MMA fans have to be the most disloyal and judgmental fans of any sport. After a fighter strings together a few wins and gains some hype behind them, many people jump on the bandwagon and declare him their favorite fighter or the next big thing in the UFC.
However, all it takes is one lackluster performance or loss for many fans to turn on that fighter and either declare him “finished” or say that he was never that good in the first place. It happens time and time again—after Lyoto Machida lost to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, after Brock Lesnar lost to Cain Velasquez, after Anderson Silva‘s last-gasp win over Chael Sonnen, and so on.
It even gets to the point where people forget anything that happened prior to a fighter’s last fight and all of the praise they were heaping on that particular fighter. After the recent Shogun and Dan Henderson fight, I read one of the dumbest things I have ever seen on Sherdog’s discussion board, as one poster said that he believed the fight showed that Shogun was and had been overrated, and that he was never even a top five light heavyweight at any stage of his career.
Are you serious?
It wouldn’t surprise me if after Silva loses his first fight in the UFC, fans start saying that he was overrated and that his undefeated streak means nothing, just like many people say about Fedor Emelianenko. Even Jon Jones will suffer such criticism after he loses his first fight, and it is ridiculous.
No matter what happens in upcoming fights, everyone that enters the octagon deserves our respect, especially those that have reached great heights.
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