Opinion: The Unluckiest Man in the UFC

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

* * *
Chris Curtis isn’t a superstar, nor is he going to challenge for the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight title. Despite that, he has developed a reputation as one of the more colorful characters on the UFC roster since debuting in 2021. It isn’t just his character that paints a unique picture either. His performances inside the cage have resulted in four performance bonuses over the course of his 10-fight UFC run.

His public-facing personality is a mixed bag. Many would consider him to be one of the nicest guys in the sport. Engaging in interviews, charitable with his training partners, most interactions with Curtis have been positive. He’s also the only guy I can think of that has retired twice on the same night. As far as the bad, Curtis has developed a reputation for being whiny. Exceptionally whiny. He has gone after MMA talking heads on social media when they’ve been critical of him and even invited a fan critical of him to his training facility where Curtis put a beating on him.

Curtis’ aggressive social media nature has largely been something that developed in recent years, only after his addition to the UFC roster. If one were to be aware of Curtis’ luck inside the UFC cage, they might be willing to give him a pass. Lady Luck has only frowned upon Curtis, making him the unluckiest person on the UFC roster.

A fantastic example happened this weekend. In a competitive contest with Roman Kopylov, referee Mark Smith called a stoppage to the contest with literally a single second left after Kopylov connected with a head kick that sent Curtis to the mat. Curtis wasn’t out cold – it was more of a stumble to the mat than an outright knockdown – and appeared to be in possession of his faculties and aware of where he was. Plus, Kopylov walked away, not looking to follow up with punches. Nevertheless, Smith stopped the fight, denying Curtis the chance to win via the scorecards.

It did come out that the judges’ scorecards were split one round apiece going into the third. Given the way the round played out, it was hard to believe Curtis would have emerged victorious. Nevertheless, that isn’t where the bad karma affected Curtis. After a close opening round, Curtis was beginning to pull away in the second round. Curtis wasn’t just hitting his stride; Kopylov was slowing down. A pair of fouls against Curtis followed, one a poke to the eyes, the other a kick to the groin. No point was deducted, but that’s beside the point. The two fouls provided brief moments of respite for Kopylov, enough to ensure he didn’t potentially get finished by Curtis. Had the action continued, there was a strong likelihood Curtis could have put Kopylov away. Curtis did what he could to limit how long those breaks lasted – likely believing he had Kopylov vulnerable – but Kopylov still managed to benefit from his pair of fouls.

That’s hardly the only fight that featured some controversial refereeing that potentially cost Curtis a victory. At UFC 287, he fought Kelvin Gastelum. The first round was clearly in favor of Gastelum, only for Curtis to begin turning the tide in the second round. A brawl that was clearly swinging in favor of Curtis was violently swung the other way when Curtis got dropped... by an inadvertent head butt as Gastelum swung his head around and cracked Curtis’ chin. Despite a head butt being an illegal strike, the referee didn’t step in to stop the action and give Curtis a break. The fight continued and Curtis managed to survive... but lost the round on all three judges’ scorecards.

The appropriate thing to do as a judge is to not score the knock down. But what about Gastelum’s punches when he jumped all over a fallen Curtis? Those weren’t illegal strikes but were scored as a result of the illegal headbutt. It created a hell of a dilemma scoring the contest. Curtis won the majority of the judges’ scorecards for round three, indicating it’s likely the fight would have had a different outcome had the referee stopped the action from the foul.

Curtis’ next contest following his loss to Gastelum came against Nassourdine Imavov at UFC 289. Curtis was being overwhelmed by Imavov for the duration of the contest, which ended when another inadvertent head butt caught him. Instead of a knock down, it was a cut on his eye and some severe swelling. Fortunately, the referee noticed the cause and promptly stopped the action. Regardless, Curtis was unable to see properly and begged for more time. Unfortunately, the rules don’t permit for the same recovery period from an accidental headbutt that it does for a groin shot and when Jason Herzog couldn’t grant him more time, the fight was called off, resulting in it being a no contest.

Most have pointed out Curtis was likely to lose that contest, being well behind on the scorecards. That is true, but Curtis also has a penchant for losing until he isn’t. His wins over Phil Hawes, Brendan Allen, and Joaquin Buckley saw him immediately turn things around with a single strike. Given Curtis’ abilities, taking that opportunity away from him was a shame, even if it was a longshot chance.

It isn’t just referee’s and fouls that have been devastating for Curtis. In the closing seconds of his rematch with Allen, Curtis suffered a severe hamstring injury, requiring every ounce of effort just to remain standing, allowing Allen to tee off on him in the closing seconds and steal the round away after Curtis had been in clear control. Had there been an attack by Allen on the injured area, I wouldn’t comment on this contest. However, the injury didn’t appear to be caused by an attack by Allen. Regardless, it was damage done and it only made sense to give the round to Allen. Had Curtis been able to make it to the end of the fight without the injury, he almost assuredly would have been the winner based on how the scorecards were awarded.

All these occurrences have come in Curtis’ last five contests, in which his record is 1-3 with one no contest. Had luck at least been a neutral partner with Curtis, he very likely would have secured a 4-1 record. Had luck been good to him, a 5-0 record in that time could have been possible. Regardless, that isn’t what fate had in store for him. Given his luck, perhaps we can be forgiving of Curtis being whiny. He has reason to be.