Brandon Vera never reached the heights most forecasted. | Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
2. Brandon Vera
Winning a four-man, one-night heavyweight tournament at WEC 13 in 2005 put Vera on the map, and the UFC came calling shortly thereafter. On paper and in reality, Vera seemed like the next big thing: He was a collegiate wrestler and had trained with the Air Force’s team during his time in the service, had a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Lloyd Irvin and had spent time training under legendary kickboxer Rob Kaman.
And then it all went wrong. A contract dispute allowed Randy Couture to take Vera’s title shot at UFC 68, where the venerable veteran capitalized with a shocking upset win, and it was nearly a year before Vera returned to the UFC. When he did, it was to lose an underwhelming decision to Sylvia in a fight Vera was favored to win. The referee may have stopped the fight against Fabricio Werdum in his next outing too quickly, but Vera had not done anything to inspire confidence in the previous four minutes, either.
Vera finally dropped to light heavyweight and seemed to realize some portion of his promise, taking three of four before losing a contentious split decision to Couture in a bout most observers thought he had won. Whatever Vera had managed to salvage went down the tubes after that, as Jon Jones, Mauricio Rua and Ben Rothwell all finished him inside the distance, and a performance-enhancing drug-aided Thiago Silva savaged him for all three rounds.
Now signed to Singapore-based One Fighting Championship, perhaps Vera will regain some of his former glory. At 37 and with more than a decade of experience under his belt, the odds are strongly against it.
Number 1 » The hype for his UFC debut against an undefeated karate fighter named Lyoto Machida went through the roof. “You almost just want to sit back and watch,” said UFC commentator Mike Goldberg, shortly before Machida choked the judoka into submission with an arm-triangle.