They lied. They cheated (sort of). They stole our money.One of them even cracked his head open before he even left his dressing room.These are the 10 worst main-event fighters in UFC history.Because most of the earlier events were tournaments and thus …
They lied. They cheated (sort of). They stole our money.
One of them even cracked his head open before he even left his dressing room.
These are the 10 worst main-event fighters in UFC history.
Because most of the earlier events were tournaments and thus didn’t have a previously scheduled “main event” per se, I am excluding those from the list.
Second, I’m not including fighters on here who were good, but just happened to mutually put on a bad fight due to having an off night at the same time, an unfavorable blend of styles or game plans or something else (see Arlovski-Sylvia). I’m looking at individual fighters who, in retrospect, didn’t deserve to be in the main event.
Third, I’m only looking at pay-per-views, as the free events tend to have a lower threshold for who can be part of a main event, making free events vs. pay events a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison.
Fourth, I’m defining the worst as guys who maybe didn’t deserve to be there in the first place, but more importantly put on horrible performances once there. Maybe there are other ways to define it. This one was mine.
At UFC 135 Saturday night, Matt Hughes lost his second fight in a row when Josh Koscheck literally knocked him unconscious with one second remaining in the opening round.In the early minutes of the fight, Hughes held his own in the striking exchanges, …
At UFC 135 Saturday night, Matt Hughes lost his second fight in a row when Josh Koscheck literally knocked him unconscious with one second remaining in the opening round.
In the early minutes of the fight, Hughes held his own in the striking exchanges, and perhaps even got the better of Koscheck. Either way, he certainly lasted longer against Koscheck than he did in his last fight, a 21-second knockout at the hands of B.J. Penn.
After shaking off the cobwebs, the 37-year-old Hughes (45-9) told Joe Rogan that he was not retiring, but added he would like the UFC to put him “on the shelf” for a while (time period not specified).
Regardless of whether he fights again, Hughes can walk out of Denver with his head held high.
And it’s for more than just his ability to show flashes of his old self in lasting four minutes and 59 seconds with a bona fide welterweight contender. It was the frequent ovations he received from an appreciative Pepsi Center crowd. It was the open emotion and deference the notoriously prickly Koscheck showed when he spoke of being given the chance to fight Hughes. It is the way in which Hughes, even when bloody, never seems to fully bow his head.
He is a great champion. And he can leave UFC 135 knowing that is how he will be remembered.
Be sure to check out Bleacher Report for all things UFC 135. B/R is your home for MMA, from pre-fight predictions to in-fight coverage, and post-fight analysis…which you can check out at our event hub.
What a summer it was for MMA fans. Who could forget Cheick Kongo’s comeback for the ages against Pat Barry? Or Big Nog flattening Brendan Schaub? Chris Lytle retiring in style against Dan Hardy? Ellenberger smashing Shields in the b…
Who could forget Cheick Kongo’s comeback for the ages against Pat Barry? Or Big Nog flattening Brendan Schaub? Chris Lytle retiring in style against Dan Hardy? Ellenberger smashing Shields in the battle of the Jakes? Anderson Silva outclassing yet another victim in Yushin Okami? Dennis Hallman’s banana hammock?
There were plenty more memorable moments from throughout the season. But even though the cooler months are creeping in, the MMA calendar is far from dead.
Here are the 25 most intriguing matchups that remain.
If you follow MMA on the Intertubes, you may have heard a little something recently about Dan Henderson’s triumphant return to the UFC, which he’ll consummate at UFC 139 by fighting light-heavyweight contender Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.At 41, Hendo doesn’t…
If you follow MMA on the Intertubes, you may have heard a little something recently about Dan Henderson‘s triumphant return to the UFC, which he’ll consummate at UFC 139 by fighting light-heavyweight contender Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
At 41, Hendo doesn’t exactly have unlimited time in the sport, but he’s still pretty darn good. I’d go so far as to say he poses a legitimate threat in the light heavyweight division. Why do I say that? Here are five reasons.
After Nick Diaz no-showed for a press conference to promote his UFC 137 bout with UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, he was summarily removed from the fight. Perhaps improbably, he then received a bout with B.J. Penn in the same event, but no…
After Nick Diaz no-showed for a press conference to promote his UFC 137 bout with UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, he was summarily removed from the fight.
Perhaps improbably, he then received a bout with B.J. Penn in the same event, but not before taking a smelting plant’s worth of heat in MMA circles for being unreliable, eccentric, difficult and perhaps, according to trainer Cesar Gracie, even mentally imbalanced.
It’s not the first time Diaz has pulled such shenanigans. It’s tough to forget the three-month suspension handed to Diaz after he brawled with Jason “Mayhem” Miller after an event in Nashville, or the six-month breather he received after testing positive for marijuana following a 2007 victory over Takanori Gomi (later changed to a no contest).
He has, for now, proven himself to be a rather unreliable fighter. But that begs the question: Is he the most unreliable fighter in all of MMA?
Short answer: no.
Fighters can be unreliable for all sorts of reasons. Take Alistair Overeem, who earlier this year backed out of the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament because the next fight, he claimed, came too soon after his previous fight.
Only 10 days before a highly anticipated fight with Fedor Emelianenko, heavyweight Josh Barnett was pulled from the bout after failing a drug test. Forty-eight hours before he was scheduled to walk to the cage to face Dustin Hazelett, welterweight Karo Parisyan failed to show up for weigh-ins, offering what UFC president Dana White said was “a laundry list of excuses.”
And then there is perhaps the most formidable demon of unreliability: the dicey weight cut. Few fans have forgiven Travis Lutter for failing to make weight for a 2007 title bout with middleweight champ Anderson Silva. But Thiago Alves might be the recent king of the missed weight cuts, with two of his last six fights going to catchweight after he failed to drop the requisite poundage.
There are plenty of other fighters and reasons you could throw into the mix. Despite this litany of offenders, however, the argument could be made that Diaz is just as bad as any of them. But there is one thing preventing Diaz from taking the unequivocal crown for unreliability.
Two words: Paulo Filho.
Filho first pulled out of a bout in 2008, when he missed a rematch with Chael Sonnen at WEC 33 after checking into a substance rehab facility shortly before the fight.
The match was rescheduled for WEC 36. This time, Filho made it, but failed to make weight. The fight went on as scheduled, though Filho was disoriented throughout and did not fight well, to put it mildly.
This would likely have spelled curtains for another, less-talented fighter, but Filho’s upside earned him another chance. A 2009 fight for the DREAM promotion went off without a hitch, with Filho submitting Melvin Manhoef for the win.
Unfortunately, Filho’s streak of non-controversial fights ended at one when, in October of that year, he simply failed to show up for a match with Yoon Dong-Sik.
In a February 2010 fight with Yuki Sasaki, Filho withdrew from the match, then reinstated himself. Then he skipped the weigh-ins. Fight cancelled.
But wait—there’s more! In May 2010, Filho pulled out of a fight with Bellator middleweight belt-holder Hector Lombard for alleged visa issues.
He seems to have gotten his act together since then, but has won only two of six.
To summarize: Is Diaz an unreliable fighter right now? You bet. Would I book him for any fight of consequence? Nope.
But is he the most unreliable MMA fighter walking the planet today? Not as long as Paulo Filho’s still around.
Underrated is a slippery, and surprisingly charged, term in MMA. If a fighter is deemed to be underrated, does that mean we are discussing those whose careers are better than their records indicate? Or does it apply to a great fight…
Underrated is a slippery, and surprisingly charged, term in MMA.
If a fighter is deemed to be underrated, does that mean we are discussing those whose careers are better than their records indicate? Or does it apply to a great fighter who is relatively unheralded? If it’s the latter, who is doing the heralding: hardcore MMA fans, casual MMA fans or the general public?
This is the Gordian knot one must unravel before ranking the most underrated mixed martial artists in the history of recorded time.
Never being much of knot untier, I ultimately took the easy way out and tried to blend all of the above criteria. Fighters who were, and are, better in real life than they might appear on paper or in the media, fighters who sometimes get overlooked during barstool arguments among serious fans, and fighters who are not known at all by the public—but should be.
At UFC 135 Saturday night, Matt Hughes lost his second fight in a row when Josh Koscheck literally knocked him unconscious with one second remaining in the opening round.