March 18, 2019
By Ryan Porzl
In the near 30 year history of Mixed Martial Arts, there have been plenty of legends that are highly regarded and respected. Everyone has their favorites and ones they find overrated and I'm one of them. Like every fan, there are fighters I believe are worthy of the hype and those I feel get more than they should. Here now is my list of the top ten most overrated fighters in MMA history. Keep in mind, these are obviously my opinions and mine alone. Also, keep in mind that just because fighters make this list, it doesn't mean I think they're bad.
10. Shane Carwin- Carwin is one of those fighters that came out of nowhere, seemed like he could be poised for greatness but instead was exposed and flamed out. At one point, Carwin was considered one of the best heavyweights in the world and probably peaked as the #2 heavyweight in the world. Unfortunately, when you look back at Carwin's run, he was very overrated and it doesn't age well. Granted, heavyweight isn't always known for being a stacked division but at the time, it did feel like people were all spellbound by Carwin's insane knockout power. When you look at Carwin's MMA record, it's really bad and nothing that would make you think he's was an elite level heavyweight. In his MMA career, Carwin won 12 fights but of those 12 fights, only his last 2 wins were of any significance when he defeated former UFC Heavyweight Championship contender Gabriel Gonzaga & former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir. His first 10 wins are mostly a joke as they were mostly against tomato cans and nobodies who never did anything noteworthy. According to sherdog.com, most of Carwin's opponents were fighters with negative records, fought only once, or had positive records but were middle of the road at best. Carwin also proved to be a one trick pony in his last 2 fights and someone who if he can't get the knock out, he was screwed. When he couldn't finish Brock Lesnar, he punched himself out and was easy pickings and in his last fight, he was demolished by Junior dos Santos while showing little.
9. Hector Lombard- Lombard is one of those fighters who seems to have it all to be a great fighter and legend as he packs a ton of power, world class grappling, and trains at an elite gym. Yet, for some reason has never been able to put it together and the only time he ever saw success was a case of "right place, right time" and even at that period he shined, he still wasn't that impressive when you dig deep. Prior to his time in Bellator, Lombard had been fighting for 5 years and amassed a record of 18-2-1, 1 No Contest but when you look at his record deeply, it's really lackluster as his best wins were against guys like Brian Ebersole, James Te Huna, & Daiju Takase which is nowhere near the cream of the crop by any stretch of the imagination. Most of his wins were cans and he largely competed in small promotions with his only success being the Australian promotion Cage Fighting Championship where he won the middleweight championship. Meanwhile, Lombard also attempted to compete in PRIDE in 2006 but went 0-2 in the promotion losing to Akihiro Gono in the 2006 Welterweight Grand Prix Quarterfinals & then to Gegard Mousasi in an alternate bout. He then shined in Bellator as one of their first stars becoming the inaugural middleweight champion as well as the season 1 middleweight tournament winner. Former Bellator head Bjorn Rebney went on record claiming Lombard was the best middleweight and even UFC expressed interest. Unfortunately, when you look back at Lombard's run, his only real great win was against Alexander Shlemenko with a decent win over Trevor Prangley. Everything else was mediocre as Bellator's division was extremely shallow as Lombard blasted through competition that wasn't elite. Despite this, Lombard reportedly earned a sweetheart deal from the UFC and it's been downhill ever since. Upon coming in, Lombard went 1-2 in middleweight losing a controversial decision to Tim Boetsch, knocked out Rousimar Palhares but then lost to Yushin Okami by a close decision. He seemed to then come into his own with a move down to welterweight beating Nate Marquardt and Jake Shields only for it to go up in smoke when he flunked a drug test which overturned his win over Josh Burkman to a no contest. Since then, his UFC run has been a disaster as he's on a six fight losing streak as of writing.
8. Nick Diaz- Diaz is one of those guys who could've been great but is his own worst enemy. On paper, Diaz could make an argument for being one of the greatest welterweights of all time being both a Strikeforce & WEC Welterweight Champion, having held several welterweight records in Strikeforce, and was the inaugural WEC Welterweight Champion. He also scored good wins over Robbie Lawler, Marius Zaromskis, Paul Daley, BJ Penn, & Frank Shamrock. Unfortunately, when you look at Diaz's resume, there are some issues. For one, Diaz largely underachieved prior to Strikeforce with the exception of his WEC Welterweight Championship win. In his first UFC run, Diaz was only able to get a win over Lawler while falling short with other top fighters and costing himself his big win over PRIDE World Lightweight Champion Takanori Gomi after he tested positive of pot which overturned the fight to a no contest. The only real time Diaz looked elite and a top welterweight was in Strikeforce holding the title and getting several records along the way. The problem was that Diaz benefited by being put with stylistically favorable opponents specifically strikers who played Diaz's game by usually standing with him and letting him get into their heads with Diaz stalking and trash talking them. Diaz beat good to great opponents like KJ Noons, Zaromskis, Daley, & Evangelista Santos but they were all mostly strikers who played to Diaz's strengths as they couldn't knock him out and Diaz either was able to knock them out or submit them with his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Then when he returned to the UFC, Diaz was completely exposed in his fights with Carlos Condit and Georges St-Pierre as Diaz struggled with Condit fighting safe and not playing Diaz's games and GSP easily outgrappled him with wrestling. Even worse is Diaz is also very mentally weak at least as a fighter as he fights the same way regardless of his opponent or whether it's working during a fight. Even if he's losing a fight, he won't change course and if he loses then he'll just fight the same exact way next fight with no adjustments. Diaz can never accept responsibility as he blames the fighters for not fighting the way he wants them to or the judges and has usually taken his ball and went home. Diaz is one of the fighters on this list who was capable of being great or as great as he was hyped but his issues with his attitude, pot use, and possible mental or psychological issues have hindered him badly.
7. BJ Penn- This is probably going to be one of the most controversial picks and don't get me wrong. Penn is a great fighter, a legend, worthy of being a hall of famer, & someone who could be proud of his career. I also have a ton of respect for him moving up multiple times. However, I put Penn on this list because of many claiming Penn is the LW GOAT. Penn is one of those guys I feel is put on a pedestal because of his UFC success and that UFC is #1. Yes, Penn is a former UFC Lightweight Champion & Rumble of the Rock Lightweight Champion while scoring wins over great fighters but the problem with Penn is that he never dominated a stacked LW division during his prime. His first run had a weak LW division that was put on the shelf in 2002 after Jens Pulver left and during his time as champ, the division wasn't as stacked as it would be later on. While Penn does have a win over Takanori Gomi & more well-rounded than Shinya Aoki, it still can be argued they deserve the LW GOAT status given they were in LW longer, they have bigger trophy cases (granted some of Aoki's honors would be considered welterweight given Shooto & ONE's weight classes), bigger LW hitlist, busier schedule, and were on top of more stacked lightweight divisions. Penn was largely a big fish in a small pond during his big run and he largely fell off once the division got more stacked with guys like Frankie Edgar and couldn't keep up. Again, Penn is a legend and was a great fighter that was capable of being the greatest lightweight but I don't think he actually made it.
6. Wanderlei Silva- Wanderlei will probably go down as the most popular fighter in PRIDE FC history and has had a legendary career to be proud of but he also had moments that makes him a bit overrated. Wanderlei has beaten some of the best of his time but he also had his periods of favorable matchmaking to make him look better. During his run in PRIDE, Wanderlei was given plenty of chances to practice his recycling skills by crushing cans or fighters who had no business fighting him like then 1-1 Carl Malenko, 1-1 Shungo Oyama, & 0-0 Tatsuya Iwasaki along with tomato cans like Daijiro Matsui & Alexander Otsuka. Then there was the fact that when he participated in a Middleweight Grand Prix, his first round opponents were guys who were opponents he beat already. In 2003, it was Kazushi Sakuraba who he beat twice already and in 2005, it was Hidehiko Yoshida who he beat in the semifinals of the 2003 grand prix. His win over Guy Mezger was controversial as he blatantly threw an illegal headbutt while he was losing and it helped open the door for him to win. His title defenses also left a lot to be desired. Kiyoshi Tamura is a legend and is a great win but when Wanderlei fought him, he was on a 3 fight losing streak. Hiromitsu Kanehara was a solid fighter at the time but wasn't elite, hadn't fought in PRIDE, and while unbeaten in his last 3 fights, they weren't against great competition. Rampage Jackson and Ricardo Arona are great but you could argue that Rampage wasn't in his prime and he barely got by Arona after decisively losing to him in their previous encounter. Wanderlei's UFC runs were never good going 1-2 from 1998-2000 getting crushed in 44 seconds by Vitor Belfort and failing to win the vacant UFC Light Heavyweight Championship against Tito Ortiz while his only win was against no name Tony Petarra. His later run saw him go 4-5 and was never a serious threat there as he scored solid wins over Michael Bisping, Cung Le, and Brian Stann while losing to Rampage Jackson, Rich Franklin twice, and Chris Leben but he's also gone winless in Bellator going 0-2. Wanderlei was also one of those fighters who never was able to adjust especially after his chin got shot and he couldn't use PRIDE rules anymore. He also never tightened his striking or his grappling specifically wrestling which served as a downfall later on including his last two losses in PRIDE against Cro Cop and Henderson or fights in the UFC such as Chuck Liddell and Chris Leben or against Chael Sonnen in Bellator.
5. Tito Ortiz- Ortiz is one of those fighters who probably benefits from the fact that he was a UFC Champion and UFC being number 1. While Ortiz is a legend and has enjoyed success, his prime was in the UFC when the UFC was behind PRIDE and at most was the number 2. While being in the number 2 promotion doesn't make you overrated, it meant a lot of the elite fighters were in PRIDE and the UFC Light Heavyweight Division was weak during Ortiz's dominance. He's also one of those fighters who was a "right place at the right time". While Ortiz became the Light Heavyweight Champion, he originally failed to win the title from inaugural champion Frank Shamrock and only became champion after Shamrock retired. While beating Wanderlei Silva is a great achievement, Ortiz's reign was somewhat hurt because he not only didn't win the title from the previous champ but he lost when they fought and only won it after the previous champ retired. Ortiz made 5 successful title defenses which was a record he held for years but when you look at the defenses, they leave a lot to be desired as only 2 are good which were against legend Yuki Kondo & Vladimir Matyushenko but the other defenses were tomato can Elvis Sinosic, an undersized Evan Tanner, & an aging Ken Shamrock. Even his 5 fight win streak from 2004-2006 was underwhelming as he beat an undersized Patrick Cote (replacement for Guy Mezger), barely got by Vitor Belfort & Forrest Griffin, & twice smashed an even older Shamrock. After that, Ortiz finished his UFC run 1-7-1, failed to evolve as a fighter, and while he scored an upset win over Ryan Bader while losing to the likes of Liddell, Lyoto Machida, Forrest Griffin, & Little Nog, it's still bad. Ortiz did go 3-1 in Bellator with his only loss being to then champ Liam McGeary but his wins are over an undersized Alexander Shlemenko, barely got by Stephan Bonner, & Chael Sonnen coming off a two year retirement.
4. Chuck Liddell- The Iceman is one of the most popular fighters in MMA history and someone that is credited for helping bring MMA to the mainstream in America. However, despite his star power and memorable knockouts, Liddell can also be considered one of MMA's most overrated. Like his old pal/rival Tito Ortiz, Liddell was on top of a UFC that was behind PRIDE and didn't have a stacked division. On top of that, Liddell beat great opponents but opponents who were perfect stylistically for him namely grapplers with little striking which allowed Liddell to block takedowns or get back on the feet while forcing them to strike which usually meant he would score a knockout thanks to his iron chin and knockout power. When you look at Liddell's record from 2001-2006, his opponents mostly fit this description like Jeff Monson, Kevin Randleman, Babalu Sobral, Randy Couture, & Tito Ortiz. Not to mention, Liddell was also forced to fight Sobral, Couture, & Ortiz at least twice even after scoring a win (though Couture did beat Liddell once) which also showed how shallow the division was. When Liddell wasn't fighting grapplers, he also fought undersized middleweights like Murilo Bustamante & Amar Suloev. Even worse, when Liddell did fight strikers, he tended to struggle. His fight with Guy Mezger saw him take some brutal shots but he mostly won thanks to his iron chin and weathering the Mezger storm. In the PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix, Liddell struggled with Alistair Overeem before winning and keep in mind, Overeem wasn't even in his prime yet and he then got crushed by Rampage Jackson. Like Ortiz, Liddell also struggled to evolve as a fighter and when the Light Heavyweight division started to get more stacked and Liddell's chin weakened, he was a sitting duck getting knocked out time after time again and even barely losing a gimme fight against Keith Jardine.
3. Rickson Gracie- Many words can be described with Rickson Gracie: "legend" & "undefeated" but I also like to add "overrated" and "bullshitter". On paper, Rickson is one of those guys people look at as arguably the best Gracie, an undefeated legend, & the one Gracie who could be counted on to defend the family name. Unfortunately, when you look at Rickson's MMA record, it's a joke. Rickson's record is 11-0 which seems good but when you look deep, it's not. Out of his 11 wins, Rickson only really has 1 good win which is over Masakatsu Funaki while almost everyone else was a tomato can. He does have a win over former Shooto champion Yuki Nakai but that's tainted due to this being the final of a tournament where Nakai suffered a severe eye injury early against UFC 1 tournament runner up Gerald Gordeau and that along with insisting on continuing in the tournament resulted in him basically being a one eye fighter against Rickson and was forced to retire afterwards. Even worse is Rickson's most well known wins were against wrestling legend Nobuhiko Takada who was never much a fighter. After his MMA career, Rickson got uglier as he came off like a coward and bullshitter. In the early 2000s, Rickson was reportedly offered seven figures to face Kazushi Sakuraba & PRIDE 2000 Openweight Grand Prix Semifinalist Kazuyuki Fujita but he never accepted either one. The Sakuraba one was also embarrassing as the fight was proposed during Sakuraba's big run as the Gracie Hunter and was picking off Gracies one by one. Yet, when the time came for Rickson to defend the family name, he was nowhere to be found. Rickson is also known for his big mouth and his ability as a bullshitter is amazing. Even Conor McGregor & Chael Sonnen could only dream of being such big mouths even at their best as they would be in awe. When offered the Sakuraba fight, not only did Rickson not accept but then claimed Saku "didn't have the spirit of a warrior". He later then criticized many top fighters over the years and their abilities including Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Brock Lesnar, Marco Ruas, Mark Coleman, Don Frye, & Shane Carwin while bragging he could beat some. As if that wasn't bad enough, Ruas has challenged Rickson over the years and Wanderlei Silva also challenged after the criticism of Nogueira but perhaps realizing he was writing checks his ass couldn't cash, he refused to fight either one. Rickson is also such a bullshit artist that he not only claimed to have won 400 fights which was so ridiculous but even his father the legendary Helio Gracie refused to back him and called him out claiming Rickson only won the fights documented while padding his record with practice & amateur bouts. Helio then mocked the whole thing claiming if he did that then he would've had one million wins.
2. Anderson Silva- This will be a controversial one. Anderson is on this list for similar reasons like BJ Penn. Anderson is a great fighter, legend, future hall of famer, and you could argue is the greatest middleweight of all time. However, he's been considered for years the greatest fighter of all time and I wouldn't go that far. Prior to his debut in UFC, Anderson went 17-4 which looks good and while he won titles in both Shooto & Cage Rage, there wasn't much to it. Of his 17 wins, only 4 are good in SuperBrawl tournament winner Tetsuji Kato, Mach Sakurai, Carlos Newton, & Jeremy Horn. The Sakurai win was great as Silva handed the legend his first loss and snapped a 19 fight unbeaten streak (18-0-1). Other than that, there's not much. Not to mention, he was a regular for PRIDE at one point, fighting five times between 2002-2004 and he didn't set the world on fire or came off as special. Quite the contrary as he lost to tomato can Daiji Takase in a fight he wasn't competitive in and then lost to Ryo Chonan after Chonan caught him in the most insane, one-in-a-million submission which was a flying scissor heel hook that's probably the most famous submission in MMA History. Even his UFC run he's had issues that can make you question his greatness. Like BJ Penn, Anderson dominated a middleweight division at a time when it wasn't the most stacked. Sure, he beat great talent like Rich Franklin, Nate Marquardt, Dan Henderson, & Vitor Belfort but his decline did coincide with the division getting more stacked as guys like Chris Weidman, Robert Whittaker, Yoel Romero, Luke Rockhold, Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, & Gegard Mousasi were coming in or entering their primes. Not to mention, Anderson had his share of opponents that were either tomato cans or decent fighters that were clearly overmatched like Travis Lutter, Patrick Cote, Thales Leites, James Irvin, & Stephan Bonnar and yes I know Lutter won the Ultimate Fighter to earn his shot, Cote was replacing Yushin Okami, & the Bonnar fight was a last minute thing but at times, it does show how weak middleweight was in the former two and the Bonnar fight was something that seemed out there. We've also been told Anderson was this devastating and deadly striker but we never really saw him tested against elite strikers. Other than Vitor Belfort, Anderson's opponents were mostly either fighters who threw sloppy, swing for the fences haymakers or grapplers with little to no striking. Sure, guys like Chris Leben and Dan Henderson packed a ton of power but that can only get you so far if you don't know how to use it. Anderson can also play it safe at times and put on awful performances as a result. When faced with grapplers Leites & Damian Maia, Anderson refused to go to the ground with them and instead "ran around like a jackass for five rounds" as Dana White put it who was not only president of the UFC but also of the Anderson Silva fan club. Yes, those guys were great jiu-jitsu practitioners but Anderson was no slouch and if he's supposed to be the best then why not prove you can hold your own. Any good fighter can beat an opponent at their game but the best in the world can beat their opponent in the opponent's game or at least hold their own. Anderson is also a fighter who cut to smaller weight classes as he admitted to walk around with 215-220 pounds only to frequently cut to 185 pounds and even 168 pounds in Shooto. Along with the weight cut, Anderson is 6'2 and has a 76 inch reach which means he went into fights with a size and reach advantage along with probably being heavier by fight time. Last but not least, Anderson didn't even have the best UFC record as you could argue Georges St-Pierre & Jon Jones along with Demetrious Johnson later on had better resumes. Again, Anderson was a very good to great fighter in his day, but not the GOAT.
1. Royce Gracie- If previous ones on this list were controversial, this is one, if not, probably sacrilegious as far as MMA is concerned. Yes, I know my MMA history and I know what a pioneer Royce was in the early years of the sport and specifically to the UFC. I know his success during his UFC run and his ability to use a martial art to bring down bigger opponents. However, Royce's legacy is really tainted when you look much deeper. For one thing, Royce may have lacked size but he had some big advantages. One was his style Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu which wasn't a common martial art practiced in the United States in 1993 which gave Royce an advantage as he competing against opponents who knew nothing about his martial art and probably never even heard of it so how could they defend themselves? Another important thing is MMA is based off Vale Tudo from Brazil which is something Royce was very familiar of but it was something else that Americans never knew of. In fact, when it came to UFC 1, Ken Shamrock was the only other fighter who had any clue what was going on as Shamrock had competed for Pancrase at the time. What's special with a fighter winning fights and tournaments against opponents who likely never even heard of his martial art and had no idea what they were getting into in regards to MMA? It can easily be argued Royce had a lot of advantages and that they were arguably unfair. Royce also reportedly benefited from backstage politics as it has been said that his brother and UFC co-founder Rorian made sure no judo practitioners were allowed to participate in early UFC events possibly because they would be a threat to Royce. It's also been argued Royce would've lost to Shamrock in their UFC 5 fight had there been judges. Royce and the Gracie family's departure after UFC 5 was also suspicious as it's possible they were seeing the writing on the wall and had he stayed, he would've gotten exposed with weight classes, rules, and more talented fighters. Then there was his run in Japan which was disgraceful. Along with his only wins being over tomato cans Nobuhiko Takada and Akebono along with a draw against undersized Hideo Tokoro, Royce also exploited both his name and his family's by throwing his weight around and demanding special rules for his fights. I'm sure every fighter hates something about the rules be it in America or Japan and whether they prefer for fight in a cage or ring but Royce is the only one to demand and get special rules. What kind of legend does this and insist on getting preferential treatment? If Royce is supposed to be this legend then he should fight like everybody else. The best example is of course the first Sakuraba fight which was anticipated due to Sakuraba coming off defeating Royce's brother Royler via controversial stoppage. Nothing says defending the family honor by facing their new arch rival by rigging the game in your favor. Thankfully, in a nice bout with karma and a good example of what a hack Royce is, he got to pick the rules (no ref stoppages and unlimited rounds) and he STILL ended up losing. Royce also had an embarrassing situation when he lost a judo vs. jiu-jitsu exhibition against Hidehiko Yoshida via an early stoppage and instead of being frustrated and accepting it like other fighters, Royce and his family threw a fit, demanded the results be changed to a no contest, and demanded a rematch which, of course, would have his special rules and if he didn't get it then he and the Gracie family would pull out of PRIDE. Royce got his demands though the lack of judges screwed him since he probably would've won a decision in the rematch but got a draw. Then there was the fact he breached his contract with PRIDE due to issues with him competing in the 2005 Middleweight (205 pounds) Grand Prix because of the opponents (likely cause almost all would smash him) and the fact there had to be a winner which meant no special rules. Royce was eventually sued and settled by issuing an apology and claiming it was a "misinterpretation of the contract by his manager". After his Japan run, he got smashed by Matt Hughes, won a controversial decision over Sakuraba in a rematch, and then beat an extremely washed up Shamrock. I know we're supposed to respect Royce for being this inspiring fighter who scored impressive wins over behemoths using a mythical form of martial arts that's head and shoulders above every other form of self defense ever to exist but when you pull back the curtain, Royce's run was mostly a facade and proof he should've been a magician with all the smoke and mirrors.
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