The Ultimate Fighter Championship video games have featured a wide list of athletes on the game covers, including the alternate cover art for regional releases of a few of the earlier games. Some of the UFC cover athletes even make repeat appearances across the series of games. The athletes all have their reasons for deserving the featured appearance, though a couple of the cover athletes have gone on to experience what fans call the EA sports cover curse after the fact.
The UFC games have been around since the earliest title was released in North America in late 2000. The many UFC games and regional releases were developed by a long list of separate development teams until EA purchased the publishing rights in 2012, and it continues to be the exclusive developer. According to rumors, EA’s next UFC title is already in development, as fans on social media continue to speculate over ideal cover athletes for future games.
Cover Athletes in UFC Games
Ultimate Fighting Championship: North America’s regional release of Ultimate Fighter Championship was released with a cover of Tito Ortiz over an unrecognizable fighter. This first official game for the UFC brand of combat sports was just the start of Tito Ortiz’s career as a cover athlete. The game was released in 2000, which was the year that Ortiz first held the champion title for the light heavyweight division in the UFC.
UFC Throwdown: This game features returning cover athlete Tito Ortiz and Charles “Mask” Lewis Jr. on the North America cover. The Japanese cover also featured Tito Ortiz, as well as Chuck Liddell, Mark Coleman, and Caol Uno among other unrecognizable figures. In 2002 Ortiz still held the title of light heavyweight champion, and Mask’s briefly pursued career as a professional fighter was concluding around this time.
UFC: Tapout: Tito Ortiz is back for a third UFC game cover in a row. Chuck Liddell makes a return appearance, while Frank Shamrock is also featured. Around the game’s release in 2003, Chuck Liddell was on pace to fight Tito Ortiz for the light heavyweight champion title, and to this day Liddell remains one of the best characters in UFC 4 for beginners. Meanwhile, Frank Shamrock held the light heavyweight champion title for the World Extreme Cagefighting brand of professional fighting.
UFC: Tapout 2: With a fourth and final appearance as a cover athlete for this title, Tito Ortiz is effectively the most recurring and sequential of all cover athletes. The cover also features Chuck Liddell and who appears to be Carlos Newton and BJ Penn, among others. Liddell and Ortiz’s fight for the UFC light heavyweight championship title was pushed back and was still much anticipated around the time of this game.
UFC: Sudden Impact: UFC: Sudden Impact featured Charles “Mask” Lewis Jr. and Phil Baroni as cover athletes and was released in 2004. Baroni is an interesting choice for a cover athlete at this time because, between 2002 and 2004, Baroni had a troubling career in the UFC, namely several losses and a suspension. This game made for Mask’s second game cover appearance, and the fighter would go on to be later inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.
UFC 2009 Undisputed: UFC Undisputed is the first game from a partnership with THQ, which is currently owned by Embracer Group. Forrest Griffin is the lone cover athlete after a long list of games with multiple athletes. In early 2008 Griffin held the light heavyweight champion title.
UFC Undisputed 2010: The second UFC series game from THQ featured Brock Lesnar as the lone cover athlete. While those unfamiliar with combat sports may sooner recognize Lesnar from wrestling on TV and related video games, he pursued a career in combat sports twice. Some people familiar with the athlete even theorize appearances of Brock Lesnar in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. In his first venture into the UFC and shortly before becoming a cover athlete, Lesnar held the heavyweight champion title.
UFC Undisputed 3: In the final UFC game from THQ, the cover athlete was Anderson Silva. Coinciding with its final UFC licensed game, THQ was rumored to shut down due to over-extending on licensed partnerships. Silva reportedly won the opportunity of being a cover athlete through a community vote. Around the time of the release of UFC Undisputed 3, Anderson Silva held the champion title for the middleweight division in the UFC.
EA Sports UFC: After THQ, EA entered an ongoing partnership with the UFC to license the fighting games. The cover athletes for EA Sports UFC were Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson. Jones held the light heavyweight champion title for 4 years prior to the game’s release, and Gustafsson was a longtime rival for the same title. After the game’s release, Jones’ career suffered from a series of unfortunate events, coinciding with the fan theory of the UFC cover curse.
EA Sports UFC 2: The next UFC game from EA featured Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor as the cover athletes. Rousey was the women’s bantamweight division champion for over 3 years prior to the game’s release and is the first and only woman to be a cover athlete for UFC games. Recently, career fame led to Ronda Rousey becoming a character in Raid Shadow Legends. McGregor had an impressive 19:3 win history and previously held the featherweight champion title in the UFC leading up to the game’s launch.
EA Sports UFC 3: EA’s third UFC game featured Conor McGregor, again. Building up to this game’s release and showcased on the cover art, Mcgregor was famed for simultaneously holding two champion titles in the UFC, the featherweight and lightweight division titles. Despite being a two-time cover athlete, McGregor has publicly insulted the UFC games.
EA Sports UFC 4: The most recent UFC game as of 2023 features Jorge Masvidal and Israel Adesanya as cover athletes. Around the game’s release in 2022, Masvidal just faced his second unsuccessful shot at a championship title, though a considerably long record of mostly wins kept him among fan favorites. In Adesanya’s career before the game’s release, he held the middleweight championship title and was undefeated for all of his first 20 fights. Since then Adesanya appeared in an Elden Ring promotion, which was an extremely appropriate casting.
Source: ESPN