Sherdog's Top 10: Greatest UFC Debuts

5. Junior dos Santos

Junior dos Santos' fight at UFC 90 against Fabricio Werdum is the quintessential example of a great debut. While he would go on to become the UFC heavyweight champion and finished as Sherdog's seventh-greatest heavyweight, Dos Santos was a complete nobody prior to his meeting with Werdum. He had gone 6-1 fighting in smaller Brazilian promotions, showing excellent boxing skills but little else, having been tapped in 73 seconds by Joaquim Ferreira less than a year before he joined the UFC. Werdum, meanwhile, was already considered one of the best heavyweights in the world. In addition to being a multiple-time BJJ world champion, he had attained considerable success in Pride, including submissions of Alistair Overeem and Aleksander Emelianenko, then a top 10 heavyweight, and close decision losses to Sergei Kharitonov, then a top 5 heavyweight, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who was arguably the second best heavyweight in the world after Fedor Emelianenk. While Werdum had lost by decision in his first UFC fight to then recent ex-champion Andrei Arlovski, he had recovered with dominant stoppages of Gabriel Gonzaga and Brandon Vera, who were serious contenders in the promotion at the time. Not surprisingly, Werdum was an enormous -650 favorite against the unheralded Dos Santos. Early on, both Brazilians were patient. Werdum scored a few leg kicks, but the one Dos Santos landed was much harder. Werdum clinched, and Dos Santos easily defended. Then, out of nowhere, Dos Santos timed his foe with an absolute beauty of a right uppercut, laying Werdum out cold. Some critics dismissed it as a lucky punch, but it was simply the beginning of a great career for one of the best strikers heavyweight has ever seen. Moreover, it turned a complete unknown into a major heavyweight contender overnight. If that's not an amazing debut, I don't know what is.

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