I had 50 matches + 6 amateur matches.
I managed to go undefeated in the Lightweight division till I fought BJ Penn for the Lightweight title after defeating all my opponents by KO (10-0) and had no real weaknesses exposed to this point. I felt really good and confident that I would defeat him and become the new Lightweight champion.
Sadly, I decided to name myself "The Saint", otherwise, I would've been badmouthing every thing since Penn got a bullshit Kimura when I went for the ground game. Like literally, I get my first takedown, and immediately gets the choke and I tapped. ARGH.
Up the card to a title shot, get a title shot, lose, repeat. I actually ended up with 5 title shots in Lightweight. In that span I had some losses against Edgar Frank (title fight and my only loss by KO), BJ Penn (#1 contender, submitted again!), Joe Fitch (title fight, submitted), Sean Sherk (#1 contender, submitted), and finally Joe Stevenson (title fight, submitted).
As you can see there, I lost all my matches via subs. Does that mean the game's sub system sucks? Probably isn't that good, but then again, I suck against subs, so I figured that would happen. I had to work my game hard to fix my submitting problem.
With Edgar Frank taking away my fourth chance to be the Lightweight Champion, I was really depressed. Here I was, working hard and you would think that I could win the title. I didn't want to end up like Chris Benoit and get a token run because I was a company guy and got the worst person as Champion. ...then again, Joe Stevenson probably was supposed to be my token run and I bombed that.
Anyways ... After I won a few fights against up and comers, I made a challenger to Joe Stevenson because I wanted to avenge that loss. During my training, BJ Penn got hurt, which gave me a chance to avenge my loss against Sherk and also have my 5th chance to get a hold of that Lightweight Championship.
I decided to say "so long rounded game" and concentrate on what I'm good at, which is striking. I managed to keep the fight upright and won the match getting a hold of what probably was my last shot at winning the title against Edgar Frank yet again.
I honestly didn't know what to expect at this point. It was year 6 of my career. Back in the first UFC Undisputed, a career only lasted 8-9 years. I was already at 6, so I was most likely hitting the last stretch of my career when I realized it. It had been a good run. 21 wins all by KO. 6 losses, with 5 by submission and 1 by KO.
Looking at those numbers, I changed my approach with my impending last Lightweight title shot and prepared for a long and hard fought battle. I figured I'd settle for the decision, since I couldn't win trying to street fight my way into a Championship.
On the one hand, looking back, I do feel kind of stupid preparing for a long fight. The Saint doesn't fight long fights; The Saint fights for the fans and to go wild.
On the other hand, what I did helped me finally figure out the secret to winning the Championship. Pick your spots and go wild when you've got them. I toppled Edgar Frank for the title I so desperately wanted and I got it done within the first round surprisingly enough.
Took me 22 wins, but I finally had the gold. I couldn't wait for my first title defense. That was till I was notified that BJ Penn was my next opponent. The only man to beat me twice was the first person to get a shot at me. I didn't know whether the game did that on purpose, or if I just had some really bad luck (Penn was my rival in the last game too).
Headed into the Penn match figuring he'd want to take me to the ground, but amazingly Penn decided to slug with me and he managed to do so well that I had my first match go into round 3. At this point, I'm figuring either I'm going to gas or we're going to a decision in which I get screwed.
I laughed my ass off when neither of those predictions happened. Penn decided my foot looked very comfy and took a nice nap on my shin while standing 10 seconds into the third round. I walked out of that match the Champion.
I had 6 more title defences after that. Had to fight Edgar Frank once more, Penn 2 more times, Sean Sherk once, Joe Fitch once, and then Gray Maynard for my final fight.
After that fight with Maynard, I figured my tour with UFC was over. I was nearly finished my 8th year, so frankly I figured when I got my next mail I would be told "hey, we're getting you ready for your final year, it's that time every fighter goes through."
The mail I got was not what I expected. They told me I had nothing left to prove in the Lightweight division and to try my luck in the Welterweight division. I pondered that for a bit, and didn't think I would get many matches, but other than a rematch against Joe Stevenson there wasn't anything left for me to do. And Joe had dropped so far in the rankings that it wasn't worth it (14th), so against my better judgement I took the leap.
First fight went well and I scored yet another KO win. At this point, I've never had a match go to a decision, and being in a new weight class I began to worry about that. Was I just really this good at striking? Or was the computer just being a dumb brick and thinking there's no way I'd continually get the KO? I'm guessing its more the later rather than the former.
So I took 2 more fights and worked my way to a Welterweight title match against Paulo with a record at the time of 23-1. Now this is where I begin to worry, since he's only got a single loss and he beat St. Pierre for the title.
Managed to walk in and walk out with my record of never making past the 3rd round in tack, and also kept adding more KO wins to my totals, as I made Paulo lose his second match and became the Welterweight Champion.
From there I vigorously defended my belt against a ton of good fighters. Paulo and St. Pierre gave me my best runs for my money, especially St Pierre. He kept standing up toe-to-toe against me and actually made me as bloody as I made him when the match was over.
During my 10th year, I was inducted to the UFC Hall of Fame. At the time I didn't realize what I had done to get inducted, nor what I would eventually accomplish, but I actually felt honoured to get the nod. With that I figured I'd be saying good bye and getting on to the end credits.
Nope, still continued to fight the rest of the tenth year and well into my eleventh. By this time it was hard to keep up my condition and stats, but I tried my best as I had that title to still defend and I wasn't given an option to go up another class.
Finally for my last fight of my 11th year, I got a call from Dana asking for a Super-Event. I'd fight against my old Lightweight division against the current Champion and both our titles were on the line. ...I at least think that's how it was supposed to work, because it seemed that my title was on the line, yet the call suggest it was Gray Maynard's.
And yes, in my 11th year, Gray Maynard won the Lightweight title. I'm as shocked as you were. Thankfully, he was still like he was the last time I faced him and I managed to goad him into a nice kick to head for the victory and solidify myself as the best Pound for Pound fighter alive.
Unfortunately, I finally got the bad news I had been waiting for since my 6th year. My 12th year was my final year in the business. I'd get 3 more fights to defend my title and that was it. I was upset, but I got 3 prime opponents to go out on. Paulo, St. Pierre and finally Alves.
Man, if you think the conditioning is bad in year 10 and 11, don't even bother in year 12. My condition totally deteriorated and I just focused on keeping my stats to where they were and hoped for the best. After all, I still had the title and I was going out as a Champion if I could help it.
My very last fight against Alves was probably the one fight I worried about the most. Simply because my condition was so bad, I probably had no right to walk out Champion. If it wasn't for the fact that I got him with two quick elbows to the temple, I would've lost.
After retiring, I got treated to a cute little cinema about how I was going to build my own school and how retiring had made me soft. Though I was already back in the gym helping the new guys to become better fighters.
When the career was finished, I had probably the flukiest and luckiest career of any fighter. 44 wins all by KO, 6 losses with 5 by submission and 1 by KO. I had won Fighter of the Year 6 years out of 12. I had 22 KOs of the Night, but no KOs of the Year.
I think I'll try not being a street fighter next time and upping the difficulty and weight class to see how much of a difference that makes. But it was a fun first time experience.