Small moments that changed the history of the UFC/MMA

This popped into my head while watching UFC 263, and seeing how popular Nate Diaz is. If RDA didn’t get hurt leading into the RDA vs Conor fight, allowing Nate Diaz to step in as a late replacement, Nate doesn’t turn into the star he is today. Before any of you Diaz dorks tries to disagree, the last PPV Nate even fought on was UFC 141 in 2011, and even his title fight was on free tv. If the UFC thought they could make money with him on PPV, they would have. He headlined a few free shows, but that was it…and his fight before Conor was against Michael Johnson, and it wasn’t even a co-main on free tv.

Then RDA gets hurt, Nate gets the win and the rest is history. Nate and Conor fight a 3rd time, and RDA misses out on the big PPV fight. What if RDA didn’t get hurt? That version of RDA was a motherfucker, and the entire landscape of the UFC would have been different if he beats Conor at 155. There’s no rematch, Conor drops back to 145 similar to the way Izzy just did to 185.

Another moment that felt small at the time, Cejudo getting the split decision over mighty mouse. Don’t get me wrong, it felt big at the time, beating an all time great in his prime…but it opened the door to MM being traded for Askren, and without that we never get the viral KO that turned Masvidal into a star. He’s another guy that the hardcores loved but wasn’t getting a title shot, or headlining a PPV. That moment changed everything.

The trade also changed things for Askren too. Without the short UFC run and the popularity he gained there, he’s not fighting Jake Paul for a million dollars…and without the Ben fight, there’s no Woodley fight either. Jake Paul is likely still targeting Bellator guys, and they possibly even co-promote the fucking thing.

Another moment, Rashad Evans getting hurt, paving the way for Jon Jones to fight for the belt. His record of being the youngest champion will likely never be broken. If Rashad doesn’t get hurt, and ends up beating Shogun…how long before Jon gets his shot? Does Jon end up being the one to leave Jackson-Wink because they stick with their champion Rashad? Does it play out like Cain and DC, with one guy changing weight classes, meaning Jon to HWT? I doubt Jon changes, but it would have been interesting to see how that feud plays out if Rashad was never injured and won the belt. Now Jon is the GOAT, and has records for title defenses. If he didn’t get a title shot for another couple years, how does that change things? If he’s a couple years older when he wins the belt, is he a little more mature and not acting crazy?

What other small moments like injuries and close decisions going one way or the other ended up being huge moments for the UFC?

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How are any of these considered “small” moments? Lol

Rorion deciding to put in Royce instead of Rickson was huge. I think Rickson would have made BJJ even more popular - people like superheroes. But the choice of Royce I think drove a lot of people to BJJ that would otherwise not have done sports, and that’s pretty awesome.

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Someone getting hurt and needing to pull out of a title fight is pretty common, happens multiple times a year. That’s the point. RDA rolling his ankle is a fairly small thing, and likely not even remotely close to the biggest injury of his career. Yet without him fucking up his ankle a couple weeks before a fight, Nate Diaz never turns into a star.

That’s the point…RDA pulling out of a fight was no big deal, but it led to pretty big thing that never happen otherwise.

Same for Rashad getting hurt. We see guys get hurt all the time, and just end up fighting for the belt a few months later, no big deal…but Rashad getting hurt when he did kicked off a domino effect that changed MMA.

One judge scores 1 round the other way, and Mighty Mouse is still champ. The trade never happens, no Askren, no Masvidal viral moment. There’s no way anyone would have thought that one round being scored the other way would lead to such crazy shit in the future.

That’s literally the point of the thread. A small moment that kicked off a domino effect that changed MMA.

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Definitely. I remember hearing about MMA and Royce Gracie after UFC 2. I distinctly remember it…I was at a baseball practice and a kid on my team (the older/big kid that smoked cigarettes like Kelly from Bad News Bears) was talking about how amazing Royce was, how he was so small and won the tournament again…“He’s the smallest guy there, but choked the first guy, broke some other guys arm, it was amazing and I start training Gracie Jiu-Jitsu next week.”

I told my dad about it, and he agreed to buy UFC 3. Hooked ever since.

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Julian Lane: let me bang bro

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The discovery of the headlock takedown in WMMA

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Rashad hurting his knee before Shogun fight after he KOed Lyoto and had just had surgery on his good knee

Jones stepped in and became Poking Pico Champ on short notice and changed that divisions trajectory

Rashad vs Rua at that time would have been interesting and who knows who gets the next title shot after they sort it out

Think they’ll ever figure that move out in men’s MMA? First to master it could be a GOAT.

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Well thought out thread. OP pays attention to the sport.

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image

When small men cast big shadows, it means the sun is about to set.

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Good take. Nate Diaz called Conor out seemily out of nowhere after his fight with Michael Johnson. Next thing you know, he’s a millionaire!

And this is where Leon Edwards failed miserably. Even worse than the last minute of his fight with Diaz. He should have gotten on the mic and straight up called out Masvidal for the “bitch” that he is and referenced they have a history and it needed to be settled in the octagon. Instead, he mumbled some stuff.

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Imagine if he had put in Royler and Royler won the tournament!!!

I think about that moment with Nate as well. He was a pretty good dog against Johnson I believe. I remember thinking there was no way he deserved a Conor fight after the call out but the fans went nuts over it. I was surprised

I had picked Johnson to win that fight as well. Figured Johnson was more active and just had more speed, but Diaz basically beat him to the punch on almost every exchange, IIRC.

My what coulda been is Sonnen vs Jones…no way they let Jones continue had it made it to the end of the 1st

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There would have been an immediate rematch where Jones thrashes Sonnen. It wouldn’t have changed anything really. So Sonnen becomes the champ. It’s about as legitimate as Jones’s “loss” to Hamill.

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True…but Chaels “reign” as champion would have been hilarious

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Gamburyan hurting his shoulder taking Nate down. If that doesn’t happen Manny might of won TUF show and who knows what happens in his career.

I didn’t think he had a shot of getting it, and it had nothing to do with deserving it…when have we ever seen Dana reward the guys who are a pain in the ass? Especially a guy like Nate, who at the time wasn’t in the top 5.He lost 50-45 in his title shot against Henderson, then got kicked in the face and finished by Josh Thomson…then looked great beating Gray Maynard, and starts bitching about pay, and holding out.

The he takes the fight with RDA, badly misses weight while bitching about pay, then gets run over in the fight with RDA slapping him in the face as it ends. No fight for a year because he’s bitching about pay again.

So before Michael Johnson, he had lost 3 out of 4, badly missed weight, and was talking all kinds of shit about the UFC, what he was worth etc. I didn’t think there was any chance at all the UFC gave him the Conor fight.

Looking back at it, I think the only reason he got the fight is because they wanted the right matchup for Conor, and given that Diaz had lost a fair amount, and likely wasn’t training much at all because of the contract dispute, he was an ideal opponent on short notice. He was probably viewed as lower risk than some of the alternatives. It had to be a “real” opponent because Conor was the champ at 145 and was supposed to be fighting RDA, so they needed someone Conor would look good against. It backfired bigtime.