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10 MMA Fighters Who Wasted Their Careers

These 10 fighters had the MMA world in the palm of their hands but wasted it away.

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What if the last day you have on earth, the person you became met the person you could have become?

It’s a heavy question, but if you are honest with yourself, it’s an excellent barometer to gauge how fulfilling and productive your life was, or could’ve been. One of the saddest things in life is seeing wasted talent, or worse yet, watching someone self-destruct right before your eyes.

This scenario seems to play itself out time and time again in sports and is an equal opportunity destroyer of lives. Take John Daly, Darryl Strawberry, and Ryan Leaf for instance. All three of these athletes wasted their careers away to varying degrees and never came close to reaching their perceived ceiling. Unfortunately, mixed martial arts (MMA) is no different when it comes to athletes wasting their careers away.

This year, the sport celebrated its silver anniversary. In that time the growing number of fighters who have squandered otherwise promising careers is staggering. We here at LowkickMMA compiled a list of the 10 fighters who wasted their careers away.

The list starts here, enjoy:

Jon Jones

We start the list off with none other than decorated-yet-troubled former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones.

Jones is still in the process of writing his story, but if history has shown us anything, it’s that athletes that continually mess up usually continue to self-destruct unless a comprehensive lifestyle intervention takes place.

“Bones” makes this list because he is perhaps the best and most recent example of an MMA fighter wasting their potential away. Once considered the unquestioned greatest of all time, Jones is, unfortunately, more likely the butt of a joke than in the running for the GOAT conversation nowadays.

Jones won the UFC light heavyweight championship on two occasions; he would also become the first fighter in company history to be stripped of the same title both times.

Couple that with “Bones” well-documented controversies that include a hit-and-run involving a pregnant woman, multiple failed drug tests, and a seemingly never-ending stream of generally head-scratching outside-the-cage trouble, and it’s no wonder Jones makes the list of fighters that wasted their careers.

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10 Crazy Stories From UFC 100

Take a look back at the craziness that was UFC 100.

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Billed as the most anticipated event in the history of the promotion, UFC 100 on July 9th, 2009 in Las Vegas proved to be a historic night that more than lived up to the pre-fight hype.

Almost a decade later, we looked back at 10 crazy stories that occurred before, during, and after one of the most memorable events in the sport’s history.

Dana White’s BASE Jump Promise

Caught up in the growing buzz before UFC 100, Dana White got carried away when asked if the event could smash the promotion’s previous record of 1.2 million pay-per-view buys.

“1.5 million buys – I’ll jump, I’ll BASE jump off the Mandalay Bay. I promise,” White told the media.

However, when it emerged that UFC 100 had, in fact, hit that lofty target, there was no sign of White perched atop the iconic 39-floor building. But the media was not quick to forget his promise and at the end of the year, he was reluctantly forced to speak about it again.

“I’ve actually been working on it,” White claimed. “I’ve been training for it. I’m going to do it. … I’ve been training with one of the best BASE jumpers in the U.S.

“You guys keep [expletive] pushing me. You guys are the ones doing this to me. That’s what I get for opening my big mouth. I didn’t know we were going to do that many buys. I didn’t know.

“So, I said I’d do it. Now I’m going to do it.”

However, White’s promise proved to be nothing more than hot air as nearly a decade later he still hasn’t gone through with it.

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Six Fighters Who Turned Their Careers Around In 2018

These six fighters defied the odds and turned their careers around in 2018.

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Mixed martial arts is a crazy and unpredictable sport. It takes a special kind of individual to throw caution into the wind and risk their own physical wellbeing for the sake of entertainment.

There is no blueprint on how to become a fighter. We have seen fighters come from all different walks of life. There have been lifelong athletes that transition into MMA after their collegiate days, and we have seen real estate agents by day turn into savage cage fighters at night.

Likewise, some fighters hit the ground running in MMA, laying waste to opponents right from the very start of their careers. Other fighters don’t quite hit their fighting groove till much later in their careers.

One thing, however, does remain true in combat sports. and particularly MMA. That is you can always expect the unexpected. 2018 has provided mixed martial arts fans with some memorable moments, and with five months still left to go in the year, its a safe bet there are still many more heart-stopping outcomes still to come.

2018 has seen its fair share of comebacks inside the octagon, but we here at Lowkick wanted to put a different spin on the term “comeback.” We took a look back at the first half of 2018 to bring you our list of six fighters who have turned their fight careers around this year.

Here is our list:

Jeremy Stephens

There is perhaps no greater example of what one year can do for an MMA career than Jeremy “Lil Heathen” Stephens.

Stephens first set foot into the Octagon back in 2007 at UFC 71. He would lose his debut against Din Thomas on that night, but here we are over a decade later, and “Lil’ Heathen” has never looked better.

In Stephens’ last outing, he destroyed rising Team Alpha Male contender Josh Emmett via KO at 1:35 of the second round of their main event at UFC on FOX 28 in February. Just one month prior to FOX 28 at UFC Fight Night 124, “Lil Heathen” took out highly-touted prospect Doo Ho Choi in a war that earned “Fight of the Night” honors.

Stephens is 2-0 in 2018 and plans on adding more Ws to the win column before year’s end. He was recently called upon to fill in for Max Holloway at UFC 226 after the champ was removed from the card for exhibiting concussion-like symptoms. “Lil’ Heathen” jumped at the short-notice opportunity, however, his would-be opponent Brian Ortega refused the fight.

Stephens now turns his sights to longtime former featherweight king Jose Aldo, who he will be facing in the co-main event of UFC on FOX 30 next week (July 28, 2018).

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Eight Biggest Suspensions Of The USADA-UFC Era

The USADA-UFC era has resulted in some incredibly high-profile suspensions.

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The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) formed Oct., 1, 2000, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Just a few months later, Congress recognized USADA as the official anti-doping agency of the Pan American Games, the Paralympics, and the Olympics.

USADA has been at the forefront of anti-doping in athletics for nearly two decades, helping catch cheaters and level the playing field in sports such as boxing, cycling, and swimming, just to name a few. On July, 1, 2015, mixed martial arts became the latest sport to work hand in hand with the non-profit organization, specifically the UFC.

The USADA-UFC experiment is just over three years old now, and at times it would appear they have been doing exactly what they were brought in to do. That is, help mitigate the doping going on in the UFC. But other times, the fight game has been left scratching its head in disbelieve at the inconsistency of it all.

It’s lead to several high-profile suspensions nonetheless, some with suspicious circumstances and some that were more clear-cut.

We took a look back at the eight biggest suspensions of the USADA-UFC era right here:

Chad Mendes

Chad “Money” Mendes returned to action at UFC Boise last weekend (July 14, 2018) after serving a two-year suspension for testing positive for a growth hormone releasing hexapeptide (GHRP-6).

The Team Alpha Male fighter denied knowingly taking any banned substance but did offer up a possible explanation for the failed test. Mendes said he has a condition known as plaque psoriasis and perhaps some of the cream he used to treat his ailment was tainted with the substance in question.

Whether you believe Mendes or not, it makes no difference. “Money” received a two-year suspension for his failed out-of-competition sample that was collected on May 17, 2016.

Oddly enough Mendes chose not to appeal the failed test and thus is perhaps culpable at some level.

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Seven Reasons Why UFC Ratings Are Worse Than Ever

The action in the Octagon has been solid, but ratings are not. Here’s why.

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If you are a mixed martial arts fan, and I assume you are if you’re reading this list, it’s obvious the landscape of MMA has drastically changed in the last several years. So much so, in some instances, the sport is nearly unrecognizable.

It’s fair to point out that all major sports are suffering from a “new era” of content consumption and MMA is no different. But why has MMA, and in particular, the UFC suffered such a drastic decline in viewership these last few years, with cards on FOX Sports 1 and FOX bringing some of the lowest numbers ever and even a superfight-headlined card like UFC 226 earning only a reported 400,000 buys?

We here at Lowkick have compiled a list of the seven reasons why the UFC ratings are worse than ever. Check them out:

Too Many Shows

We could have worded this many different ways, but the fact remains the same, the MMA industry is simply way too oversaturated. There may be only a handful of high-level promotions operation in today’s combat sports climate; the UFC, Bellator, and the PFL come to mind. But rest assured, there are dozens of regional promotions that contribute to the weekly blitz of mixed martial arts.

In 2017 the UFC hosted a total of 39 events (including 12 PPVs, 4 UFC on FOX, 2 TUF Finales). The UFC is scheduled to hit that very same mark this year, once again reaching 39 events in a 12-month span. Compare that to 41, which was the number of events the Endeavor-owned promotion promoted in 2016.

It’s not necessarily that the UFC is solely responsible for the oversaturation of MMA; the numbers just don’t support that claim. But there was a time, not too long ago, that the only MMA on TV was the UFC, and even that was challenging to find the proper channel at times.

The sheer number of events makes each week’s card less special, and both the PPV buys and TV ratings show that.

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Seven Potential Replacements For Dana White

Check out seven possible replacements the UFC could hire for Dana White:

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Nothing lasts forever, and even the mighty Dana White will one day step down as the president and face of the UFC.

Love him or hate him, White has been at the helm of the combat sports giant since Zuffa purchased it back in January of 2001. Under White’s leadership, the UFC has grown into a multi-billion dollar, global phenomenon, and the unquestioned leader of mixed martial arts (MMA).

That’s not to say White hasn’t ruffled a few feathers along the way, a career that spans more than 15 years is bound to challenge the status quo. Brash and unapologetic at times, and at other times brutally honest, inconsistency has been the only constant in White’s run as UFC president.

When Zuffa sold the Ultimate Fighting Championship to the William Morris Endeavor in 2016 for $4.2 billion, many people questioned whether White would also part ways with the company he helped build. He obviously has not; however, as of late people have started to notice that White seems increasingly disinterested and at times flippant.

With that in mind, we explored the MMA universe to bring you seven possible replacements for White. Enjoy.

Chael Sonnen

If you saw this one coming, give yourself a pat on the back because you, my friend, have a keen MMA eye. Sonnen is perhaps the most obvious choice to fill White’s shoes, and maybe best suited to follow such an act.

If “The American Gangster” did have ambitions of reigning over the UFC, he would first need to be released from his existing Bellator contract, which most likely would not be an issue considering the kinship between himself and Scott Coker.

The more practical sticking point may be the incredible freedom the Viacom owned promotion bestows on Chael. Would he really want to trade his relatively light workload with big bucks, for a back-breaking work schedule with comparable pay?

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