- 3 months ago
Pride always comes before the fall — and in combat sports, that fall can be devastating. Join us as we count down the most shocking moments where overconfident fighters were brought crashing back down to earth in the ring, cage, or octagon! What do you think is the greatest combat sports upset of all time? Let us know in the comments below!
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00:00We're almost 90 seconds in, and as yet, Tyson has done no real damage.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 times that overly confident fighters ended
00:09up taking a huge L in the ring, cage, or octagon.
00:12Do something about it! Do something about it! Yeah, you'll do nothing!
00:17Number 10. Jake Paul gets starched by Anthony Joshua.
00:21To say that Jake Paul cherry-picked his first batch of opponents in the boxing ring would be an understatement.
00:25Aging veterans, YouTubers, and athletes who had no relation to combat sports made up his resume by the time 2025
00:30came around.
00:32Sure, Jake had made a boatload of money, but many fans couldn't understand why he was strutting like he was
00:36the second coming of Rocky Marciano.
00:38I'm all things. I'm an entrepreneur first. I'm a venture capitalist. I'm an influencer. I make Instagram posts. I'm a
00:45boxer. I'm a CEO.
00:48When he decided to actually take on a high-level heavyweight in Anthony Joshua, everyone instantly knew that he was
00:53biting off more than he could chew.
00:54And yet he takes the knee again. This is not Joshua. That's Jake Paul's fault!
00:59Indeed, the paycheck was nice, but he had no problems on fight night outclassing him and leaving his jaw severely
01:04broken.
01:04On goes Paul!
01:07Number 9. Ricardo Mayorga learns a brutal lesson. They don't make him quite like Ricardo Mayorga anymore.
01:12This former fan favorite was known for his highly abrasive personality and his tendency to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes
01:17during fight week.
01:18That's how I became a champion and I liked him and I kept doing it.
01:20Part of his unique brand of mental warfare involved hurling brutal insults at his opponents, crossing every possible line.
01:26He intensely believes that a huge part of this is the intimidation game.
01:31Oscar De La Hoya was one such opponent, and after being pushed to his absolute limit by Mayorga consistently during
01:37fight week, the bout finally arrived.
01:39When we say that De La Hoya punished Mayorga, we mean it.
01:41A right cross followed by a sensational left hook.
01:45And so much for the notion that De La Hoya didn't have the power to knock Mayorga down.
01:50His defense was on point from the get-go and he was able to batter Mayorga confidently until it was
01:55stopped midway through the sixth round.
01:57He's getting the ball over!
01:58Number 8. Juliana Pena's post-upset bravado shattered.
02:02It would be unfair to say that Juliana Pena got lucky when she defeated Amanda Nunez the first time around.
02:06But the lioness did not look like herself on that night.
02:09I was 110% fully committed to walking out of there with my hand raised and with that belt that
02:15night.
02:15I was not going to be denied and there was going to be no other outcome.
02:18She was stifled by Pena's jab in a way that didn't make sense.
02:21Given her pedigree and when the takedown and submission eventually came, it just felt off.
02:24We've seen in this sport when you've been a champion for a long time and those expectations are just so
02:28out of control
02:30that it can have an impact mentally on you and I don't think anybody is immune to that.
02:35Pena took this upset victory as a license to adopt a truly wild level of bravado from that moment onwards.
02:41Had a new bantamweight queen really arrived?
02:43Or would Nunez rebound and right this wrong?
02:45As it turned out, the GOAT had a truly brutal revenge plot in mind.
02:48And when UFC 277 came, she absolutely decimated Pena over five rounds.
02:54I wanted to feel comfortable a little bit in the fight until I started taking her down.
02:57So, and tonight was all about strategy.
03:00Number 7. Ronda Rousey's streak ends in shocking upset.
03:03Despite the fact that she remains a trailblazing figure within combat sports,
03:06Ronda Rousey well and truly got a little bit too big for her boots toward the end.
03:10Yeah, I'm ready for every situation.
03:12While she was out there signing movie deals and chasing endorsements,
03:15the former world champion boxer Holly Holm was concocting the perfect game plan to take her out.
03:19I'm not going for a participation ribbon.
03:21When UFC 193 rolled around, Holm was extremely locked in to the task at hand,
03:26and from the opening bell, she dominated the reigning champion.
03:29Rousey couldn't get close enough to put her world-class judo to any use,
03:32and some very clear holes in her striking game became very noticeable.
03:35In the second round, Holm closed the show,
03:37staggering Ronda on the feet before finishing her with that now-iconic head kick.
03:41I made this fight because this was the fight to make.
03:43Number 6. Canelo Alvarez's upset by Dimitri Bival.
03:47The great Saul Canelo Alvarez's rise through the divisions was incredible to watch.
03:51To see him go from welterweight all the way up to light heavyweight was a real thrill,
03:54leaving no doubt about his status as a generational great.
03:57Canelo now throwing a few more uppercuts, too, in this round already.
04:00However, defeating an aging Sergei Kovalev at light heavyweight was one thing.
04:04Doing the same to a prime Dimitri Bival is another.
04:07And that's what you need when you're fighting Canelo.
04:09You need that discipline.
04:11You don't fight with emotion.
04:12You fight with intelligence.
04:14Canelo was getting a little too confident in his ability to navigate heavier weight classes,
04:18and in there with Bival, his shortcomings were finally shown.
04:21Bival was a different level of light heavyweight out there.
04:23And even though the signs were there, he left us all shocked by comfortably outworking Alvarez
04:27to bring his momentum to a halt.
04:37Number 5. Anderson Silva gets punished at UFC 162.
04:41Part of what made the great former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva so unmissable
04:45was his willingness to take risks that others would not.
04:52Dropping his hands and challenging his opponents to try and hit him was a common tactic,
04:56often resulting in a deft counter from the spider.
04:58Unfortunately, when he came face to face with the powerful American wrestler Chris Weidman
05:02at UFC 162, it was that very same daredevil behavior that cost him.
05:06I think he has all the skill to beat Anderson Silva.
05:09Follow the blueprint, bud.
05:11After attempting to lean backwards out of the way of Weidman's punches,
05:14he didn't anticipate his opponent lengthening his combo with one extra shot.
05:17This punch landed clean on Silva's chin, shocking the world,
05:20then leading to the crowning of a new middleweight champion of the world.
05:23He's a good competitor.
05:24He does bring his skills, and then whatever happens, happens.
05:27But he does compete well.
05:28I have to give him credit for that.
05:29Number 4. Anthony Joshua is shocked by Andy Ruiz Jr.
05:32There's no denying Anthony Joshua's status as one of the best heavyweights of his era.
05:36Great job. He walked straight into that.
05:38That said, he has been guilty of more than a few instances of overly cocky and ego-driven behavior.
05:42Sure, Andy Ruiz Jr. doesn't look like much,
05:44but his incredibly deceptive speed and power
05:47ended up being Joshua's worst nightmare on one fateful night in 2019.
05:51See what he just did right there?
05:52Look, Ruiz can't counter.
05:53He's a sneaky counterpuncher.
05:54He's a quiet puncher.
05:56And that's why Joshua's a little leery right now.
05:58AJ was the superstar of the two,
06:00indestructible in his own mind right up until he wasn't.
06:02When Ruiz first sent him down to the canvas,
06:04Joshua's chin and his confidence never recovered.
06:07Here's the second knockdown.
06:08That was a hard right hand.
06:09Even though he tried to smile his way through these rough moments,
06:11you could tell that his ego is being completely upended.
06:14And that's four knockdowns in.
06:16Number three, the fight of the century.
06:17Billed as the fight of the century,
06:19this fight saw the former champion Muhammad Ali,
06:22who never truly lost his belt,
06:23fighting the current heavyweight king Joe Frazier,
06:25who never took the title off of him.
06:27It had all the feelings of a unification bout,
06:29and Ali wasted no time accusing Frazier of being a paper champ.
06:32This will be like a kid out of the Olympics
06:34meeting the fastest heavyweight champion that ever lived.
06:38He took his trash talk to some pretty heavy places too,
06:40giving Smoke and Joe some additional motivation
06:42to shut him up when it mattered most.
06:44Frazier is not the easy target he used to be.
06:47He's bobbing and waving all the time.
06:49The fight was competitive,
06:50but its biggest moment came when Frazier dropped Ali to the canvas,
06:53shocking the world.
06:54In the end, the decision went his way.
06:55Though Ali would win the trilogy,
06:57Frazier drew first blood.
06:58For the first time in his career,
07:01Muhammad Ali was beaten.
07:02Number 2.
07:03Conor McGregor taps out to Khabib.
07:05Lines relating to culture, family, and religion
07:07were crossed by Conor McGregor
07:08as soon as he had the opportunity
07:10to trash talk Khabib Nurmagomedov.
07:12His own countrymen,
07:14his own people that he's turned his back on,
07:17they want to see him gone too,
07:19and I am going to do it in the name of the Russian people.
07:22The eagle made a mortal enemy out of the Irishman
07:24during the build-up to April 2018's UFC 223,
07:27and when their fight was booked for UFC 229,
07:29things got even worse.
07:30The endlessly patient Khabib
07:32had his limits tested consistently
07:34by Conor's relentless insults.
07:35Are you disrespecting your president Vladimir Putin?
07:40No.
07:40Why not?
07:40Are you disrespecting your president Vladimir Putin?
07:43No.
07:43On fight night, though,
07:44McGregor's trash-talking could not save him.
07:46Khabib even knocked the legendary striker down in round 2
07:48before submitting him in the 4th.
07:50He then out-showmanshiped the showman
07:52by nearly causing an all-out riot
07:53immediately after the fight,
07:55jumping into the crowd to attack Conor's teammate Dylan Danis,
07:58the ultimate slice of humble pie in MMA.
08:00I told you guys,
08:02everything I'm going to change 6th October,
08:04and I do this.
08:05Alhamdulillah, thank you so much.
08:07Before we unveil our top pick,
08:08here are a few honorable mentions.
08:10Roy Jones Jr. falls to Antonio Tarver,
08:13the humbling moment that followed heavyweight success.
08:15And now Tarver goes back to his jab,
08:17hit stones into the corner.
08:18Michael Bisping falls at UFC 217.
08:21A returning legend takes out this brash and cocky Brit.
08:24Prince Nassim Hamed's humbling at the MGM Grand.
08:26Barrera knocks Hamed down a few pegs in iconic performance.
08:29Big left hook by Barrera!
08:31Michael Bisping's UFC 100 downfall.
08:33Dan Henderson sends the count to the shadow realm.
08:36Adrian Broner meets Marcos Maidana's wrath,
08:39the ultimate taste of your own medicine moment in the ring.
08:42You're going to be home!
08:43He's going to staggered Broner again!
08:53Before we continue,
08:55check out this single from Sound Mojo's album Balance,
08:58classical music reimagined as rock, hard rock, and metal.
09:01Check out the full track and album below.
09:03Archer calls, rise and ruin, night and noon,
09:09all are prisoners of the moon.
09:18Number one, Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson.
09:21Perhaps the greatest instance of arrogance in boxing history
09:24came when Iron Mike Tyson took on James Buster Douglas in Tokyo back in 1990.
09:28I'm the best. I'm the best.
09:30I'm not a tech book fighter or jab right hand.
09:32I fight to win. I do everything to win.
09:35At this point in time, he was one of the biggest stars on the planet,
09:37flying way too close to the sun for his own good,
09:39while utterly disregarding his opponent.
09:41Well, I don't know if he's going to shock the world,
09:43but Douglas has shocked me so far.
09:46In fact, there was so much confidence in the corner of Mike Tyson
09:48ahead of his clash with Douglas
09:49that he supposedly didn't have an ice pack in his corner
09:52to treat any potential damage mid-fight.
09:54I mean, what he's doing is what other fighters
09:55who have had Tyson in trouble
09:57have backed off to admire their work.
09:59And when he got him in trouble, he went at him.
10:02When the bout got underway,
10:03Douglas showed up and put on the performance of his lifetime,
10:06KOing Tyson in the 10th round
10:07to pull off the biggest upset in the history of the sport.
10:10It's over.
10:12Mike Tyson has been knocked out.
10:15Unbelievable.
10:16But what do you think is the greatest combat sports upset of all time?
10:20Let us know in the comments below.
10:21After the...
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