Some fighters don't like to talk and let their performance say everything, but other fighters realize how use their words as a weapon as well. By the time they step into the cage... they've already won. These are the fighters that just completely took control of the narrative. Not all won, but they definitely had a huge effect.
Without a doubt, Chuck Liddell was the biggest start in the UFC's history when he was on top. The world knew him if they didn't know anyone else inside the UFC, but there was one man the public was totally unaware of who had beaten him before and little did they know, would again. That man was Rampage Jackson.
As they say, size ain't everything. Certainly won't stop you from being champion of the world if you're this good. These are the fighters that fought way above their weight class and came out on top over and over again.
The antitrust lawsuit just got a crazy update. Basically the judge said $335 million isn't enough for a settlement and that the UFC is going to have to pay up much more money. As a result of this the lawsuit is headed towards a trial. So does this suddenly mean we'll see more Francis Ngannou situations of top UFC fighters headed to the PFL? No. Not at all.
New stars have to come from somewhere right? Well, what better place to look than serving up the old stars vs the new? Yeah it's rough. And the fighters on this list constantly found themselves in that situation. Way more often than usual.
Sometimes the craziest bad blood between fighters isn't the ones that always disliked each other, but in fact the many of the most bitter rivals are those that used to be friends. And yes, believe or not Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov were at one time, in fact, friends. We'll break it all down for you now.
The real magic of Alex Pereira
There's no doubt about it. The real heavyweight champion of the world is not Jon Jones but in fact, Tom Aspinall. Jones hasn't competed in over 500 days and has yet to defend his title a single time. What is the point of an undisputed belt when it is so fully and completely disputed? Jones can fight Stipe Miocic in November, but that ain't the real belt.
Why is Belal Muhammad just now getting his title shot against Leon Edwards at UFC 304? Well it probably has something to do with the silly excuses the UFC made to put Colby Covington in there against Edwards first. Turns out there are a ton other fights just like this.
As Paddy Pimblett enters into UFC 304 fight week, he's doing so with perhaps the most pressure he's ever felt in his career and the most disdain from the fanbase as well. But this is not the worst moment of his career, that's already happened.
There comes a point in every fighter's career where it's clear they just don't have it anymore. In these cases, all of the fighters chose to push through and continue their careers. From are perspective, these are the exact moments they should have called it quits.
What we told you the first martial art to start MMA is being erased? It's not jiu jitsu, it's not amateur wrestling, sambo and it's not any of the striking arts you know. It's something that goes beyond it all and in fact, created many of those combat disciplines. It even leads directly to some the UFC's champions like Tom Aspinall.
You would think as a fighter that the craziest scenario you'll face the day of your fight will involve your opponent. In all these cases something else at the event totally changed that around. If you don't know what I mean, check out the video. A perfect example was Dricus Du Plessis vs Sean Strickland in the crowd of course.
MMA was pretty much founded on the premise that the best techniques for real life situations prevail. In the cases though, you got people like Valentina Shevchenko telling people not to drink water. What even is this sport?
Some fighters get pegged as "over-the-hill" or too far past their prime to get past the next big thing and for good reason. Our favorite fighters lose all the time at similar stages in their careers, but just like what happened with Robert Whittaker and Ikram Aliskerov, you never can count out the best. Ya'll musta forgot.
What you'll find in today's video is that the convoluted interim title situation between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall is both nothing new, but also not the way it used to be. The fact is, over time interim titles in the UFC have continually gotten worse, especially since the UFC sold in 2016.
All wins are not created equal. In fact, sometimes a win can be as bad as a loss depending on how it's viewed by the public. Most of the time people will carry on like normal, but others there's a level of backlash from Dana White or the fans and yeah.... plenty of examples here.
When we say this is one of the craziest MMA tournaments in the sport's history, that is no exaggeration. This had the biggest size differences you'll ever see in MMA and it put to shame the old UFC tournaments or anyone else. Not to mention this all happened in a major mma promotion in Japan. This one is wild.
It's really hard to top what Alex Pereira did last night. Coming in on short notice and taking out someone as dangerous as Jiri, but making it look easy? Not to mention he came in with the same injury McGregor pulled out with. What a statement. He's headlined the two biggest cards of the year already. Fighter of the year is locked.
There are a lot of huge, huge names on this card. Pereira, Jiri, Garry, MVP, the list goes on. But none of them are enjoying anywhere near this level of favor from the oddsmakers. Payton Talbott is -1600 as a favorite against Yanis Ghemmouri where the nearest guy on the card is only a -440. Let's take a closer look.
Sometimes a card just completely falls apart and is in desperate need of someone to main event. In light Conor McGregor dropping out of UFC 303 and Alex Pereira stepping up last minute to fight Jiri Prochazka, we just had to talk about it in this video.
Khamzat Chimaev has gone from the fastest growing star in this sport and taking on the most fights in the shortest amount of time to now, where we are lucky if we see him fight even once a year. As a result, we haven't seen him fight for a title even once despite having opportunities in 2 divisions. What has happened to the career of Khamzat Chimaev?
In the most literal sense, these MMA press conference moments made fans physically cringe upon hearing them. Whether it was from the fighters themselves or the people at press conferences asking questions, things get a bit rough here. Lucky for you, we've edited this one in a hilarious way.
Oh hey, this video is over an hour long. Which means there are a TON of fights that fall into this category. Not saying we covered every single hyped fight that flopped in MMA history, but we definitely went deep into the topic. Strap in, gonna be a wild ride.
If it's not times when the old is being sacrificed to the new in this sport, it's just the downright baffling and for one reason or another, whether in the UFC otherwise, it pisses off the fanbase. These are the fights that made fans the angriest when they were announced.
Some fights just seem to big to not happen, but clearly no fight is safe. Whether it's the biggest fight in the UFC's or the best, something just gets in the way. These are 10 of the best build-ups that somehow fell through.
They say styles make fights, but that isn't always the case. Sometimes the "wrong" style just wins and no one sees it coming. These are the times fighters flip the script on their perceived achilles heel to get the win.
In 2024, you kinda take for granted where the sport is. Only about 8 years ago we still couldn't hold events in New York and go back just a bit further you couldn't even put it on TV. Turns out a few celebs played a big hand in helping with that. Some helped out in truly monumental ways.
Recently Dana White following the UFC 302 press conference said that Islam Makhachev is not the P4P best in the world and as long as Jon Jones is in the sport, he's actually the best fighter on the planet. How can this be true if he's only fought 1 time in the last 4 years? I think Dana's mixing something up here.
What a fight between Dustin Poirier and Islam Makhachev at UFC 302 last night. It no doubt saved the card because virtually nothing else really delivered especially that co-main between Costa and Strickland. Dustin Poirier is a legend and if this is really it, what a better end to a career than putting on an incredible performance like that.
