> is still the biggest MMA star despite the serious
\npossibility he isn\u2019t even one of the Top 100 fighters on the UFC
\nroster. In 1994, B.J. Armstrong was voted to be an All-Star starter
\nlargely because he was Michael
\nJordan<\/a>\u2019s backcourt mate the previous season. A debate could
\nhave been made whether he was a Top 100 player in the league, much
\nless a Top 10 player. Rousey was the biggest star on the planet at
\nthe time. That hardly makes her the best fighter, especially in
\nretrospect.<\/p>\n

Speaking of retrospect, what is the best win of Rousey\u2019s career?
\nMiesha
\nTate<\/a> is the only other UFC champion she defeated. Liz
\nCarmouche<\/a> became a champion in Bellator
\nMMA<\/a> and the
\nProfessional Fighters League<\/a> at flyweight. Respectable wins,
\nbut how do they compare to Topuria\u2019s best wins? In three
\nconsecutive fights, Topuria defeated Alexander
\nVolkanovski<\/a>, Max
\nHolloway<\/a> and Charles
\nOliveira<\/a>. Those three names aren\u2019t just former champions, those
\nare three names that will go down in the annals of MMA history as
\nlegends. It wasn\u2019t just the fact Topuria beat them either. He KO\u2019d
\neach and every one of them, something no one had been able to do to
\nHolloway, nor have they since. That\u2019s keeping in mind Holloway has
\nonly fought top competition for the last decade.<\/p>\n

Rousey was obviously dominant, but it\u2019s more because her level of
\ncompetition had yet to rise to the occasion prior to her defeat.
\nThere was a clear road map to bringing her down; it was a matter if
\nanyone had the confidence and skill to pull it off. WMMA was still
\ndeveloping at the highest levels. Holm finally rose to the
\noccasion. The road map to defeating Topuria was far less obvious.
\nHe was slick enough on the ground to go right at Ryan Hall<\/a>, one
\nof the best pure Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners the UFC has ever
\nseen. Topuria managed to evade being entangled by Bryce
\nMitchell<\/a> and Oliveira. He went toe-to-toe with with Josh Emmett<\/a>
\nand Holloway and beat them at their own game. The path to victory
\nwas less than obvious. All the more credit to Gaethje and his team
\nfor identifying a path.<\/p>\n

I get there will be plenty of people who disagree with me. They\u2019re
\nentitled to be wrong (just playing). Regardless of anyone\u2019s
\nopinion, Gaethje managed to rise to the occasion after having
\nlooked like a shell of himself in his previous appearance — win or
\nnot, he didn\u2019t look good against Paddy
\nPimblett<\/a> — and did so on the biggest possible stage. Add
\neverything up and I\u2019d say it\u2019s clear Gaethje managed to pull off
\nthe biggest upset in MMA history. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[4225,64,63,786,785,44,1721,85],"class_list":["post-747332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-news","tag-opinion","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}