Yeah I was really disappointed to see him not come over to the UFC with many of the other Pride fighters after the buyout, and then just fade into obscurity. He was crushing elite guys not long before this.
Early modern UFC was tough, especially LHW. Many many sharks and they would cut people on the regular after just a few losses. He fought Machida and looking back, didn’t do too bad against him. I felt he was dealt an unlucky hand.
He had a gym in Oceanside that closed down and now is a fireman from what I have heard.
Last I heard, (from dudes who apparently worked with him). He could’ve returned at some point, but he was literally making more money to work in the Oilsands than to fight in the UFC, so the health concerns basically made it a no brainer.
One of the obvious ones is Houston Alexander. His early career was largely unknown due to being pre social media, steamrolls Jardine and Sakara then nothing.
I'm sure he's a nice guy but he rented out my dad's gymnastics gym for training or something when he was getting started and didn't pay, so I'll always hate him lol.
The story about him I always remember is from this sub. I forget if he did an AMA or what it was, but somehow he ended up giving out his phone number on here. Was his legit cell and he answered every call and apparently was super cool to everyone. I didn’t call myself but just the reaction every one had made me like the dude. I remember for a few months after people would mention still hitting him up and him being responsive.
50/50 I lived in Omaha and trained at his gym and met him multiple times out at the bar. Always a friendly dude and a nice guy at the gym. He was INSANELY fucking strong. I was friends with his coaches son and he said he was stubborn as a mule.
I was just about to post Houston Alexander! I’ll never forget Joe Rogan’s “Houston Alexander is FOR REAL” after the Sakara fight.
https://youtu.be/eBfBNm-PMnk?si=FtkM-79XHQx3W2hk
Getting blanked by Ryan Spann in the 1st after two other nasty knockouts to cap off a 0-4 slide across three years and then spending a year and a half on the shelf should have done that already. But you're right, there's no way he stays on main cards after that - the surprise would be if he didn't get cut.
I mean, there's only so much juice in any given fruit. Surely Alvey can't be the realistic model. Tony is an absurd case but he has a name so I guess that's why he's still here.
We’re already half way there with Reyes. Yeah, they’re not letting the only (other guy besides Hamil) to beat Jones go to another org. Especially when he looks great on highlight reels.
He's taken enough damage to be halfway into CTE from KO's alone.
The lady who does the CTE research says after YEARS of inspecting brains with CTE, having a staggering 95%+ positive rate for athletes...
They speculate 10 lights out concussions is enough to start baby's first CTE -- You won't be taking to shadows and arguing with your car but you're already damaged permanently mentally.
This shit is rough AF, if you go out 3-4 times from KO's it's time to consider walking away, as things don't get better...
10 KOs is a staggeringly high bar to clear. It’s more likely everyone’s getting CTE from regular training and taking thousands of strikes over a career. There’s not really a way to stop it, I don’t think.
Fighters should go into their careers knowing they’re going to have debilitating brain damage at the end. We should know every time we watch a fight that they’re losing something they’ll never get back, and we should behave accordingly.
Shieeet sometimes a fighter does that.. they drain their very essence to beat that Goliath then have nothing left and get destroyed or carry on greatly diminished.
Joe Frazier vs Muhammad Ali is another example that comes to mind.
Realistically they'd have done an instant rematch probably and there's a very good chance Jones would have avenged the loss. It would be an interesting timeline, though. Might have kept him at that weight class.
To Larkin's credit he went undefeated over six years and two weight classes in Bellator with no title fight and then got booked to fight Koreshkov on the Bellator x Rizin 2 card last year and lost a split decision
I feel for the guy
Muniz looked like an unbelievable talent after that Jacare submission and a couple after and now seems like an entirely unremarkable fringe rankings middleweight.
Agreed! But submission defence isn’t one of the faster things to go as you age and Jacare hadn’t been submitted his whole career so it still made me think he might be something special haha
By the time he retired he had one of the worst chins I've ever seen from a high level fighter.
The fact that he was getting rocked by relatively tame shots at 135 was a good sign to call it a career even though he's still skilled and still has some speed.
Ya I remember when I first watched him against Miguel Torres, I said holy fuck this guy's fast, has power, black belt in Muay Thai and BJJ. He just couldn't keep his chin long enough for his reign unfortunately.
Miguel Torres was 35-1 at one point and him vs Faber was the WEC Superfight that all fans wanted to see. Then he lost the fight to Brian Bowles and he never reached those heights again. I do think that he should have won his UFC fight against Demetrious Johnson - he got taken down and held down but was doing more damage off his back than Might Mouse.
Truth.
Miguel Torres was the boogieman back then and yes he definitely deserved the win over Mighty Mouse. DJ just lay'd and pray'd his way to a decision, and you are absolutely correct that Torres did more damage and attempted more submissions even though he was on his back most of the fight. I hated MM in those days.
This was before Mighty Mouse became the incredible fighter that we know of today. He may still have been working a day job at this stage of his career.
Lorenz Larkin vs Neil Magny, UFC 202
Unranked Larkin beats the ever living fuck out of #7 ranked Magny in 4 minutes and then leaves for Bellator and never fights in the UFC again.
He’s had some good performances since but he took out Magny like he didn’t belong in there.
"The Monsoon" has some incredible kickboxing. His takedown defense is not the best but when the fight is standing, he is really great to watch. Larkin vs Tumenov is one of my favorite "not so famous" fights.
Paulo Filho.
Undefeated, ADCC trials competitor, CBJJ World's Medalist, and WEC MW Champion. He was the guy.
Then he shows up to defend against Chael Sonnen (seemingly on drugs) and has the weirdest fight you'll ever see. Then he bounces around Japan and Brazil and just kinda fades away. Major what if story.
In an interesting/bizarre twist, he was the WEC MW champion and set to defend his title against Chael. However, he missed weight for the fight and the fight became a non-title contest (based on the rules in place at the time). He proceeded to have a weird fight with Chael (looked like he was hearing voices) and Chael won a decision. But since Filho missed weight, Chael did not officially win the title. This was the last WEC MW title fight and I heard that Filho actually ended up sending Chael the belt.
Ya gotta think there’s some undiagnosed mental illness there. That or concussion issues/CTE. I’ve heard he was always a weird guy but nothing like the stuff involving the Sonnen fight and everything after
Yea, he says in a Brazilian podcast that his fighting spirit went away after Pride. He didn't adapt to USA fighting culture (he says he was used to the way the Japanese people treat the fighters and how that doesn't exist at all in US) and his father was having some health issues at the time, which led him to abuse cocaine and everything went downhill from there. He seems to be in a good place mentally nowadays tho.
He was a monstruous fighter, elite Judo and grappling overall. The talk at the time was he was better than Anderson Silva. He is a good fight analyst, I've seen some clips from him and he's very knowledgeable. Unfortunately he is not popular in Brazil so as far as I know he has no job in the media or whatever.
I remember back in the day when there was a period when people would argue whether Silva or Filho was the top dog at MW.
Kind of a forgotten legend at the weight class that most newer fans have probably never heard of
Hernandez has a problem with only being one level deep. He knows how to counter/react after an attack, but he mostly just wants to go. He has no IQ to lay back and only react when it’ll work. He tries to go all the time which is easy to read and tires himself out.
Yeah this is the vibe I’m going for, made weight on short notice and immediately gets thrusted into the rankings before getting humbled by day drinking Don.
I’ll remember him for that and also for saying his dick doesn’t work when he cut down to 145.
> his dick doesn't work when he cut down to 145
DC: It just seems like Alex is really struggling to implement his game plan here.
Anik: Hernandez unfortunately all too familiar with being unable to rise to the occasion.
Brandon Thatch. Obliterated his first two UFC opponents in the first round, gets matched up with Ben Henderson for his third fight, submitted, then three more sub losses in a row and he never fought again.
He looked like a GIANT next to Bendo in that fight, too. One of the coolest wins of Bendo's career. I believe it was also his debut at the higher weight class.
Outside of the wheel kick in the fourth(?) Kevin Lee put a serious beating on Barboza. Completely dominated him, 15min of control time, Bunch of take downs and nasty ground and pound. He didnt really fall of into obscurity but is record since that fight is 1 win 6 losses.
I never understood the Kevin Lee push. Dude went from beating pretty much no one, to the spectacle of the chiesa drama… to interim title fight against Tony? It kinda felt like he believed the hype so much himself that he just kept booking fights that were bad for him after that. And then got injured. Probably would have benefited a lot if he’d of slowed down.
He had just beaten jake matthews, magomed mustafaev and francisco trinaldo before the chiesa fight. The promotion is not giving you dangerous af but relatively unknown mustafaev and trinaldo if they wanna push you. He earned the bigger fights he got after.
His fans that insist he was always an elite talent make me chuckle. While he was good at one point, he was never great. The man is a case of having [imaginary potential](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMbU18VE3Kk).
Fialho’s striking defense was absolutely nonexistent. Decent offensive boxer, but anyone who threw a punch at his head was pretty much landing at will.
Ray Borg is sort of an underrated one. Talented fighter who got a title shot off upsetting Jussier Formiga in Brazil having not really a ton of top shelf victories in his career up to that point.
Got completely worked over by DJ. Continued to have weight cutting and personal life issues, some of which weren't really his fault (sick kid and the Conor bus incident).
Essentially got cut by the UFC and Bellator not for losing or declining as a fighter but for his lack of professionalism in repeatedly not being able to make weight.
WEC - new fans would not understand the mythical fighting legend that was Miguel Torres. Multiple exciting fights and then after he lost the title he never rebounded, went on a string of uninspiring losses and just kinda faded away.
Miguel Torres was a pioneer. Combat Chronicles just put a bio out on him and it was a great listen. The guy was already aging out by the time the sport was getting attention to the smaller weight classes. If he was 5 years younger we could have seen him vs TJ or Gardbrant. Ahead of the times
He went from earning a bunch of respect despite losing just by being the only person to pretty much cancel out Khabib's grappling for 5 rounds.
Then did nothing ever again.
Eh he looked okay against Lee, but the Lee hype was hitting a bit of an exaggerated pitch at that point. Al looked pretty stiff as usual and got held down a lot, even in a winning effort. Wouldn't say it was a world beater performance as much as good matchmaking leading to a solid win against an artificially well-regarded guy. When I think looking like a world beater I think performances like Tony's coming out party against Josh Thompson or maybe how Bobby Greene thrashed Nasrat Haqparast somewhat recently. Utter domination that shows the potential of that fighter's style as a threat to the broader division.
might be a stretch, but Gusraffson?
He pushed Jon in a fight that a lot of people felt he won (came down to who won round 5). Loses to DC and Rumble, regroups and loses again to Jon and then the downfall. People felt like Gus would be able to finally dethrone Jon but didn't
peak hipster pick here but Kazuo Misaki dropped down to 170 for the first time in his career, boxed the fuck outta Paul Daley, and then promptly retired
Albert Tumenov demolishing Alan Jouban.
The guy is still young too and incredibly talented. He made a huge mistake by leaving the UFC after losing to Leon Edwards of all people. He was doing well against Edwards too until edwards took him down and submitted him
I think he was expecting some wild offers after his initial stint with ACB, but both UFC and Bellator stiffed him with lowball offers and he went back to ACB (ACA)
Tim Means Vs Justin Salas
Granted, he’s had some incredible performances since this fight, but it was the one that showed what bursts of greatness Tim has.
Also, nearly every Gunnar Nelson fight where he won in dominant fashion earlier on in his career. I was convinced that he was the next Fedor - a stoic, ice cold killer.
Gunnar is a good example. Totally had that distant Fedor look while he schooled his first few opponents, and was buddies with McGregor... the UFC was pretty quick to get on the Gunnar hype train.
Then the wheels fell off.
Obious answer Dominick Reyes,
Chris Daukaus looked kinda legit with 4 KO's in 4 fights in the UFC to then get KO'd 4 times in 4 fights and cut
Lorenz Larkin beat THE SHIT out of Magny and I thought he was going to surge but nope.
Only thing with Reyes is he didn’t really fall into obscurity, he just had a brutal string of KO losses.
Jan and Jiri were big name fights and to be honest the Jiri fight was pretty crazy and awesome even tho it ended with the devastating spinning elbow KO.
So he fits the bill for his career trajectory falling off a cliff but I wouldn’t say obscurity.
Dude put on a fight of the night on short notice against prime Ugly Tony, then wheel-kicked John Makdessi into a KO-of-the-year meme.
Since then? Including the 1-1 in his first two bangers, he's 4-7-2 in the UFC. Four FOTNs in that stretch, including two with Bobby Green. But just sort of hanging around, good enough to be here but I don't think he's ever even sniffed the rankings. He's just 32, but he's 1-3 in the last four years.
Rustam Khabilov comes to mind for me. I don’t know who it was but he had a fight where he suplexed his opponent 100 times and just looked like he was toying with the guy. Had some good wins after that and then just stopped fighting.
Edit: must have been Vinc Pichel.
[https://youtu.be/CTJFoXWvrWI?si=k_j5x7EtxvkD8QBf](https://youtu.be/CTJFoXWvrWI?si=k_j5x7EtxvkD8QBf)
Dave Menne was the first UFC welterweight champion ever and then lost in his first defense and bounced around organizations trading wins and losses and is basically forgotten by all but the hardcore history fans.
Not so much fallen off due to performances but fuck TJ Grant looked like he could win it all. The way he beat the breaks off of Gray Maynard was more than impressive.
"Obscurity" might not be the right word for it, but after 12 consecutive "'world beater’ performances," Rousey fell into disdain, if not obscurity, after 2 consecutive losses, and ran from the UFC w/her tail between her legs.
Joe Warren: Olympic wrestler who beat Kid Yamamoto in his prime and then fell off hard. Had less than 5 fights under his belt when he beat Kid. It looked like he was going to be the new sub-155 monster. Never really put it together afterwards. The beating he suffered against Pat Curran in Bellator must have taken years off his life.
Roger Huerta was 20-1 with his only loss due to injury. Was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Was riding the UFC hype train.
Derailed by a decision loss to KenFlo and believing in his own hype (wanted to be a movie star).
Wish fialho didn't fall off a cliff both because he's an entertaining fighter and because it makes Jake's performance look so much less impressive now. It was like he entered into the matrix.
Slava Boreschev vs Sadrykhov.The fight was a draw but one of the best I saw last year. Slava was putting on an absolute striking clinic, one of the best I’ve seen in terms of varied offense and intelligent defense, only to get dropped in the 2nd with a head kic. He then recovered from crazy gnp and elbows to dominate again in the 3rd despite looking like a horror movie victim and was robbed of the decision. I think that fight took too much out of him for him to have the career he should have because his striking in that fight was unbelievable
The one I always think of is Maiquel Falcao.
Brazillian slugging KO machine shows up to the UFC and suddenly puts on a crisp and surgical clinic against Gerald Harris. Then he got cut due to an older arrest, had a few fights in Bellator, devolved into substance abuse, violence, and a very losing record. Then 2 years ago he was stabbed to death.
For that one fight though, he looked like a serious talent.
Mayhem Miller for me. The guy had crazy good grappling that could compete with the best (even subbed out fucking Sakuraba). But seemed to not take training seriously due to mental health issues.
Gregor Gillespie looked absolutely phenomenal putting on a clinic against a decent fighter in Vinc Pichel, then got sparked out by Kevin Lee, came back briefly (and successfully) against CDF and then what?
Lando Vannata debuted on short notice, and gave Tony Ferguson one of the toughest fights of his entire 12 fight run. People got excited, it was like an older version of Diego Lopes. Who debuted against Movsar and looked incredible, but didn’t win, still got the hype.
Lando then wheel kicked his next opponent in round 1 brutally, easiest knockout ever.
Every sign was pointing to Vannata being the next big thing at lightweight.
He would only ever get 3 more wins in the UFC, and all over nobodies, while he would lose to the likes of Bobby Green, Charles Jourdain, Drakar Klose and other people that are not very good.
Cody garbrant , johny Hendricks , Luke rockhold and zabid magomedsharipov I know he didn’t lose but fuck I wish he still fought what a fucking weapon .
Marlon Moraes. I thought he was going to be an champion or at least top 5 throughout his career akin to Diamond but in Bantamweight. Man quits mma to become a cop.
Tra Telligman beating Igor Vovchanchyn at Pride 13. What an incredible performance from Tra in a fight in which he mostly dominated. Igor was 11-1 in Pride and 46-3 overall only losing to Pride 200 GP champion Mark Coleman. Tra would go on to be 1-4 in his last five fights with his only win in that time coming over Vovchanchyn. He gets my vote easily.
One of my favourite WEC fighters was Steve “The Robot” Cantwell. He had great fights in the WEC with Brian Stann, but he never could put it together afterwards in the UFC
David Terrell whooped Matt Linland in less than a minute, lost his title shot to Evan Tanner, came back with a commanding victory, and disappeared to focus on running his gym with a 6-2 career record.
He could have been champion if he stuck with it. That Cesar Gracie team produced a lot of great fighters.
Melvin Guillard really looked like a legit contender before he got submitted almost instantly by Joe Lauzon beginning a I think a 3-14 skid. I think the Lauzon fight was a major upset too.
A bit of a deep cut, but Marius Zaromskis. The guy hit two separate streaks with three head kick KOs in a row fighting in dream including a few of the nastiest I've ever seen (shout out to the old HD net), then he just sort of languished in the B leagues. I didn't even know he was still fighting till just now..
Lorenz Larkin looked like the best welterweight striker of all time the night he fought Neil Magny, he absolutely obliterated his legs, his body and then knocked him out cold with elbows.
I was like damn Larkin is going to be a title contender in no time, and he's just kind of disappeared into a bellator blackhole after that.
Anyone remembered Chris Beal? After the flying knee KO win in his debut, I remembered the UFC mentioning him as the prospect to watch. Won one then lost his remaining ufc fights and disappeared.
1 word: Sokoudjou
This man murdering Little Nog and Ricardo Arona in their primes while he himself was unknown is CRAZY. Edit: He is also 1-1 with Jan.
Arona himself could be one. Honestly a tremendous fighter, then Dana publicly buries him when Pride folds and no idea after that.
Many say he beat Fedor in their fight, Ricardo was amazing, though. I only disliked him for a brief period because he brutalized Sakuraba LMAO.
Arona was amazing, but that fight should never be brought up. Predatory matchmaking, predatory beatdown.
Pride is dirty for that matchmaking. I felt horrified watching Sakuraba get brutalized.
I honestly just thought he’d grapple fuck him but that was a murder.
His face looked nasty, those soccer kicks did not help.
Yes. Arona is one of the most underrated fighters of all time. His resume is quite eye popping.
Yeah I was really disappointed to see him not come over to the UFC with many of the other Pride fighters after the buyout, and then just fade into obscurity. He was crushing elite guys not long before this.
Early modern UFC was tough, especially LHW. Many many sharks and they would cut people on the regular after just a few losses. He fought Machida and looking back, didn’t do too bad against him. I felt he was dealt an unlucky hand. He had a gym in Oceanside that closed down and now is a fireman from what I have heard.
Soak it in.
Duuuuuude
TJ Grant earned himself a title shot back in 2013 by KO'ing Gray Maynard in the 1st round, he ended up never fighting again.
Yea that sucked. He had serious concussion issues so wasn’t much of a choice.
Last I heard, (from dudes who apparently worked with him). He could’ve returned at some point, but he was literally making more money to work in the Oilsands than to fight in the UFC, so the health concerns basically made it a no brainer.
Or a brainer I guess since he would actually have his brain intact
Runs a great gym now in Halifax. TJ is an absolute beauty of a guy, wish he could’ve snagged that belt
As a Canadian I was super excited for him. He could have beat Benson.
One of the obvious ones is Houston Alexander. His early career was largely unknown due to being pre social media, steamrolls Jardine and Sakara then nothing.
Houston coming back as a 52 year old in BKFC and winning 4 in a row is amazing. Love that guy.
I'm sure he's a nice guy but he rented out my dad's gymnastics gym for training or something when he was getting started and didn't pay, so I'll always hate him lol.
he also got arrested for beating his kid or something
Sounds like not a nice guy
[удалено]
[удалено]
I believe his teenage son was being a bully in school so he gave him a pair of boxing gloves and told him to act tough with him instead.
If that's true, what a fucking boss
The story about him I always remember is from this sub. I forget if he did an AMA or what it was, but somehow he ended up giving out his phone number on here. Was his legit cell and he answered every call and apparently was super cool to everyone. I didn’t call myself but just the reaction every one had made me like the dude. I remember for a few months after people would mention still hitting him up and him being responsive.
50/50 I lived in Omaha and trained at his gym and met him multiple times out at the bar. Always a friendly dude and a nice guy at the gym. He was INSANELY fucking strong. I was friends with his coaches son and he said he was stubborn as a mule.
Got his revenge on Joey Beltran.
I was just about to post Houston Alexander! I’ll never forget Joe Rogan’s “Houston Alexander is FOR REAL” after the Sakara fight. https://youtu.be/eBfBNm-PMnk?si=FtkM-79XHQx3W2hk
That horrible fight against Kimbo really did him in. He had massive KO power but no real way to apply it against savvier fighters in LHW.
"Houston Alexander is for *real!*"
At one point he was the definition of a glass cannon. Massive power, but you flick him in the head with your pinky finger and he's out cold.
Dominick Reyes if he loses tomorrow.
Imo he’s already there. I’d be surprised if he stays a main card fighter if he loses tomorrow.
Getting blanked by Ryan Spann in the 1st after two other nasty knockouts to cap off a 0-4 slide across three years and then spending a year and a half on the shelf should have done that already. But you're right, there's no way he stays on main cards after that - the surprise would be if he didn't get cut.
At light-heavy? Unlikely.
I mean, there's only so much juice in any given fruit. Surely Alvey can't be the realistic model. Tony is an absurd case but he has a name so I guess that's why he's still here.
We’re already half way there with Reyes. Yeah, they’re not letting the only (other guy besides Hamil) to beat Jones go to another org. Especially when he looks great on highlight reels.
Dana already said Reyes should retire after his last loss (IIRC). Shit's rough but he might be near the end even for Dana.
Dude October it will be 5 years since his last win. That’s nuts.
He's taken enough damage to be halfway into CTE from KO's alone. The lady who does the CTE research says after YEARS of inspecting brains with CTE, having a staggering 95%+ positive rate for athletes... They speculate 10 lights out concussions is enough to start baby's first CTE -- You won't be taking to shadows and arguing with your car but you're already damaged permanently mentally. This shit is rough AF, if you go out 3-4 times from KO's it's time to consider walking away, as things don't get better...
10 KOs is a staggeringly high bar to clear. It’s more likely everyone’s getting CTE from regular training and taking thousands of strikes over a career. There’s not really a way to stop it, I don’t think. Fighters should go into their careers knowing they’re going to have debilitating brain damage at the end. We should know every time we watch a fight that they’re losing something they’ll never get back, and we should behave accordingly.
Reyes made a binding vow, all my talent to beat Jones, he has nothing left.
Shieeet sometimes a fighter does that.. they drain their very essence to beat that Goliath then have nothing left and get destroyed or carry on greatly diminished. Joe Frazier vs Muhammad Ali is another example that comes to mind.
Kelvin Gastelum after Izzy
[удалено]
Joe. Solis.
Realistically they'd have done an instant rematch probably and there's a very good chance Jones would have avenged the loss. It would be an interesting timeline, though. Might have kept him at that weight class.
This is the right answer. He beat Jones that night.
100 fucking percent. I could not believe my eyes when he didn't. Absolutely robbed.
This is litteraly the story of Lorenz Larkin's career
That fucking Magny fight holy shit
Hear me out : Oblique Body Kick
Oblique kick to the obliques, who would’ve thought
This is the one. Left that fight thinking, why doesn't he do that all the time?
To Larkin's credit he went undefeated over six years and two weight classes in Bellator with no title fight and then got booked to fight Koreshkov on the Bellator x Rizin 2 card last year and lost a split decision I feel for the guy
Muniz looked like an unbelievable talent after that Jacare submission and a couple after and now seems like an entirely unremarkable fringe rankings middleweight.
In Jacare's defense he was pretty washed. Its hard to see a prime Jacare ever losing to Muniz.
Yeah this is post Kevin Holland knocking him out from guard, Kevin is special but that should have been everyone's sign that Jacare is shot to pieces.
Agreed! But submission defence isn’t one of the faster things to go as you age and Jacare hadn’t been submitted his whole career so it still made me think he might be something special haha
Marlon Moraes is who comes to mind. For awhile he looked unbeatable. Then he pulled a Barao and couldn't win ANYTHING.
The worst part is he wasn't even getting out classed, he look good in a lot of the fights he lost, his defense just couldn't hold up anymore.
By the time he retired he had one of the worst chins I've ever seen from a high level fighter. The fact that he was getting rocked by relatively tame shots at 135 was a good sign to call it a career even though he's still skilled and still has some speed.
Wait till you see Rob Font a few years from now
Ya I remember when I first watched him against Miguel Torres, I said holy fuck this guy's fast, has power, black belt in Muay Thai and BJJ. He just couldn't keep his chin long enough for his reign unfortunately.
That’s another one, Miguel Torres is WEC. Brutal fall from grace.
Miguel Torres was 35-1 at one point and him vs Faber was the WEC Superfight that all fans wanted to see. Then he lost the fight to Brian Bowles and he never reached those heights again. I do think that he should have won his UFC fight against Demetrious Johnson - he got taken down and held down but was doing more damage off his back than Might Mouse.
Truth. Miguel Torres was the boogieman back then and yes he definitely deserved the win over Mighty Mouse. DJ just lay'd and pray'd his way to a decision, and you are absolutely correct that Torres did more damage and attempted more submissions even though he was on his back most of the fight. I hated MM in those days.
This was before Mighty Mouse became the incredible fighter that we know of today. He may still have been working a day job at this stage of his career.
He looked invincible in the early round(s) against cejudo. Then... he lost.
Ya, he was having his way with him right up until he wasn't...
Cejudo wore him out with those knees
Lorenz Larkin vs Neil Magny, UFC 202 Unranked Larkin beats the ever living fuck out of #7 ranked Magny in 4 minutes and then leaves for Bellator and never fights in the UFC again. He’s had some good performances since but he took out Magny like he didn’t belong in there.
"The Monsoon" has some incredible kickboxing. His takedown defense is not the best but when the fight is standing, he is really great to watch. Larkin vs Tumenov is one of my favorite "not so famous" fights.
still think larkin deserved the win over tumuniv but it was razor close
I thought Tumenov won it with the better boxing. It was a close fight though.
Paulo Filho. Undefeated, ADCC trials competitor, CBJJ World's Medalist, and WEC MW Champion. He was the guy. Then he shows up to defend against Chael Sonnen (seemingly on drugs) and has the weirdest fight you'll ever see. Then he bounces around Japan and Brazil and just kinda fades away. Major what if story.
In an interesting/bizarre twist, he was the WEC MW champion and set to defend his title against Chael. However, he missed weight for the fight and the fight became a non-title contest (based on the rules in place at the time). He proceeded to have a weird fight with Chael (looked like he was hearing voices) and Chael won a decision. But since Filho missed weight, Chael did not officially win the title. This was the last WEC MW title fight and I heard that Filho actually ended up sending Chael the belt.
Yeah and Chael was like you're cool I don't want it. Actual honour from both of them.
Ya gotta think there’s some undiagnosed mental illness there. That or concussion issues/CTE. I’ve heard he was always a weird guy but nothing like the stuff involving the Sonnen fight and everything after
Yea, he says in a Brazilian podcast that his fighting spirit went away after Pride. He didn't adapt to USA fighting culture (he says he was used to the way the Japanese people treat the fighters and how that doesn't exist at all in US) and his father was having some health issues at the time, which led him to abuse cocaine and everything went downhill from there. He seems to be in a good place mentally nowadays tho. He was a monstruous fighter, elite Judo and grappling overall. The talk at the time was he was better than Anderson Silva. He is a good fight analyst, I've seen some clips from him and he's very knowledgeable. Unfortunately he is not popular in Brazil so as far as I know he has no job in the media or whatever.
Aw man that’s sad. I’m glad he’s doing well now
Him and Arona got too messed up with drugs. MMA’s equivalent of Gooden and Strawberry.
I remember back in the day when there was a period when people would argue whether Silva or Filho was the top dog at MW. Kind of a forgotten legend at the weight class that most newer fans have probably never heard of
Alexander Hernandez snuck a win against Beneil Dariush, but kinda got exposed after that as not really having any game other than a fast 1-2.
The OAM win kinda aged well too.
I think he's just peaked as an athletic but not terribly skilled guy
He's like a homeless man's Chandler
Hilarious and accurate
Hernandez has a problem with only being one level deep. He knows how to counter/react after an attack, but he mostly just wants to go. He has no IQ to lay back and only react when it’ll work. He tries to go all the time which is easy to read and tires himself out.
Yeah this is the vibe I’m going for, made weight on short notice and immediately gets thrusted into the rankings before getting humbled by day drinking Don. I’ll remember him for that and also for saying his dick doesn’t work when he cut down to 145.
> his dick doesn't work when he cut down to 145 DC: It just seems like Alex is really struggling to implement his game plan here. Anik: Hernandez unfortunately all too familiar with being unable to rise to the occasion.
Brandon Thatch. Obliterated his first two UFC opponents in the first round, gets matched up with Ben Henderson for his third fight, submitted, then three more sub losses in a row and he never fought again.
He looked like a GIANT next to Bendo in that fight, too. One of the coolest wins of Bendo's career. I believe it was also his debut at the higher weight class.
Bendo revealing the toothpick after the sub was peak bendo
Paulo Thiago. Debuts against Koscheck and puts his lights out in emphatic fashion... and after that, is just a guy.
Came here to say Paulo. He also finished Mike Swick then fell off
And both of those finishes kept him getting super tough outs through his whole run too ... Thiago has a sneaky awesome resume.
Outside of the wheel kick in the fourth(?) Kevin Lee put a serious beating on Barboza. Completely dominated him, 15min of control time, Bunch of take downs and nasty ground and pound. He didnt really fall of into obscurity but is record since that fight is 1 win 6 losses.
Kevin Lee also did himself no favors with the fights he agreed to during that slump
I never understood the Kevin Lee push. Dude went from beating pretty much no one, to the spectacle of the chiesa drama… to interim title fight against Tony? It kinda felt like he believed the hype so much himself that he just kept booking fights that were bad for him after that. And then got injured. Probably would have benefited a lot if he’d of slowed down.
They were letting interns fight‽
Could give Dana the idea… probably don’t have to pay them.
From paying little to paying nothing, that's good businesses
He had just beaten jake matthews, magomed mustafaev and francisco trinaldo before the chiesa fight. The promotion is not giving you dangerous af but relatively unknown mustafaev and trinaldo if they wanna push you. He earned the bigger fights he got after.
His fans that insist he was always an elite talent make me chuckle. While he was good at one point, he was never great. The man is a case of having [imaginary potential](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMbU18VE3Kk).
Absolutely false. If he didn't have a terrible gas tank he'd be dangerous
Worth noting that Fialho had atrocious defense on the feet. A lot of unranked WWs probably could’ve looked like world beaters against him
Fialho’s striking defense was absolutely nonexistent. Decent offensive boxer, but anyone who threw a punch at his head was pretty much landing at will.
Ray Borg is sort of an underrated one. Talented fighter who got a title shot off upsetting Jussier Formiga in Brazil having not really a ton of top shelf victories in his career up to that point. Got completely worked over by DJ. Continued to have weight cutting and personal life issues, some of which weren't really his fault (sick kid and the Conor bus incident). Essentially got cut by the UFC and Bellator not for losing or declining as a fighter but for his lack of professionalism in repeatedly not being able to make weight.
I sold ray borg a truck when I lived in Albuquerque. Sweet guy.
I think he got so many chances with the UFC because of how much everyone liked him.
WEC - new fans would not understand the mythical fighting legend that was Miguel Torres. Multiple exciting fights and then after he lost the title he never rebounded, went on a string of uninspiring losses and just kinda faded away.
He arguably beat DJ off his back in their fight. This was before Mighty Mouse was the goat of course.
Miguel Torres was a pioneer. Combat Chronicles just put a bio out on him and it was a great listen. The guy was already aging out by the time the sport was getting attention to the smaller weight classes. If he was 5 years younger we could have seen him vs TJ or Gardbrant. Ahead of the times
Iaquinta put a beating on Kevin Lee who was fresh off beating the shit out of Barboza, then took three straight Ls and disappeared.
"same old AL"
He went from earning a bunch of respect despite losing just by being the only person to pretty much cancel out Khabib's grappling for 5 rounds. Then did nothing ever again.
My friends parents bought a house from him I told them not to trust him because he's a real Brooklyn gangster but they didn't listen
Eh he looked okay against Lee, but the Lee hype was hitting a bit of an exaggerated pitch at that point. Al looked pretty stiff as usual and got held down a lot, even in a winning effort. Wouldn't say it was a world beater performance as much as good matchmaking leading to a solid win against an artificially well-regarded guy. When I think looking like a world beater I think performances like Tony's coming out party against Josh Thompson or maybe how Bobby Greene thrashed Nasrat Haqparast somewhat recently. Utter domination that shows the potential of that fighter's style as a threat to the broader division.
Todd Duffee
might be a stretch, but Gusraffson? He pushed Jon in a fight that a lot of people felt he won (came down to who won round 5). Loses to DC and Rumble, regroups and loses again to Jon and then the downfall. People felt like Gus would be able to finally dethrone Jon but didn't
Hector Lombard seemed to be on the road to being a serious UFC contender and then went on a Tony Ferguson-esque streak
Him man-handling Jake Shields was cartoonish. A freak athlete like Yoel.
Dan Henderson knocking him out is one of the most savage things I’ve ever seen
Hellbow
People are STILL waiting for Ricardo Arona to make it to the UFC from Pride to this day lol
He's surfing and bangin hot women in Brazil. He's okay 👍
peak hipster pick here but Kazuo Misaki dropped down to 170 for the first time in his career, boxed the fuck outta Paul Daley, and then promptly retired
Ah there’s a name I’d forgotten. Love his wars with Hendo, they are hidden gems. Nice pick.
Albert Tumenov demolishing Alan Jouban. The guy is still young too and incredibly talented. He made a huge mistake by leaving the UFC after losing to Leon Edwards of all people. He was doing well against Edwards too until edwards took him down and submitted him
tumenov was awesome! didn't he try to come back to the UFC and they didn't want him? off to the search engines...
I think he was expecting some wild offers after his initial stint with ACB, but both UFC and Bellator stiffed him with lowball offers and he went back to ACB (ACA)
Garbrandt looked like the second coming of MMA Jesus vs Cruz. Was in an entire league of his own. And then promptly fell off a cliff after that.
Tim Means Vs Justin Salas Granted, he’s had some incredible performances since this fight, but it was the one that showed what bursts of greatness Tim has. Also, nearly every Gunnar Nelson fight where he won in dominant fashion earlier on in his career. I was convinced that he was the next Fedor - a stoic, ice cold killer.
Gunnar is a good example. Totally had that distant Fedor look while he schooled his first few opponents, and was buddies with McGregor... the UFC was pretty quick to get on the Gunnar hype train. Then the wheels fell off.
Obious answer Dominick Reyes, Chris Daukaus looked kinda legit with 4 KO's in 4 fights in the UFC to then get KO'd 4 times in 4 fights and cut Lorenz Larkin beat THE SHIT out of Magny and I thought he was going to surge but nope.
Only thing with Reyes is he didn’t really fall into obscurity, he just had a brutal string of KO losses. Jan and Jiri were big name fights and to be honest the Jiri fight was pretty crazy and awesome even tho it ended with the devastating spinning elbow KO. So he fits the bill for his career trajectory falling off a cliff but I wouldn’t say obscurity.
Lando
Dude put on a fight of the night on short notice against prime Ugly Tony, then wheel-kicked John Makdessi into a KO-of-the-year meme. Since then? Including the 1-1 in his first two bangers, he's 4-7-2 in the UFC. Four FOTNs in that stretch, including two with Bobby Green. But just sort of hanging around, good enough to be here but I don't think he's ever even sniffed the rankings. He's just 32, but he's 1-3 in the last four years.
Having FOTN for like 30% of your fights is insane
John Hathaway. Destroyed Diego Sanchez as the underdog and then poor fight iq and illness just made him fade into obscurity
I’m surprised how far I had to scroll to see Darren Till
Rustam Khabilov comes to mind for me. I don’t know who it was but he had a fight where he suplexed his opponent 100 times and just looked like he was toying with the guy. Had some good wins after that and then just stopped fighting. Edit: must have been Vinc Pichel. [https://youtu.be/CTJFoXWvrWI?si=k_j5x7EtxvkD8QBf](https://youtu.be/CTJFoXWvrWI?si=k_j5x7EtxvkD8QBf)
I remember it was Vinc Pichel. Had something like 16 takedowns in the fight, I think.
That Matthews fight was truly spectacular. He just couldn’t be beaten
Dave Menne was the first UFC welterweight champion ever and then lost in his first defense and bounced around organizations trading wins and losses and is basically forgotten by all but the hardcore history fans.
Esparza vs Yan Yan was a huge favorite and Carla was known as a boring wrestler. Carla made her a blood donor lmao
Esparza is a 2 time champ and won the belt right after this, she hardly fell into obscurity
She also beat Alexa Grasso. Carla gets memed on a lot but she has some really quality wins
Not so much fallen off due to performances but fuck TJ Grant looked like he could win it all. The way he beat the breaks off of Gray Maynard was more than impressive.
"Obscurity" might not be the right word for it, but after 12 consecutive "'world beater’ performances," Rousey fell into disdain, if not obscurity, after 2 consecutive losses, and ran from the UFC w/her tail between her legs.
[удалено]
[удалено]
Nino Schembri.
Joe Warren: Olympic wrestler who beat Kid Yamamoto in his prime and then fell off hard. Had less than 5 fights under his belt when he beat Kid. It looked like he was going to be the new sub-155 monster. Never really put it together afterwards. The beating he suffered against Pat Curran in Bellator must have taken years off his life.
Just call it the Shane Carwin award
Curtis Millender? He looked great, but got exposed for not having any grappling.
Got exposed by Remember the Name
Roger Huerta was 20-1 with his only loss due to injury. Was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Was riding the UFC hype train. Derailed by a decision loss to KenFlo and believing in his own hype (wanted to be a movie star).
Loved his fight Vs Guida,think that's when I took notice of the ground game
Wish fialho didn't fall off a cliff both because he's an entertaining fighter and because it makes Jake's performance look so much less impressive now. It was like he entered into the matrix.
Tarec Saffiedine leg kicking Nate Marquardt to hell and back to win the Strikeforce title. Came to the UFC and went 2-4.
Slava Boreschev vs Sadrykhov.The fight was a draw but one of the best I saw last year. Slava was putting on an absolute striking clinic, one of the best I’ve seen in terms of varied offense and intelligent defense, only to get dropped in the 2nd with a head kic. He then recovered from crazy gnp and elbows to dominate again in the 3rd despite looking like a horror movie victim and was robbed of the decision. I think that fight took too much out of him for him to have the career he should have because his striking in that fight was unbelievable
Love the way he rips bodysuits, but his tdd is a bit lackluster for him to shine with his skillset
Exactly, kinda like Giga. I was really impressed with his movement too, he had so many slick pivots
I remember thinking Jake was gonna be elite bc of that fight. Then he got dropped like 3 times by smellyburger
Ryan hall went to winning against everyone and being ducked by everyone in top10 to losing once and saying fuck this sport i'm out
Matt Serra knocking out GSP Dana white thought he’d be the next Chuck Liddell
I don’t think it’s very obscure but Frevola putting out drew dober then getting head kicked by Benoit really bummed me out
The one I always think of is Maiquel Falcao. Brazillian slugging KO machine shows up to the UFC and suddenly puts on a crisp and surgical clinic against Gerald Harris. Then he got cut due to an older arrest, had a few fights in Bellator, devolved into substance abuse, violence, and a very losing record. Then 2 years ago he was stabbed to death. For that one fight though, he looked like a serious talent.
Mayhem Miller for me. The guy had crazy good grappling that could compete with the best (even subbed out fucking Sakuraba). But seemed to not take training seriously due to mental health issues.
Gregor Gillespie looked absolutely phenomenal putting on a clinic against a decent fighter in Vinc Pichel, then got sparked out by Kevin Lee, came back briefly (and successfully) against CDF and then what?
Lando Vannata debuted on short notice, and gave Tony Ferguson one of the toughest fights of his entire 12 fight run. People got excited, it was like an older version of Diego Lopes. Who debuted against Movsar and looked incredible, but didn’t win, still got the hype. Lando then wheel kicked his next opponent in round 1 brutally, easiest knockout ever. Every sign was pointing to Vannata being the next big thing at lightweight. He would only ever get 3 more wins in the UFC, and all over nobodies, while he would lose to the likes of Bobby Green, Charles Jourdain, Drakar Klose and other people that are not very good.
Nate Marquardt The Tyron Woolley and Wilson Gouveria Knockouts were two of the nicest I’ve ever seen
Groovy Lando Vanatta?
Cody garbrant , johny Hendricks , Luke rockhold and zabid magomedsharipov I know he didn’t lose but fuck I wish he still fought what a fucking weapon .
Marlon Moraes. I thought he was going to be an champion or at least top 5 throughout his career akin to Diamond but in Bantamweight. Man quits mma to become a cop.
Andy Ruiz
Tra Telligman beating Igor Vovchanchyn at Pride 13. What an incredible performance from Tra in a fight in which he mostly dominated. Igor was 11-1 in Pride and 46-3 overall only losing to Pride 200 GP champion Mark Coleman. Tra would go on to be 1-4 in his last five fights with his only win in that time coming over Vovchanchyn. He gets my vote easily.
Gastelum
Islam Makhachev vs Chris Wade. He actually performed so well considering who Islam became
I thought Paulo Thiago was gonna go on a title run at one point
Denis Hallman beating Matt Hughes right before Hughes has an 18 fight win streak, and then Hallman beating Hughes again to end the 18 fight win streak
One of my favourite WEC fighters was Steve “The Robot” Cantwell. He had great fights in the WEC with Brian Stann, but he never could put it together afterwards in the UFC
David Terrell whooped Matt Linland in less than a minute, lost his title shot to Evan Tanner, came back with a commanding victory, and disappeared to focus on running his gym with a 6-2 career record. He could have been champion if he stuck with it. That Cesar Gracie team produced a lot of great fighters.
I remember back in like 2013 Myles Jury looked like a future champion
Wtf happened to Zabit? Never even lost he just disappeared
Melvin Guillard really looked like a legit contender before he got submitted almost instantly by Joe Lauzon beginning a I think a 3-14 skid. I think the Lauzon fight was a major upset too.
A bit of a deep cut, but Marius Zaromskis. The guy hit two separate streaks with three head kick KOs in a row fighting in dream including a few of the nastiest I've ever seen (shout out to the old HD net), then he just sort of languished in the B leagues. I didn't even know he was still fighting till just now..
Lorenz Larkin looked like the best welterweight striker of all time the night he fought Neil Magny, he absolutely obliterated his legs, his body and then knocked him out cold with elbows. I was like damn Larkin is going to be a title contender in no time, and he's just kind of disappeared into a bellator blackhole after that.
McGregor Alvarez
I thought Misha Cirkunov was a future champ when he submitted both Cutelaba and Krylov. Then he got booped by Oezdemir and was never the same.
Anyone remembered Chris Beal? After the flying knee KO win in his debut, I remembered the UFC mentioning him as the prospect to watch. Won one then lost his remaining ufc fights and disappeared.