Mike Bohn
August 6, 2024 11:16 am ET
For every fight in the UFC with a winner, there is also a loser. And unfortunately for some, the losses happen more regularly than others. And for an even more finite group, the losses happen at a rate that seemingly can’t be stopped.
The sport of MMA is far more tolerable of defeat than what has been exhibited over the history of boxing. There used to be a time when back-to-back UFC losses were enough to be cut from the roster without much explanation required. Three-in-a-row? That would be a death sentence.
In some instances, however, fighters will get a longer leash. Some because of personal accolades or star power, some because of circ*mstance, but any time the losses have hit half-a-dozen or longer, it’s always because of something outside the norm.
These are the stories behind the longest losing skids to ever take place under the UFC banner.
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6 –Elvis Sinosic
Elvis Sinosic
Elvis Sinosic is a trailblazer in his own right as the first Australian-born fighter to compete for a UFC title. He made that bit of history when he unsuccessfully challenged Tito Ortiz for the light heavyweight belt in his second promotional at UFC 32 in June 2001.
That was the high of Sinosic’s UFC run. He would drop another pair of fights afterward, marking his departure from the roster. Sinosic worked his way back, but would drop back-to-back bouts in his second stint. He won twice outside the UFC to get one final call back against Michael Bisping at UFC 70 in April 2007, but would suffer a TKO defeat to close out his rough tenure.
Sinosic’s losing skid is the most disjointed on the list, having taken place over three stints and just under six years. However, it stood alone as the record for a number of years.
Sinosic’s MMA record: 7-11-2
Sinosic’s UFC record: 1-6
Consecutive UFC losses: Six
6 –Phil Baroni
Phil Baroni
Similar to Sinosic, the octagon struggles of Phil Baroni came over multiple stints with the promotion and many years.
Baroni made his debut at UFC 30 in February 2001 in what was just his second MMA fight. He would start 3-1 in the UFC, including one of the great punching flurry knockouts in history against Dave Menne at UFC 39. The excitement around “The New York Bad Ass” would fizzle, however, with four straight losses, leading to his departure.
Baroni remade his name overseas under the PRIDE FC banner, and would eventually return to UFC in June 2009 after its purchase and absorption of Strikeforce. He dropped back-to-back fights to Brad Tavares and Amir Sadollah, bringing his overall UFC losing skid to six fights and marking the end of his days inside the octagon.
Baroni’s MMA record: 16-19
Baroni’s UFC record: 3-7
Consecutive UFC losses: Six
6 –Hector Lombard
Hector Lombard
After a decorated run outside the UFC that included a stint as Bellator middleweight champion, Hector Lombard finally came to the promotion in July 2022. Things looked on the up for him after winning three of his first five bouts with the company against the likes of Jake Shields and Nate Marquardt, but then the result took a sharp turn.
Lombard’s win over Josh Burkman at UFC 182 in January 2015 was flipped to a no contest after he tested positive for a banned substance, and when he returned 14 months later, the defeats stacked up. He would lose six consecutive fights from March 2016 to September 2018, including an all-time highlight-reel knockout from Dan Henderson’s elbow at UFC 199.
Lombard’s MMA record: 34-11-1 with three no contests
Lombard’s UFC record: 3-8
Consecutive UFC losses: Six
7 – B.J. Penn
B.J. Penn
B.J. Penn is simultaneously a UFC Hall of Famer, one of the most talented and accomplished fighters to ever grace the octagon, and the first to lose seven consecutive fights with the company.
What distinguishes Penn from everyone else on the list before him, however, is the level of competition his defeats came against. “The Prodigy” was nothing if not stubborn when it came to only fighting the best, and that was a catalyst in one of the sadder endings to a legendary career.
Although Penn’s losses earlier in his career are a crucial part of his story, his highs overshadowed them for many years. It started to get bad in October 2011, though, when he got dished out a brutal beatdown from Nick Diaz at UFC 137.
Penn would spend another nearly eight years trying to find victory again, but to no avail. The loss to Diaz was followed by Rory MacDonald, Franke Edgar, Yair Rodriguez, Denis Siver, Ryan Hall and, finally, Clay Guida, to set the record for longest losing skid in UFC history. And that record stood alone for nearly half a decade.
Penn’s MMA record: 16-14-2
Penn’s UFC record: 12-13-1
Consecutive UFC losses: Seven
8 –Tony Ferguson
Tony Ferguson
Penn finally got himself some company in the dubious annals of history courtesy of Tony Ferguson, who also has the unique element to his story of going from the longest winning streak in UFC lightweight history at the time to a record-tying all-time skid.
Ferguson was arguably the best lightweight in the world around 2017-2018, but despite beating all the competition in front of him, he never got the chance to truly prove it. He had a brief run with the interim belt, but injuries, fight cancellations (particularly with Khabib Nurmagomedov) and other politics plagued Ferguson. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and he hasn’t won since.
“El Cucuy” put together a 12-fight winning streak at 155 pounds, then in the UFC’s first event back after the pandemic hit, Ferguson fought Justin Gaethje for another interim belt at UFC 249 in May 2022. Whether he was impacted by a highly-criticized double weight cut prior to the event, or just simply was battered by the better man in Gaethje, the magic of Ferguson has never come back after that night.
Similar to Penn, Ferguson’s losing streak has been counterbalanced by the outrageous level of competition. His record-tying run of defeats came to Gaethje, Charles Oliveira, Beneil Dariush, Michael Chandler, Nate Diaz, King Green, Paddy Pimblett. and Michael Chiesa.
No fighter on the list comes close to Ferguson in terms of the timespan in which the losses happened. Unfortunately for anyone who merely looks at the number of consecutive defeats on paper, they will see Ferguson alone in the history books.
Ferguson’s MMA record: 25-11
Ferguson’s UFC record: 15-9
Consecutive UFC losses: Eight
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