The 25 Greatest Comebacks in UFC History

To avoid confusion right away, I mean UFC comebacks as in a come-from-behind victory, not the revitalization of a fighter's career.

Now that the semantics are out of the way...

There's nothing quite like watching a fighter rally back from the brink of defeat to pull off the victory; it's an inspiring thing to watch.

Fans tend to most appreciate fighters who embody a warrior's spirit, and nothing quite screams "warrior's spirit" like refusing to accept defeat and winning against the odds.

Let's take a look at the 25 greatest comebacks in UFC history...

The fights on this list are in no particular order.

Tim Sylvia vs. Andrei Arlovski 2

Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski met for the second time at UFC 59 with the heavyweight championship on the line.

The first time the two fought, Arlovski walked away the victor via first-round submission.

Andrei seemed poised for victory in the second fight as well, badly hurting Sylvia with a big punch in the first round.

Tim looked like he was about to go unconscious when, out of nowhere, he got Arlovski to the ground and unloaded with big punches until the referee stopped the fight.

Shonie Carter vs. Matt Serra

Matt Serra and Shonie Carter collided at UFC 31.

Serra controlled the fight and was on his way to winning a decision when Carter landed a devastating spinning back fist with just nine seconds left in the fight and earned himself the knockout.

This is known as one of the greatest knockouts in UFC history. I tried really hard to find a video for you guys, but to no avail. The grainy picture will have to do.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Heath Herring 3

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira fought Heath Herring for the third time at UFC 73.

Nogueira won the first two fights, so Herring went into this one determined to win.

Heath would come up short once again in the third fight, but he definitely came closer to victory than in any of the previous fights.

In the first round, Heath landed a thunderous head kick. We're talking about a head kick that would make Mirko Cro Cop proud.

After the kick landed, it seemed impossible that Nogueira would be able to come back from it. In fact, Herring probably could have finished the fight if he'd gone in for the kill, but he instead decided to let Antonio stand up.

Nogueira managed to survive until the end of the round, recover while in his corner and then pull off the next two rounds and win a unanimous decision.

You can watch the fight here. The first video is down, but the second one is working.

Royce Gracie vs. Dan Severn

The video here is only the second half of the fight—sorry.

Dan Severn and Royce Gracie met in the finals at UFC 4, and Severn came very close to being the first man to defeat Royce.

Severn was able to use his wrestling to control Gracie on the ground and land punches for the first 15 minutes of the fight.

After almost 16 minutes of mounting almost no offense and being controlled on the ground, Gracie threw up a triangle choke and finished the fight.

Chris Leben vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama

Chris Leben and Yoshihiro Akiyama fought at UFC 116.

Akiyama was able to control much of the fight using his superior grappling ability, and it looked like he was going to win a decision, but with less than a minute left in the fight, Leben caught Yoshihiro in a triangle and Yoshihiro tapped.

You can watch the fight here.

Georges St-Pierre vs. BJ Penn

Georges St-Pierre and BJ Penn fought for the first time at UFC 58.

Penn controlled much of the first round using his then-superior boxing to keep GSP off balance and disoriented.

By the end of the first round, St-Pierre's face was a bloody mess.

The now-welterweight champion has admitted that going into the second round he was scared, but he managed to persevere.

Georges used his wrestling to win the next two rounds and take the decision.

Evan Tanner vs. Phil Baroni

Evan Tanner and Phil Baroni met for the first time at UFC 45.

Baroni dominated the majority of the first round, rocking Tanner several times with big punches.

After being bullied for about four minutes, Evan got a takedown out of nowhere, mounted Baroni and got the stoppage.

Phil Baroni vs. Amar Suloev

The amount of punishment Phil Baroni absorbed in the first round of this fight was immense.

Before eventually earning the TKO with two minutes left in the first round, Phil got hit with a flying knee, a head kick and a knee while he was down, and he also got himself out of an armbar attempt.

Phil managed to weather the early storm and pull off the victory in what was one of the greatest comebacks ever.

Tank Abbott vs. Oleg Taktarov

Cardio has never been Tank Abbott's strong suit. We've seen many times that if a fighter can outlast Abbott's initial onslaught, his chance of victory skyrockets.

This fight fits that description to a T.

Abbott came out with guns blazing and landed some big shots. He walked right through Oleg's punches and just straight-up bullied the guy.

Eventually, however, Tank began to fade, and Taktarov took advantage, gaining top position and sinking in a rear-naked choke.

Guy Mezger vs. Tito Ortiz

In his second professional fight, Tito Ortiz showed that he had loads of potential but still a lot to learn.

Ortiz dominated the fight early on, overwhelming Mezger with his wrestling and vicious ground-and-pound. He even landed a couple knees to his downed opponent (legal at the time).

Unfortunately for Tito, he got a little too anxious with one of his takedowns and wound up trapped in a tight guillotine choke and tapped out.

Frank Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz

Tito Ortiz and Frank Shamrock met at UFC 22 with the light heavyweight championship on the line.

The striking exchanges were relatively even, but Ortiz was able to decisively win the first three rounds using his grappling.

The fourth round went down much the same way until the last minute of it. While Shamrock was getting back to his feet, Tito tried to cling to a leg, and Frank unleashed a flurry of brutal punches that left Ortiz unable to continue.

Andre Roberts vs. Ron Waterman

The start of this fight looked a lot like Wesley Correira vs. Tim Sylvia.

Andre Roberts just kept plodding forward, and Ron Waterman just kept teeing off on him.

The difference between the two is Wesley's corner threw in the towel, while Roberts actually came back to win the fight by knockout.

You can watch the fight here.

Pete Williams vs. Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman is the godfather of ground-and-pound, but when it comes to his cardiovascular endurance, he's more like a grandfather.

Coleman dominated most of this fight using his wrestling ability and ground-and-pound but eventually tired himself out.

A little more than 12 minutes in, Mark was completely exhausted, and Williams managed to take advantage by stuffing a takedown and landing one of the most famous head kicks in UFC history.

Don Frye vs. Tank Abbott

This is a classic Tank Abbott loss, but an amazing comeback for Don Frye nonetheless.

Abbott came out and rocked Frye early in the fight and then used a lot of his energy trying to finish and gassed himself out.

Don was able to absorb many big shots from Tank before eventually landing a shot that stunned Abbott. After that, Frye was able to get Tank's back and slap on the rear-naked.

You can watch the fight here.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Tim Sylvia

This was the kind of fight where everyone knew exactly what was going to happen.

Tim Sylvia had great striking, so he would want to keep it on the feet.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira has top-notch Brazilian jiu-jitsu, so he would be looking to take the fight to the ground.

Nogueira was forced to play Sylvia's game for the first two rounds, and it did not go well for him.

Sylvia out-struck Antonio easily and wobbled him several times with stiff combinations. A fighter with a lesser chin would not have made it to the third round.

However, Big Nog did make it to the third, and that's when the fight finally hit the ground. Almost without effort, it seemed, Nogueira swept Tim and caught him in a guillotine choke, forcing the tap.

Chris Leben vs. Terry Martin

If you needed any, this is more proof that you can never count Chris Leben out in a fight.

Terry Martin was the larger of the two fighters in this matchup, and he was able to use his size to control much of the fight.

Late in the third round, it looked like Leben was about to lose a decision when Martin landed some big punches. After those shots landed, it looked like Chris was going to lose by knockout.

Then, operating off what seemed to be pure instinct, Leben waded forward and through bombs.

Terry clearly didn't see the attack coming, and one of those bombs landed flush on his chin, knocking him unconscious.

Drew Fickett vs. Josh Koscheck

When Josh Koscheck first joined the UFC, he was almost purely a wrestler. He hadn't developed any other aspects of his game and won fights using his ability to control his opponents on the ground.

That is the strategy we saw him using against Drew Fickett, and it worked...for a while.

Koscheck controlled pretty much the entire fight until there were 30 seconds left in the third round.

With that short amount of time left on the clock, Fickett got to his feet. When Koscheck tried to shoot, Fickett floored the wrestler with a vicious knee. Josh was stunned, and Drew was able to take advantage, finishing Josh with a rear-naked choke.

You can watch the fight here.

Matt Hughes vs. BJ Penn 2

At UFC 46, BJ Penn beat Matt Hughes—at UFC 63, he very nearly did it again.

The first two rounds of this fight went horribly for Hughes.

Most notably, Matt was caught in a triangle choke towards the end of the second round. Hughes was unable to escape the submission hold but managed to last until the end of the round without going unconscious.

Matt managed to turn the tide in the third round, taking BJ down and achieving side control. From side control, Hughes managed to trap both of BJ's arms and landed somewhere around 40 punches to Penn's defenseless head before the referee stopped the fight.

Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard 2

This fight doesn't fit the traditional definition of a comeback, as Frankie Edgar did not walk away from this fight the victor.

However, given how badly the first round went for the UFC's current lightweight champion, the fact that he managed to go to a draw with Gray Maynard is still remarkable.

Maynard caught Edgar with a big left hand in the first and spent most of the round after that chasing the champ down and hurting him with more huge punches.

Frankie was knocked down at least three times in that round, and Joe Rogan said that it was the biggest beatdown he had ever seen a fighter take and come back from.

After that first round, Edgar managed to rally using his speed and surprisingly effective wrestling. It wasn't enough for the win, but he did get to keep his belt.

Mike Russow vs. Todd Duffee

Mike Russow was a big underdog going into his fight with Todd Duffee.

Duffee was coming off a knockout victory where he set the record for the quickest knockout in UFC history (seven seconds).

Todd was being heralded as the next big prospect in the heavyweight division, and for most of this fight it was easy to see why.

Duffee thoroughly outclassed Russow for the first two-and-a-half rounds of this fight. It was obvious that Todd's striking was a few notches above Mike's, and he showed it by almost knocking Russow out several times.

All of the success he was having may have led Todd to underestimate Russow's power, as Russow managed to knock him out with a couple of big punches halfway through the third round.

You can watch the fight here—you just have to scroll down a bit.

Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin

Heading into his fight with Shane Carwin, many people were toting Brock Lesnar as unstoppable.

While Carwin was not able to walk away from this fight a winner, he was able to show fight fans that Brock was mortal.

Brock shot for a takedown early in the first round, and Shane was able to defend it and land a couple solid punches.

After tasting Carwin's power, Brock crumpled to the canvas and spent most of the round in the fetal position while Shane mercilessly rained down punches.

However, Carwin made a tactical error by trying too hard to finish the fight and gassing himself out.

Brock was able to recover for the second round and came out with much more gas in the tank than Carwin.

Lesnar was able to take Shane down and eventually catch him with an arm triangle choke.

Cheick Kongo vs. Pat Barry

In this fight, Pat Barry was hoping to use Cheick Kongo as a steppingstone to the upper echelon of the division.

This was a highly anticipated matchup, as both men had reputations as technical strikers with big power.

It was Barry who put his power on display first, knocking Kongo down with a devastating punch.

Once Pat realized Kongo was hurt, he swarmed on him, landing more big punches.

Cheick was knocked down a second time, and announcer Joe Rogan actually said, "He's out."

Kongo was not out, however, and managed to stagger back to his feet. Clearly still badly hurt, Cheick planted his feet and swung for the fences as Barry moved in on him. Kongo's shots landed and put Pat to sleep in what was one of the most exciting finishes of 2011.

Scott Smith vs. Pete Sell

If you've ever been hit in the liver, then you know it's almost impossible to do anything but clutch your abdomen and fall to the ground. The pain is excruciating and debilitating.

In the second round of his bout with Scott Smith, Pete Sell landed a hard liver shot, and Smith began to crumple.

Seeing that his opponent was hurt, Sell rushed in aggressively to try to finish the fight.

However, he underestimated the amount of fight that Scott had left.

Right before he was about to drop due to the liver shot, Smith put all the power he had left into his right hand and swung for the fences. The punch caught Sell right on the jaw and put him to sleep.

You can watch the fight here.

Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg 2

UFC President Dana White has stated on multiple occasions that this is his favorite fight of all time.

Early in the first round, Matt Hughes and Frank Trigg were in the clinch, and Trigg hit Hughes with a knee to the groin.

Hughes recoiled, looking for the referee to step in and temporarily stop the fight so that he could recover.

The referee, however, did not see the low blow, and the bout continued.

As Hughes tried to motion to the ref that he'd been hit with a groin strike, Trigg capitalized, hitting Matt with big punches.

The shots dazed Hughes, and Frank was able to get him down and take his back.

Trigg was working for a rear-naked choke when, out of nowhere, Hughes reversed the position, picked Frank up, ran across the Octagon and slammed him.

From there, it was all Matt Hughes. He mounted Trigg, moved to back mount and finished the fight with a choke.

Watch the fight here.

Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen

For months leading up to this fight, Chael Sonnen went on and on about how he was going to bring the fight to Anderson Silva like no one had done before. People thought he was crazy.

Sonnen is crazy, but it turns out he wasn't crazy to think he has what it takes to dominate the longtime middleweight champion.

Chael put on a wrestling clinic, exposing Anderson's takedown defense and pummeling Silva on the ground.

Sonnen even had success standing, rocking Silva on the feet in the first round.

The fight was a total blowout, with Chael winning the fight convincingly until halfway through the fifth and final round.

Sonnen had a history of poor submission defense, so many fans were wondering if Silva would be able to catch something from his back, and the champion did just that.

So close to victory he could practically taste it, Chael had his victory snatched away from him when Anderson caught him with a triangle choke in the fifth.