Opponent Sherdog Rank: #11 ("Other Contenders") As such, he was ranked the supreme fighter in the division, and obviously, Cormier's brightest days were ahead, as he went on to become champion in the division above. He was actually ranked higher than Oezdemir at the time of their fight.Ĭormier had just lost his second title shot against Jones (that later was overturned because Jones is a cheat). Manuwa was 17-2 going into that fight, and feared as one of the most vicious, powerful P4P strikers in the sport. In hindsight, this one doesn't look as intimidating, but at the time, Cirkunov's stock was quite high, and was a Top 10 in the division by Sherdog's rankings. This list of names looks like a title reign. This doesn't look résumé of a roster guy, nor even a top contender. Given, fighters with championship ambitions are usually begging to be given bigger chances, but it's tough not to respect how brutal this fight history is.
Talk about a guy who hasn't gotten any breaks. The reason I made this thread, though, is that during the fight, I thought to myself, "Damn, Oezdemir is one of those fighters who is impossible to finish, huh" but then I second guessed myself, 'Is that right?', so I skipped over to his Fight Finder, and I was shocked to see his résumé of the past 4 years: Agreed, but let's not be too harsh, because that was the theme of Rocky, after all albeit against the unbeatable world champion for a guy everyone thought was a bum. So he didn't show a ton of fire in the third round, the commentators even talked about how it looked like he was content to go the distance, not win.