#3 Joe Soto
The debut Bellator Featherweight champion, Joe Soto won his title by beating Yahir Reyes path back in the primary period of the advancement in 2009. He made one effective defense – beating Diego Saraiva in 2010 – before being deposed by previous international wrestler Joe Warren a few months after the fact. Abnormally, that would be his last Bellator appearance.
Soto then proceeded to assemble a strong 6-1 record on the local circuit before being marked by the UFC in 2014, and keeping in mind that he was at first pegged to make a big appearance at UFC 177 against Anthony Birchak, things went a bit turbo when Renan Barao was constrained out of his title battle with hero TJ Dillashaw, etc short of what one day’s notice, Soto ended up in line for a UFC title shot.
A definitive dark horse story didn’t end how Soto would’ve preferred, however, and he was TKO’d by Dillashaw in the fifth round of their battle. That prompted a three-battle slide for the previous Bellator champ, however, 3 wins from 2016 through to 2017 appeared to have corrected the ship for him.
Misfortunes to Brett Johns and Iuri Alcantara sent him down the stepping stool, be that as it may, and in August 2018 the UFC discharged him with a 3-5 record. It’s difficult to rank his UFC keep running from multiple points of view – you’d presumably lean towards it being ineffective, yet then he performed well against Dillashaw and was never expected to be a world-mixer in any case. Basically, you’d most likely state he did conventionally, however it’d be difficult to go any more remote than that.
For the next Bellator champion who has moved to the UFC, move on to the next page!
