During the early days of the sport, criticism within the MMA community, be it aimed at judges, fighters, promoters or fans, was a very rare thing.
I’m not talking about fans criticizing fighters because they didn’t like them; that has always happened and always will.
I am talking about the kind of criticism that is overly harsh and unfair, that usually proceeds from false assumption—due to slights imagined or reasons manufactured—all toward the end of shifting blame or remaking a situation that substantiates ill opinion for the sake of ill opinion.
It doesn’t take much for a figure in the sport to go from criticized to hated in the blink of an eye, which is the worst byproduct of undue and biased criticism.
Sometimes making an unpopular decision, standing on the wrong side of the fence, or worse, being successful is all that is needed for harsh words to become the only way your detractors can bring you down.
Not all criticism is unfounded, but in the cases of the five individuals you will see on this slideshow, much of it is. That’s what makes it so unfair.