In May 2014, American mixed martial arts was at its peak.
The pioneers of MMA not only held belts in eight of the UFC's nine weight divisions, but also had a number of superstar fighters capable of staying at the top for a long time to come.
In the flyweight, the future champion of the promotion in terms of the number of defenses Demetrius Johnson reigned, in the middle - Chris Weidman, who overthrew Anderson Silva himself, and in the heavy and light heavyweights - the legendary Cain Velasquez and Jon Jones.
The only female title belonged to Ronda Rousey, who by that time had already become a symbol of martial arts.
But there were also T.J. Dillashaw, who had made tremendous progress, the brightest Anthony Pettis and Johnny Hendrix, who almost defeated Georges St. Pierre in the title fight.
And then it was hard to imagine
At the beginning of 2022, the UFC had only three current American trophy winners.
In women at the minimum weight, Rose Namajunas was at the top, in the lightest - Juliana Peña, and in the same for men - Aljamain Sterling, whose legitimacy many doubted.
The reason for this was the controversial decision of the league leadership, which gave him the title following a scandalous fight with Peter Yan.
Then the Russian struck a forbidden knee to the head and the title passed to the opponent in the fight - for the first time in the history of the organization.
After that, Funk Master avoided meeting with the Russian for a long time, citing either injuries or problems with preparation, thanks to which he amassed a lot of haters.
In addition, there were doubts about Peña.
No, she won the battle with Amanda Nunes by all the rules, but the question was how long she would be able to hold the belt.
Like Sterling before, she will have a tough rematch in which she does not look like a favorite.
After all, many associate the failure of the Brazilian with an underestimation of the enemy and a lack of concentration during the battle.
And it is extremely unlikely that she will make such mistakes twice in a row.
However, it was not the worst result for the US in recent years.
In August 2020, only one local fighter held the title in the UFC - Stipe Miocic, who defended him in a rematch with compatriot Daniel Cormier, and this despite the fact that at the beginning of the year there were three times as many.
However, Jon Jones decided to move up to heavyweight and left the belt in the division up to 93 kilograms, and a few months earlier, Henry Cejudo announced his retirement.
And since then, the Americans have not been able to really restore their positions.
At the moment, the company of Sterling and Peña is only Carla Esparza - the first ever champion in the minimum category.
In May, she won a controversial victory over Namajunas in an extremely boring and unspectacular fight and regained the title, which she previously owned 2612 days ago.
Until now, this has not been possible for any of the UFC fighters.
However, the success of Esparza in no way changed the state of affairs, because she got the better of her compatriot.
And certainly did not become a reason for optimism and a harbinger of success in other categories.
After all, the problem with American fighters is that over the years they have generally ceased to dominate MMA.
To do this, it is enough to pay attention to the current contenders for the belts.
At the moment, there are 25 Americans in the top 5 of the ranking (not counting the champions), while three of them are the first contenders.
But if TJ Dillashaw and Max Holloway have a high chance of success in title fights, then Jared Cannonier seems like a clear underdog in the confrontation with Israel Adesanya.
Yes, Anthony Smith may soon get the opportunity to fight for the trophy again, but for this he needs to get the better of Magomed Ankalaev.
And this seems unlikely.
For comparison, in May 2014, the elite group in their categories included two more fighters from the United States.
Together with eight belt holders, the difference becomes significant, and if you remember that at that time there were three fewer women's divisions in the UFC, it was completely colossal.
In fact, only Jose Aldo, the most “long-playing” champion in the history of the featherweight division, prevented the Americans from establishing total hegemony, which neither Chad Mendes nor Frankie Edgar could handle.
However, this weight can be considered one of the most uncomfortable for local athletes.
For more than 11 years of its existence, only one “star-striped” in the person of Holloway managed to become the strongest there, even if he lasted as many as three years.
So what is the reason for such a drop in the results of fighters from the United States?
One of them is the notorious generational change.
Cormier and Cejudo ended their careers, Velasquez and Weidman were tormented by injuries, Jones was never able to cope with his inner demons, and Johnson fell out with the bosses and was traded to ONE FC.
While a worthy replacement has not grown up.
As a result, local fans have to watch the Czech Jiri Prohazka and the Brazilian Glover Teixeira compete for the light heavyweight title, and the fourth series of confrontation between Deiveson Figueredo and the Mexican Brandon Moreno is coming in the flyweight.
If at least some of the above-mentioned fighters were in the ranks, one or two extra belts could well belong to the United States.
At least in the category up to 93 kilograms, where so far no worthy opponents have appeared for Jones or Cormier.
This is confirmed by Teixeira's recent championship.
In 2014, he fought for the trophy, but lost and fell out of the elite, and could return to it only after the departure of legendary opponents.
And the reason is far from the progress of Glover himself, who by this time had already exchanged his forties.
It's just that the level of competition has become noticeably lower.
Hence the triumph of the same Jan Blachowicz, who a few years ago did not have a stable place in the top 5.
Particularly surprising is the situation in the middle division, where the Americans have not fought for the title since October 2016.
Then Dan Henderson lost to Michael Bisping by an ambiguous judicial decision, after which all foreigners fought for him.
Yes, you can remember the duel between Israel Adesanya and Kelvin Gastelum, but then only the title of a temporary title was at stake.
However, not always the problems of American athletes can be explained by the aging of former leaders and the painful change of generations.
In a number of divisions, the United States still has an impressive representation, but at the same time cannot get to the throne.
And in these cases, the reason is the globalization of MMA, which has made a huge step in development in recent years.
Mixed martial arts gained such popularity that interest in them in the world began to grow, and stars began to appear far beyond the borders of their homeland.
Undoubtedly, the UFC has previously had champions from abroad.
If we do not take into account the victors of individual tournaments at the end of the last century, then the first of them was the Dutchman Bas Rutten, who defeated Kevin Randleman in 1999.
And although Belarusian Andrei Orlovsky achieved the same success in the future, for a long time only Brazilians and Canadians imposed worthy competition on the locals.
And only in 2015, the geography gradually began to expand.
With a difference of nine months, the titles were taken by Poland's Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Irishman Conor McGregor.
And as it turned out, this was the beginning of a full-scale revolution.
Over the next six and a half years, UFC titles were won by fighters from nine different countries whose representatives had never taken a trophy before.
Nigeria was put on the promotion map by Kamaru Usman, Australia by Robert Whittaker, Kyrgyzstan by Valentina Shevchenko, and Khabib Nurmagomedov and Petr Yan became the first undisputed belt holders from Russia.
And at that moment it became clear that the undivided dominance of the United States in the world's largest league came to an end.
Already, there are more foreigners in the top 5 than Americans.
And although in terms of the total number of fighters the United States still surpasses all competitors at times, the quantity no longer translates into quality.
So, only 10% of local athletes are in the leading positions in their categories, while in Russia and Brazil these figures, albeit slightly, are higher (more than 12%).
And while there is no reason to believe that the process will slow down in the near future.
In the world, mixed martial arts are developing by leaps and bounds, which is largely facilitated by the holding of amateur tournaments.
Thanks to them, fighters from different parts of the world gain solid experience even before reaching the professional level and often turn out to be much more ready for serious trials than Americans who neglect such competitions.
In addition, myths about the greatness of American wrestling, which has long been considered the hallmark of many local athletes, are gradually being dispelled.
Suffice it to recall the confrontation between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gati, who demonstrated the full power of the Dagestan school, or the successes of Charles Oliveira and Demian Maia.
In the case of the latter, this is especially significant, because it was he who retired Ben Askren, who was considered one of the strongest grapplers of the generation.
And it is not yet clear how US athletes can stop this process.
After all, even though they themselves willingly transfer knowledge to others, they do not develop in the same vein.
It is extremely rare to hear that any of the Americans decided to train with Dagestani wrestlers, Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialists or Dutch kickboxers.
Athletes from different countries already flock to the States, which partially allows sharing experience, but does not allow you to know all the subtleties and study the subject in depth.
Americans can only hope that soon a new generation of Jones and Cormier will appear in the country.
And although this should not be ruled out, it is unlikely that they will dominate their divisions as they did before.