The 411 MMA Top 5 1.30.12: Week 82 – The Worst Ultimate Fighter Winners
Posted by Larry Csonka on 01.30.2012
From Kendall Grove, Efrain Escudero and Travis Lutter to Joe Stevenson, Mac Danzig and more, the 411 MMA writers name their top 5 worst The Ultimate Fighter winners!
Welcome:
Welcome back to the MMA Top 5! What we are going to is take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 MMA will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, plus up to three honorable mentions. It's highly non-official and final, like WAMMA.
And now…
THE WORST ULTIMATE FIGHTER WINNERS
Fighters that won the Ultimate Fighter show, but that went on to have poor UFC careers…
Robert Winfree HM: James Wilks - Wilks is 2-2 with the UFC, his lone win since the shows finale was a boring decision over Peter Sobatta. His two losses have been pretty ugly, and he's got to be on the bubble with the UFC right now.
HM: Ryan Bader - A powerful wrestler with a heavy right hand, Bader's first loss was to Jon Jones (no shame there) but his second was a submission loss to Tito Ortiz of all people. For someone once thought to maybe be a contender Bader has fallen pretty far.
HM: Diego Sanchez - Sanchez has had a few exciting fights during his tenure, but apart from getting his forehead split open by a BJ Penn kick hasn't really accomplished much in the UFC.
5. Mac Danzig - Mac Danzig falls into an interesting spot, because by the time he won TUF, the show had lost some of its luster. His career total with the UFC is 4-5 and he never really seemed like a dominant fighter. He's lucky to still have a job with the UFC, but during his time he's been more prone to losing streaks than anything else. He's lost to talented guys like Jim Miller and Clay Guida, but also to guys like Josh Neer and Matt Wiman. A loss in his next fight could spell the end of his current UFC run, and he'd leave with a whimper, which is pretty much how he arrived.
4. Joe Stevenson - Joe "Daddy" Stevenson won season two of TUF, when winning it meant something, and went on a pretty decent little tear immediately after. His downfall started when he fought BJ Penn for the vacant lightweight title after Sean Sherk was stripped of the belt. BJ outclassed Stevenson in every aspect of MMA and Joe never really recovered. He was very hot and cold after that loss, but his real downfall came at UFC 110 when he fought George Sotiropoulos. Joe lost that fight via decision and really was never in the fight. After that he was KO'd by Mac Danzig, then lost a decision to Danny Castillo before deciding to cut to featherweight. In his featherweight debut he fought uninspired against Javier Vasquez, lost another decision and was cut.
3. Efrain Escudero - Poor Efrain. He basically wrestled his way through his season of TUF, but with his Mexican heritage and powerful right hand, he was seen as a possible golden boy to help the UFC break into the Hispanic market. He won his first fight after winning the show, but after that it was all downhill for him. Evan Dunham submitted him, but beat Dan Lauzon via decision after that. Then he missed weight by three pounds and was out struck and choked out by Charles Oliveira and was released. He managed to get another shot against Jakob Volkmann some nine months later, but spent the fight either trying failed choke attempts or on his back smothered by Volkmann. For someone thought to be a possible cash cow for the UFC, Efrain fell very far very fast.
2. Kendall Grove - There are other TUF winners with worse records, but I'll always look at Kendall Grove as one of the worst TUF winners in the shows history. He won season three at middleweight, back when winning TUF actually meant something, and was pointed out as the most improved contestant from that year. Sporting a long lanky frame and kickboxing experience there were some pretty big expectations on Grove. The problem was, for someone who'd show so much improvement during the show, Grove didn't improve at all in the UFC. In his last UFC fight he looked remarkably similar in terms of skill to the first. Grove never really learned to wrestle, handle pressure, or use his big reach advantage.
1. Travis Lutter - Really this is the only choice unless you completely discount season four. If I did my number two would be here, but I don't. Travis Lutter pretty much breezed through the other middleweights on season four of TUF and earned a title shot after submitting Patrick Cote with an armbar. What followed was about as close to a perfect disaster as you can get. The biggest problem, Lutter showed up for his title shot and missed weight. Right there he blew the single biggest opportunity of his professional career, and likely his personal life. Then the submission expert was tapped out via triangle choke and elbows in the second round. Bad true, but if he'd just lost to Anderson Silva it wouldn't have been a disaster. But missing weight is horribly unprofessional at any time, much less for a title fight. He followed that performance up by getting beaten down by Rich Franklin despite having Franklin in a tight armbar, and hasn't been seen in the UFC or any big MMA promotion since. The tragic tale of Travis Lutter might be the biggest blown opportunity in UFC history.
Jonathan Solomon HM: Amir Sadollah - He gets an honorable mention because he had no pro experience when he first entered the octagon. So, he gets some slack there. While he has shown signs of improvement, he has also looked weak against Johny Hendricks and Stun Gun Kim. Both are obviously talented fighters so it's not terrible. Since Amir is over 30-years old, time is not on his side to becoming a top fighter.
5. Efrain Escudero - Escudero earned his UFC contract with an upset win in the finale of the TUF8 season. He defeated season favorite Phillipe Nover (who I believe Dana White infamously described as a lightweight version of Anderson Silva) in no uncertain terms. He followed that up by knocking out Cole Miller nearly a year later. However, he then went 1-2 with both losses by submission. Plus, in his September 2010 fight, he missed weight by four pounds and angered UFC brass enough that they cut him. While he was able to go 5-1 outside the UFC, when he returned in December, he lost to Jacob Volkmann. Escudero has potential, he's shown it at various times in his career. Plus, he's young (only 26-years old) so odds are as long as he can put in the work in the gym and stay disciplined, there's no reason he cannot improve.
4. James Wilks - The underwhelming TUF9 season pitted Brits against Americans and the welterweight winner was James Wilks. He had an impressive finale win as he choked out DaMarques Johnson (who himself as etched out a nice UFC career to date). Since then, he's 1-2 and has not fought since October 2010. You may not even have been able to recall him still being in the UFC. He is, but who knows when we'll see him back in the cage.
3. Mac Danzig - Coming off the show, Danzig had some hefty expectations from fans because of his experience. He was 17-4-1 after his UFC debut, being a mainstay of the King of the Cage promotion and getting a cup of tea in Pride. He even went 2-0 in the UFC but has since lost 5 of his last seven fights. His only win over the past 13 months was a knockout of Joe Stevenson (for Joe Daddy, he was well on his way to the end of his active career). He's turned into a fighter with relative name value but he just has not won enough to be considered a lightweight contender in the UFC. Remember since 2007, he only has four wins.
2. Kendall Grove - Michael Bisping won the light heavyweight TUF3 championship. Kendall Grove won the middleweight TUF3 championship. He appeared to have a big career ahead of him because of his frame (6'6 with nearly an 80 inch reach) and grappling ability. Remember, he choked out Alan Belcher in 2007. However, he was unable to string together much consistent success throughout his UFC run. His biggest winning streak was only two wins (on two occasions) while he suffered defeats to Patrick Cote, Jorge Rivera, Ricardo Almeida, Mark Munoz, Demian Maia and Tim Boetsch. Since leaving the UFC, he has put together a pair of wins against Diesel Riggs and Minowaman and is staying active. Don't be surprised if he makes it back to the UFC in the future, but as of now, his run in the company left a lot to be desired.
1. Travis Lutter - Yes, he gives the best case for being numero uno on this list. Immediately after becoming the TUF4 champion, he had a poor weight cut in his next fight. Unfortunately, that fight was a title fight with Anderson Silva and thus, the main event was not as advertised. Plus, he had just one more fight in the UFC (sacrificed to Rich Franklin) before being cut. After two more fights elsewhere, he called t a career and now runs training centers in Texas. He had a golden opportunity and who knows what would have happened if the weight cut went according to plan.
Jon Butterfield
5. Efrain Escudero - Had I not witnessed Escudero's feeble performance against Jacob Volkmann (in which he displayed complete and utter tactical ineptitude) I probably wouldn't rank Efrain at all in this list. Harshly cut the first time round, Efrain defeated decent opponents like Cole Miller and Dan Lauzon before leaving the company after failing to make weight in a losing effort to Charles Oliveira (a punishment that only befalls fighters at the UFC's convenience). Still, after going 5-1 outside the UFC, you'd have thought Escudero would come back with all guns blazing – and he did. But only if you consider repeatedly flopping to your back looking for incredibly unrealistic guillotines as ‘all guns blazing'.
4. Mac Danzig - One of the few fighters in UFC history to have endured a three fight losing streak and retained his job, TUF 6 winner Mac Danzig isn't a boring fighter to watch, but his record is somewhat uninspiring. Wiman, Miller, Neer and Guida are all good, solid fighters at 155, but with the division being so competitive, Danzig would have had to hope to beat at least one of them. He didn't, and though Stevenson and Bocek are feathers in the cap, Danzig will never threaten the lightweight elite in the UFC – period.
3. Kendall Grove - Hawaiian Kendall Grove is busy picking up the pieces in ProElite after crashing out of the UFC with a record of 7-6, a record that saw him lose to a whole host of mid-level UFC fighters, squeak past two with uninspiring split decision victories, and ultimately, fail to fulfill the potential many saw in him. Hell, anyone who beats guys like Alan Belcher and Ed Herman early on SHOULD go on to improve even further beyond them – but Grove never did. It would be very difficult, in fact, to pick Grove over either of these fighters these days.
2. Travis Lutter - I get why Lutter is considered the worst TUF winner, but when your only UFC losses were to Anderson Silva and Rich Franklin, it seems a little harsh. Still, when you miss weight for the biggest fight of your entire career, you open yourself up to such derision. Lutter blew his second chance in the UFC, lost the hype that came with winning the show, and was promptly dismissed (after which he found himself outgunned by future UFC gatekeeper Rafael Natal in Moosin, before retiring). Not good.
1. James Wilks - For some reason, the UFC seem to think that British fans adore Americanised Englishman James ‘Lightning' Wilks and put him on both the UFC 105 and UFC 120 cards. I can confirm that, contrarily, nothing could be further from the truth – and it's not because he looks, sounds and acts like an American after 11 years in the States, it's actually because he's boring as hell. Wilks' last two fights with Sobotta and Patrick have been so devoid of action they scarcely still classify as ‘fights', and even Matt ‘The Immortal' Brown struggled to get an engaging bout out of The Ultimate Fight: UK vs USA winner. I'm finding it hard to look past Wilks as the ‘Worst Ultimate Fighter Winner' because, like the woeful Claude Patrick, his strongest skills are defensive and serve only to neutralize opponents – maybe one day he'll prove me wrong on that score, but I won't be holding my breath.
Jeffrey Harris
5. Efrain Escudero - I liked Efrain a lot. He was an underdog as the clear favorite to win the lightweight bracket on his season was actually Phillipe Nover, remember him? Escudero actually started his UFC run strong after beating Nover as he knocked out Cole Miller who is a good UFC fighter with a good record. Escudero then got submitted in the first loss of his career by Evan Dunham. OK you lost for the first time, not the worst thing in the world. He got back on the winning track with a pretty lackluster win over Dan Lauzon. But then he came in pretty overweight in a fight with newcomer Charles Oliveira. That is pretty unacceptable to be a lightweight as well as the TUF winner. Oliveira has now found his way back in the UFC but was unable to beat Jakob Volkmann in his first fight back. Now Escudero is in a place where he really needs to earn his spot in the UFC again and prove he belongs there all over again.
4. Mac Danzig - Danzig is an interesting cat and I was glad to see him on The Ultimate Fighter. He was clearly the best fighter on the show that season, but that arguably might have been a curse as Danzig had a really easy way into the UFC. Since that time he's had a pretty middling win. He started off good by winning the show and even submitting a strong grappler like Mark Bocek. But then he lost three straight and has failed to really keep up any momentum whenever he gets it. He got an impressive knockout over Joe Stevenson but since that he lost a second time to Matt Wiman, a rematch from their first fight after a controversial finish. I think the fight was close and Danzig could've won if he was a little more aggressive. Danzig is a good fighter, but he's been an overall disappointment in his UFC run with his 4-5 record there.
3. Kendall Grove - All things considered, UFC ended up giving Grove a job for six years or so. Not bad considering he ended up having a 7-6 record there. Grove started off strong but started hitting a skid when he got knocked out by Patrick Cote and Jorge Rivera in consecutive fights. Since that time he generally won a couple or usually won and then lost and then he lost two to finally get cut by the UFC. Grove and Ed Herman had a pretty amazing fight in the TUF 3 finals, which was a huge season for the show with the Shamrock/Ortiz feud and drew some great ratings. Unfortunately, Grove did not live up to the potential he showed from that bout.
2. James Wilks - Wilks looked good when he won TUF and he seems to have peaked there. Even the guy he beat to win the show, Damarques Johnson, currently boasts a better and more impressive UFC record at this point. Wilks is a decent fighter but since winning the show he's not had much of a run to get excited about.
1. Travis Lutter - Lutter is on the list really because to win the ultimate fighter and fail to make weight in the biggest fight of all time in your career in a fight for the title against Anderson Silva is one of the worst things you ever could have done. Just being in a title fight and maybe if you don't win doing your job is making weight. But this is a fight that radically could've changed Lutter's life and his family's life for the better. Lutter failed to make weight and the most of this opportunity. It is really unfortunate because Lutter did work hard and won the show, but you should always make weight especially when a title is on the line.
Stewart Lange
5. Joe Stevenson - While Joe did start fairly strong in his UFC career after the Ultimate Fighter, albeit losing his first fight out of TUF, once he lost in his Lightweight title opportunity against BJ Penn, he hit the skids and only won 3 from 9 in the rest of his UFC tenure. A drop to Featherweight failed to give Joe the success he looked for and was subsequently cut.
4. James Wilks - Who? Yeah, that basically sums up the career of James Wilks. I disagree with some of the others listing him so high on their lists because, frankly, I don't know what they expected from him.
3. Mac Danzig - Every time Danzig fights, he disappoints me. I recently re-watched his TUF season and honestly, you can tell he's the winner right from the get go. The problem is though, that he's only won three times since beating Tommy Speer in the Finale. The guy has crazy potential and tends to win in big fashion- but just looks like crap when he loses. It's a shame in my eyes.
2. Kendall Grove - I can't stand Kendall Grove, so my high ranking of him here is probably a bit unfounded. His wins over Belcher and Herman aren't as impressive as they seem on paper- both men would walk through him now, but the guy is a douche bag and the epitome of wasted talent.
1. Travis Lutter - The infamous weight cut before his bout against Anderson Silva ranks highly on these lists but rightly so. I hate fighters missing weight, but for a title shot it's unacceptable. Still, Lutter lost that fight, lost again to Rich Franklin, fought a couple more times and then retired. Hardly inspiring. Most MMA fans now will probably struggle to remember him, and honestly, it's hard to blame them.
YOUR TURN!
List your Top Five for this week's topic on the comment section using the following format:
Shocked Amir hasn't gotten more mentions. He's terrible.
Posted By: Alex (Guest) on January 29, 2012 at 11:32 PM
Joe Stevenson had wins over Melvin Guillard, Nate Diaz, Spencer Fisher, Gleison Tibau, Kurt Pellegrino and Yves Edwards before falling HARD. I won't dispute that he finished his UFC run poorly but he did better than fuckin' Amir Sadollah who is just terrible. I wouldn't disagree with either Sadollah or Grove as worst.
Posted By: Jared B. (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 12:28 AM
I like Stevenson but it's hard to argue with him being listed. Very experienced, part of the Jackson camp, solid well rounded fighter. He just seemed to lose interest in competing after the Penn fight.
Posted By: K. Bett (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 01:08 AM
nobody but Travis Lutter can be #1 here
Posted By: Jay Maleezy (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 01:44 AM
Travis Lutter deserves all 5 spots.
Posted By: KSti (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 02:34 AM
Pretty unfair for Lutter. People forget that while he blew the title shot, it was the best performance anyone had ever put against Anderson Silva until Sonnen.
Posted By: WilliamMorgan (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 09:40 AM
There has been 21 TUF champions. 4 of them earned title shots due to their performances after TUF (not counting Lutter or Serra). There is no way any of those guys who fought there way into title contention like Joe Daddy or Diego should get mentioned over guys who can't even win half of their matches against lower level competiton if we are considering all TUF champions equal. Stevenson had a decent career before he lost interest and too many fights caught up to him. He beat Nate Diaz - who no one mentioned as a disappointment. And no one should have. I think these lists are are little too much ranking where fighters are now and not what they did in their careers. My list - 1. Lutter (obviously), 2. Grove, 3. Wilks, 4. Amir, 5. Escudero (also considered Danzig, Pearson, McGee and Brookins).
Posted By: MJH (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 09:54 AM
Amir and Mac shouldn't be on this list, they haven't lived up to expectations but they aren't that bad
Posted By: 420 (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 12:57 PM
Travis Lutter deserves all 5 spots.
Posted By: KSti (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 02:34 AM
He needs at least that many spots for all the extra weight he didn't cut because he's unprofessional and a dumbass.
Posted By: Alan (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 01:32 PM
Wilkes has been hopeless since Ultimate Fihgter 9...We certianly don't "Love" him here in the UK I can assure you.
Posted By: RockerDropper (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 05:37 PM
"He's lost to talented guys like Jim Miller and Clay Guida, but also to guys like Josh Neer and Matt Wiman."
Please stop writing about MMA.
Thanks!
Posted By: Guest#5810 (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 07:01 PM
"Travis Lutter deserves all 5 spots.
Posted By: KSti (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 02:34 AM"
Retweet
Posted By: The Stealer (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 07:13 PM
Court McGee is undefeated in the UFC. He may have had a bit of injury trouble but how in the hell is that a disappointment?
Posted By: Jared B. (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 03:44 PM
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