Everyone loves a good comeback story, and mixed martial arts over the years has offered fans many variations on the theme of a once-forgotten fighter thrusting themself back into the limelight through some combination of determination, skill and luck.
Sometimes, as with Sherdog’s 2014 “Comeback Fighter of the Year,” Dominick Cruz, or 2009 winner Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, it is a case of a gifted but injury-prone fighter finally getting healthy enough to show what he can do over the course of a full year. Other times, a fighter whose best days were thought to be behind them, such as 2013 honoree Robbie Lawler or Jose Aldo in 2021, happens upon the key—a change in training camps, a different weight class or some other, less easily defined variable—that opens up a whole new chapter in their career.