TUF debuted in 2004. Penn walked through Hughes in 2004 and then left the UFC. Does that meet all of the qualifications?
Samoa.
Kerry Kasem.
Wait, Jeff Blatnick too!
Gabe Rudiger left the UFC at the very HEIGHT of his popularity. Riddle solved.
Coleman, Randleman, Frank, a lot of UFC champs in the early days became champs so they could use it as a springboard to get into the real big show, Pride- get known in the UFC then hit Japan and make some real money. People forget that.
rtwil2007 - Sorry Captain I am having a hard time following your question also. In you orignal post you ask if anyone left the UFC while in their prime while the UFC was "the hottest promo in the US". The UFC has always been the hottest promo in the US so the answer would be any fighter who left in their prime which several people answered.I accepted the fact that i said in the US, I admitted missing that, and I fixed the question. People haven't been reading the rest of the thread, so i'll edit the original post. But here's what I meant to say....
Someone mentions Randy but sat since Randy didn't fight elsewhere he didn't actually leave.
You then amended the question and started talking about PRIDE. PRIDE was nevr a hotter promo in the US than the UFC. When someone pointed it out, you argue but you believe PRIDE was a better promo and had more money.
You amend the question again to be after the start of TUF and someone says Arlovski and you say he was part of a weak HW division. But then turn around and list a group of fighters including Randy (who was gone by the time AA left) but use the list to show depth at HW and claim AA didn't have bargaining power.
I stopped reading on the 2nd page of comments so the question may have changed again.
If you form the question with all the exceptions you don't want I will be happy to try and answer.
Since the UFC's economic hey day began 3 years ago, has any STAR fighter no longer under contract left the UFC for another promotion?
BTW, my definition of a Star fighter is one that appeals to the masses and can be linked to a brand, a franchise fighter if you will.....
CaptainPlanet - I accepted the fact that i said in the US, I admitted missing that, and I fixed the question. People haven't been reading the rest of the thread, so i'll edit the original post. But here's what I meant to say....
Since the UFC's economic hey day began 3 years ago, has any STAR fighter no longer under contract left the UFC for another promotion?
BTW, my definition of a Star fighter is one that appeals to the masses and can be linked to a brand, a franchise fighter if you will.....
A star to me is a franchise face like Liddell, Hughes, Ortiz, Couture. Until the past year and a half, you could say that those 4 fighters carried the UFC. They were synonymous with the brand. Arlovski was never close to that.
So if I have this right, you've now narrowed the question to "franchise fighters," which you identify specifically as Liddell, Hughes, Ortiz and Couture, and your question is whether any of those fighters left the UFC at the height of their career.
Oh, and Couture doesn't count because he didn't fight elsewhere.
Well I guess the answer is no, then.
BJ > DORKUS - Frank, Pulver and Bustamante. BJ had lost to Pulver and drawn with Uno when he left.
WTF.
BJ had actually just shockingly upset and dominated Hughes to win the UFC WW Championship right before he left. Again, he was still the reigning UFC WW Champion before he went to K-1.
CaptainPlanet - "Yves Edwards was never a contender in the UFC."
WTF again.
LOL, you do realize that Yves was actually the #1 LW in the UFC and that his matchup with Josh Thomson was supposed to be for the vacant UFC LW championship? (Except the UFC decided to entirely eliminate the division instead.)
CaptainPlanet - "Arlovski was part of the weakest HW division in the world."
And what exactly does that have to do with the fact that Arlovski was still at his peak, and even rightfully should have been the UFC's #1 contender at the time he left the UFC just this year?
He was the only one with 3 straight wins in the UFC's HW division - including one over Werdum, who was then left as the real rightful #1 contender.
And LMAO @ all the narrowly restrictive conditions now imposed after-the-fact by the OP.
DannyOcean - Randy left after getting the slobber beat out of him by Chuck.
Randy actually also left to fight in other orgs. 2 previous times - when he was still the reigning UFC HW champion both times (although he was still under contract with the UFC and would come back to defend after the second time).
This is the greatest troll thread eva.
Holy shit, so much ignorance on this thread (especially from Pretjah).
Pretjah - what MMA promotion has EVER been bigger, hotter, better, more followed than the UFC? please don't say pride because even though pride was bigger in japan for maybe two years or so
the ufc has always been bigger than pride (not saying better or even stronger which could be argued
LMAO @ "pride was bigger in japan for maybe two years or so." What did you do - do an entire Rip Van Winkle from the late 90's all the way up to 2005?
Included in that coma, you apparently missed the entire dark ages in the U.S. as well - when the UFC was banned from cable PPV, and was holding events in sparsely filled arenas in cosmopolitan centers like Bumsfucksville in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
The UFC wasn't even "bigger than" Toughman back then, let alone Pride. And you do realize that SEG even had to sell the UFC to Zuffa for a whopping $2 million, don't you?
And then even after Zuffa took over - all the way up until 2006, when their PPV buys suddenly exploded after a year of TUF - the UFC had still been $54 million in the hole (and that's according to Dana and the Fertittas themselves).
And there were times even after initially getting back on PPV when the UFC wasn't even averaging 50,000 PPV buys yet - and even up until 2005, just breaking 100k was still a huge number for them.
Pretjah - this is great you make an arguement against the UFC by claiming they almost went under( no one except a few people know if this is true or not)
You do know that Dana and the Fertittas themselves - who are "a few people" who would "know if this is true or not" - have openly admitted (many times) that they were about to either fold or sell the UFC, and that TUF was their last-ditch hail-mary?
If TUF didn't work out, they were done (and again, that's according to Dana and the Fertittas themselves)
Pretjah - the ufc light heavies have shown to be stronger
You mean like when Rampage destroyed Chuck, who had been the UFC's #2 205-er in 2003 - and then destroyed Chuck again in 2007, when Chuck had been by far the UFC's most dominant and best 205-er?
(Or how Vitor, who had just been the UFC's #4 205-er - who had only lost a very controversial decision to Tito - then went over to Pride as the UFC's "official representative" at 205 for the 2005 GP? And wasn't even one of Pride's top 8 at 205.)
Pretjah - and other there is no comparison with the ufc at 170 over anyone in pride.
That's the only sound comment you've made this entire thread. Yeah, there certainly was "no comparison with the ufc at 170" - since Pride didn't even have a 170 division.
Frank shamrock
TUF = 2005, not 2004.
Frank, Barnett, Coleman, Kerr, Bustamante, Arlovski, Gracie, Mezger, Pulver, Yves, BJ Penn.
They all left when they were on top of their game.