On this day in 2007, fans witnessed a result that had a massive impact on the MMA landscape.
Fight fans have seen a lot of exciting new additions to the UFC roster struggle when they initially arrive in the promotion.
In 2025 alone, we’ve seen this happen to some big signings, with Patchy Mix being criticized following his performance at UFC 316.
Another competitor fans were looking forward to watching in their Octagon debut, Losense Keita, didn’t even get to make the walk after missing weight before UFC Paris.
While there are plenty of examples to choose from, arguably the most shocking happened all the way back at UFC 76 on September 22 of 2007.
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Fans reflect on Forrest Griffin submitting Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in his UFC debut
Thanks to some of his most notable wins in Pride, Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua was already a beloved legend by the time that he arrived in the UFC.
As one half of ‘the most important fight in UFC history’, Forrest Griffin had been a staple of the promotion’s light heavyweight division for some time before UFC 76 in 2007.
Despite this, a common opinion at the time was that Rua would make light work of Griffin to record his first win inside the Octagon.
This didn’t end up being the case at the Honda Center, with Griffin pulling off a submission of the year in the final seconds of the bout to get his hand raised.
A Reddit thread from several years ago sees some fans argue that it’s in the conversation for the biggest upset we’ve ever seen.
‘When this fight was announced everyone thought Shogun was going to run through Forrest in a round. He then beats the s— out of Shogun and then chokes out a BJJ blackbelt. He didn’t beat Shogun he broke him. One of the biggest upsets in combat sports history.’
‘This is probably the biggest upset in MMA. Regardless of star power.’
Others responded to this take by stating that the consensus pick for the biggest MMA upset, Matt Serra’s win over Georges St-Pierre, still ranks higher.
While one fan made the case that this only made Rua’s bounce back even more impressive, others reflected on what a significant moment this was for the sport.
‘Shogun rebounding from this to KO Chuck [Liddell], arguably beat [Lyoto] Machida by decision and then KO Machida is almost as big an upset in itself.’
‘2007, the year of the upsets.’
‘Classic moment in the UFC!!’
‘Newer fans have no idea how important that fight was. It was literally Pride vs UFC’s best’
UFC 76 was also remembered for an unfortunate detail
UFC 76 produced some big upsets on the same night, with Chuck Liddell losing a split decision to Keith Jardine in the main event.
Unfortunately for the promotion, “upset” wasn’t the tag line that they went with to promote the event.
“UFC 76: Knockout” ended up suffering from the promoter’s curse by producing no knockouts whatsoever across its nine fights.
One fan in a different Reddit thread joked all the way back in 2012 that they should have named an upcoming event “UFC 156: Decision” to see if it has the opposite impact.