In the modern-day UFC, fighters need to be well-rounded and have skills in all areas to succeed. However, that doesn’t mean each fighter doesn’t have their own unique style.
Over the years, we’ve seen a number of UFC stars who started their octagon career using one style, only to switch to another and find more success in the process.
Some of these fighters managed to capture gold in the octagon by using their new style, while others gained more popularity after their switch.
Here are five UFC fighters who changed their style and found more success.
#5. Michel Pereira – UFC middleweight
This weekend’s UFC event is set to be headlined by flashy Brazilian striker Michel Pereira. A win over Anthony Hernandez will probably propel ‘Demolidor’ into genuine title contention at 185 pounds, something that likely would’ve been unthinkable a couple of years ago.
That’s because when he first debuted in the octagon back in 2019, Pereira looked like the kind of fighter who would thrill at times, but never really climb the ladder.
‘Demolidor’ already had nine losses when he first stepped into the octagon, but when he took out Danny Roberts in under two minutes with a flying knee, it was hard not to be excited.
However, a disappointing loss to the unheralded Tristan Connelly quickly showed the holes in Pereira’s game. Essentially, by throwing so many low-percentage strikes, ‘Demolidor’ left himself open to tire easily. He was all flash, no substance.
That has now firmly changed.
A weird DQ loss to Diego Sanchez seemed to be the tipping point, and after taking eight months off, Pereira returned as a different fighter.
‘Demolidor’ still uses his flashy spinning and leaping attacks, but he’s now far more measured and willing to wait for an opportunity rather than force it. He’s also shown far more skills on the ground, and has improved his technical striking, too.
Unsurprisingly, the approach has worked wonders. Pereira has now won his last eight fights in a row, and a run at the middleweight title now seems possible.
#4. Fabricio Werdum – former UFC heavyweight champion
Although his reign as heavyweight champion did not last long, Fabricio Werdum remains one of the most decorated big men in UFC history.
‘Vai Cavalo’ departed the promotion in 2020, but left with victories over top fighters like Cain Velasquez, Travis Browne, Mark Hunt and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Werdum, though, is the fact that he changed his fighting style relatively late in his career to trigger his biggest successes.
One of the most decorated grapplers to ever jump into MMA, Werdum had plenty of success in both PRIDE and Strikeforce in his early days. He even submitted the legendary Fedor Emelianenko in the latter promotion.
However, his lack of striking always held him back, leading to some bad losses at the hands of foes like Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos.
When he returned to the UFC in 2012, though, Werdum had hooked up with a new coach – Rafael Cordeiro of Kings MMA. Seemingly overnight, ‘Vai Cavalo’ had apparently become a Muay Thai expert. While he could still submit his opponents on the ground, he was now capable of slicing them up with knees and elbows from the clinch, and hurting them at range with his combinations and kicks.
Now a fully-rounded fighter, nobody could stop the Brazilian, and his career reached its apex in 2015 when he battered and then submitted Velasquez for the heavyweight title.
It’s safe to say that this switch up in styles worked perfectly.
#3. Henry Cejudo – former UFC flyweight & bantamweight champion
One of the best examples of a fighter who changed their style and ended up with far more success in the UFC because of it is Henry Cejudo.
The 2008 Olympic gold medalist was always pegged for greatness due to his massive wrestling talent, but if anything, that talent forced him up the flyweight ladder far too quickly.
‘Triple C’ won his first four bouts in the octagon but was clearly not the finished article when he was pushed into a title bout with 125-pound kingpin Demetrious Johnson. Unsurprisingly, Cejudo suffered a TKO loss, the first of his MMA career. If anything, though, it was the best thing that could’ve happened to him.
‘Triple C’ took the best part of 2016 off to work on nothing but his striking, and he returned an entirely different fighter.
Instead of utilising a kickboxing style, Cejudo instead fought with a style closer to the karate techniques of Lyoto Machida, springing in and out of range with heavy combinations.
Sure, he lost his comeback fight to Joseph Benavidez, but it was a five-round affair that mostly took place on the feet, and the Olympian gave just as good as he got throughout.
From there, it was only up for Cejudo. He dispatched two opponents to get another shot at Johnson, and was far more ready for his second chance, beating ‘Mighty Mouse’ for the flyweight crown in a razor-close decision.
‘Triple C’ later went onto become a double champion, stopping Marlon Moraes to win the bantamweight title, and even knocked out legendary striker Dominick Cruz in 2020.
By rounding out his style – and realizing that he couldn’t just rely on his wreslting – Cejudo became a legend.
#2. Nik Lentz – former UFC lightweight
Former lightweight contender Nik Lentz is a curious case to look at here, primarily because there’s an argument that his change in style didn’t actually provide him with more octagon success.
However, it did make him far more exciting to watch, in turn transforming him from a largely disliked fighter into a fan favorite of sorts. This, of course, was enough to lengthen his UFC career substantially, meaning he made far more money. And that alone is enough to land him a spot on this list.
‘The Carny’ debuted back in 2009 but gained a reputation as being a dull fighter, willing to stall his way to victory when he faced the likes of Andre Winner and Tyson Griffin in bouts that were largely booed by fans.
Essentially, it felt like only a matter of time before Dana White cut him from his contract, and the only thing that kept Lentz afloat was because he kept winning.
However, after Mark Bocek finally snapped his seven-fight unbeaten streak in December 2011, ‘The Carny’ seemed to realize that the only way he’d stay afloat in the UFC was to switch it up.
Suddenly, his safety-first approach went out of the window, in every way possible.
He took a late-notice fight with Evan Dunham just a few weeks after the Bocek bout and put on a thriller, suddenly eschewing his wrestling style to simply brawl with his foe.
Lentz came away with a loss, but also earned the first Fight of the Night bonus of his career, too. From there, he never looked back, and while he lost as many fights as he won until his retirement in 2021, his clashes with the likes of Islam Makhachev, Charles Oliveira, and Chad Mendes were wildly exciting.
In the end, ‘The Carny’ made a total of 25 appearances in the octagon, something that would’ve been unthinkable in his early days.
#1. Justin Gaethje – former UFC interim lightweight champion
For years before he arrived in the UFC, Justin Gaethje was renowned as being one of the most exciting fighters in the world. ‘The Highlight’ gained his nickname for this style, but to call it reckless would be an understatement.
Relying both on an iron chin to survive his opponents’ strikes and a strong wrestling background to defend takedowns, Gaethje would throw both haymakers and booming leg kicks and little else in an attempt to destroy his foes.
After winning gold in WSOF (now PFL) and building a record of 17-0, Gaethje finally signed with the UFC in 2017. His debut fight against Michael Johnson saw him win in classic ‘Highlight’ fashion, outlasting his foe in a wild brawl.
From there, though, it became apparent that Gaethje’s reckless style probably wasn’t going to win him much in the octagon outside of more fans.
Back-to-back TKO defeats to Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier showed that ‘The Highlight’ wasn’t invincible, and while he rebounded quickly with three straight wins, he remained the same fighter.
That changed when he took nearly nine months off between late 2019 and mid-2020. Upon his return, Gaethje was matched with Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight title. Given his reckless nature and Ferguson’s 12-fight win streak, few fans gave ‘The Highlight’ a chance.
Remarkably, though, they were treated to a completely different Gaethje. Showing a more measured, surgical approach to go with his insanely heavy hands and strong chin, ‘The Highlight’ battered Ferguson over five rounds, eventually stopping him via TKO.
Since then, Gaethje has remained one of the most exciting fighters on the roster, but he’s used his more measured approach to beat Michael Chandler, Rafael Fiziev, and Poirier in a rematch.
He’s also likely lengthened his career dramatically, making this one of the best changes of style in octagon history.
