Fighters you thought were really good at one point, but then realized they were never that good?

[michi972]

Thought Erick Silva would atleast be top 5 (fuck your kid jokes)

There was a big black dude from Sweden, did well in the regional scene, Papy Abedi. Did horrible in the UFC.

Thought Hector Lombard would amount to more.

Karlos Vemola had som beast like performances but was never that good.

Maiquel Falcao too.

Then we got Gray Maynard. He looked so good in the Edgar fights before he gassed. I believe Maynard is the reason Edgar declined so rapidly.

Then there's like 100 other examples. Mostly fighters who looks great in their UFC debut then falls flat.

Edgar declined rapidly? I don't think so.


Erick Silva for sure. He was knocking guys out, he has slick submissions, but he had bad defense, cardio.

Lombard, Brooks, Askren
Brandon Thatch
Doo Ho Choi

 

[WolverReem]

Muradov

 

[cade187]

G Sot
Roger Huerta

 

[HHJ]

G Sot

 

[Aluminati]

Alessio Sakara. Even a touch more professionalism and that guy could have went places.

Sokodjou and Houston Alexander also come to mind.

 

[ThereIsNoSpoon]

Roger Huerta and Amir Sadollah.

The perfect example. He was 20-1, 6-0 in the UFC after beating Clay Guida, he had a tenacious fighting style, never-say-die attitude and he was only 24. I thought he was going to be better and better, improve his skills and with his aggression and heart would be a champ in no time.

Instead he thought he could be a Hollywood star, abandoned his training and discipline and has a record of 4-12 in his last 16 fights, one of his wins being a DQ after getting crushed by illegal elbows, basically winning 3 fights against people who don't have a Wiki page for the rest of his career.

 

[Royce's Gi]

Alessio Sakara. Even a touch more professionalism and that guy could have went places.

Sokodjou and Houston Alexander also come to mind.

Some say he was too Apocalyptic sweating in those black bags.

 

[chimpoehurricane]

We always hear people on here say Fighter X was never really that good after a loss or multiple losses, sometimes jokingly.

But which fighters accurately fit the description of never being that good, (but were once viewed as quite good)?

Also if you want to, include the fights from that fighter that made you realize they were never really good.

(inb4 people say BJ Penn)

Weizmann, Fedor, Izy, Gsp

 

[sangreporsangre]

I was kind of high on Cole Miller at one point to be honest. Not saying I thought he would be champ but I thought he was a couple years away from being a top LW. I used to be impressed by guys who were pretty good and have a bunch of fights in their early 20s, Skyscraper Struve would be another example. But now I realize that most guys like that are done well before they reach 30.

 

[chimpoehurricane]

The perfect example. He was 20-1, 6-0 in the UFC after beating Clay Guida, he had a tenacious fighting style, never-say-die attitude and he was only 24. I thought he was going to be better and better, improve his skills and with his aggression and heart would be a champ in no time.

Instead he thought he could be a Hollywood star, abandoned his training and discipline and has a record of 4-12 in his last 16 fights, one of his wins being a DQ after getting crushed by illegal elbows, basically winning 3 fights against people who don't have a Wiki page for the rest of his career.

He fell off. It's unfortunate. I think he was damn good but lost focus like McGregor.

 

[ifindgifsforjackslack]

plat mike
mke ricci
gastelum

 

[ModernMatt]

First person that came to mind was Johnny Big Rig Hendricks

 

[Gohel]

I thought Justin Scoggins would be a top 5 fighter. Came in the UFC 7-0 with 6 finishes, good striking, super young (21 or 22 when he signed IIRC).. Then went 4-5 and got cut. To be fair, he didn't look that bad, and most of the guys he lost to were pretty good (Munhoz, Moraga & Ortiz). His run was just underwhelming. I absolutely don't remember him losing to Said Nurmagomedov though, I need to watch it back.

Right around that time, I remember getting overhyped for a bunch of european fighters. I got super excited when Tom Niinimaki beat Rani Yahia in his first UFC fight. Then he got finished by Niklas Backstrom in his next fight. I thought for sure that Backstrom was going to be massive, and then he lost his next fight to Mike Wilkinson. Who then went on to lose all of his professional fights... Looking back, they weren't that impressive to begin with, but I was just getting into the UFC and I was easily impressed.

 

[theTKDguy]

bektic, thatch, kelvin

 

[swimba]

This guy
Amirkhani


Mr 1 Round

 

[Jstr]

Jake Matthews, really thought after he fought Andre Fialho that he soon will be in the title contention.

 

[weaponzero2k2]

We always hear people on here say Fighter X was never really that good after a loss or multiple losses, sometimes jokingly.

But which fighters accurately fit the description of never being that good, (but were once viewed as quite good)?

Also if you want to, include the fights from that fighter that made you realize they were never really good.

(inb4 people say BJ Penn)

YAN for sure

 

[Benoitthegr8]

I was riding first class on the Brandon Thatch hype-express, I was forcibly removed from the train by the Conductors Bendo and Gunnar. I was thrown from the moving train, interestingly enough the train ran off the UFC rails and into a ravine shortly after being thrown off.

I later found out via Matt Brown on a podcast, that Brandon’s ground game was inept was due to being on limited reps all throughout his camps. Thatch had a nasty skin fungus that would flair up quickly after prolonged grappling. Matt said it kept coming back with nearly every camp, the doctors would put him on some anti fungal medication and was told not to roll until healed. He didn’t listen to advice and he rolled sparingly and the fungal infection got much worse, to the point that he could barely get on the matts. As this went on wasn’t able to get enough reps in and was at a severe disadvantage when facing the elite grapplers. When he fought legit ranked guys Brandon was handled by moving up from LW Bendo and ranked Gunnar Nelson, his confidence was shattered and the L’s kept coming.

In a 17 month span Brandon went from an 11-1 highly touted prospect who was riding high and close to breaking into the WW rankings, to reeling off 4 L’s in a row, being cut by the UFC and retiring from MMA.

 

[Sami94]

Johnny Walker

 

[Davidjacksonjones]

Johnny Walker

Yeah he was hyped up as the guy to beat Jones. He had some impressive and entertaining KO's during his peak