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

[NoStoneUnturned]

Clay Guida, can't stand the way he fights. At first it was like woah this dude is crazy. And by the end it was woah, this dude is dumb.

 

[gentel]

Cyril Gane.

Still can't belive i overlooked his weaknesses.

Yeah, like with the Ngannou fight it was whatever, Francis is mainly known as a striker

But for the Jones fight there was truly no excuse seeing as Jones is famously an elite grappler, and I didn't think Gane was going to become a great grappler in that timeframe but I thought he'd train his grappling and TDD around the clock such that he could stuff 80% of the takedowns and make it a mostly striking fight

And that wasn't an insane thought seeing as it's exactly what Leon did with Usman, and arguably what Volk did with Islam. But Gane just looked like he hadn't trained at all

 

[BROWNPRIDE]

Dominick Reyes.

 

[doggo]

Maybe Aldo should've fought Conor in the spring like the UFC and Conor wanted instead of just sitting out for no reason and making Conor fight Siver to get on the Boston card.

Maybe Aldo should've fought Conor in the summer like the UFC and Conor wanted instead of getting injured and making Conor fight Mendes to become interim champ.

If Aldo was mentally fucked when they finally fought in December, he has no one to blame but himself for constantly putting off the fight for a year.

Not sure how true or relevant the first part is but the injury yeah, hard to argue with that,. HE was already fucked by that point though, the first tour already got to him enough.

 

[leatherf4ce]

Did you even see the fight? He was destroying Hamill before the illegal elbow ended it. Hamill didn't beat Jones, Jones beat Jones.

My pick is Cozad. Dude retired too young to see what he was capable of.

 

[linvillegorge]

Sokoudjou. Looked like he was gonna be great when he burst onto the Pride scene with KTFO wins over Lil Nog and Arona. Proved to basically be a bigger version of Melvin Guillard. Capable of KOing anyone, but highly likely to lose when facing legit competition.

 

[BOTTICELLI]

Alex Guff and Dominic Reyes- Thought both of thos two would have longer better careers. Also Tito Ortiz, good wrestler, terrible standing up.

 

[A Very Serious Cat]

Yeah, like with the Ngannou fight it was whatever, Francis is mainly known as a striker

But for the Jones fight there was truly no excuse seeing as Jones is famously an elite grappler, and I didn't think Gane was going to become a great grappler in that timeframe but I thought he'd train his grappling and TDD around the clock such that he could stuff 80% of the takedowns and make it a mostly striking fight

And that wasn't an insane thought seeing as it's exactly what Leon did with Usman, and arguably what Volk did with Islam. But Gane just looked like he hadn't trained at all

Yeah I was hoping for a Gustafsson like performance but we got James Toney instead

 

[SaigeVanZant]

Big Nog

 

[Super2]

 

[Timewarp]

"They were never that good" is a stretch, but Cody Mckenzie and Jordan Mein

 

[nintey]

I thought Tarec Saffiedine would amount to more, he dominated Marquart then just fizzled out.

 

[wwkirk]

I too had high expectations for a while, but Houston proved to be a big disappointment.
His "fight" with Kimbo was a forerunner to Lewis-Ngannou.

 

[VenomCarnage]

That russian LW that suplexed the hell of somebody in his UFC debut, forgot his name

Khabilov?

 

[KeeSmyth]

Edmen Shambazian.

He looked like a killer after koing Tavares. He was ready to do the gatekeeper combo. (Tavares and then Brunson)

He looked good for 1 round and then gassed out.

Actually he has that amateur mentality where he has to destroy his opponent in 1 round or else he gets destroyed.

Yes this was my pick too!

 

[AmbassadorFright]

In all seriousness. When Woodley lost to Usman. He was always a very limited fighter in his prime but got by on athleticism alone. Once that was gone he didn't have shit.

Usman always seemed beatable during his championship run. He padded his record with Masvidal and Covington rematches that made 0 sense.

Petyr Yan was built up as some monster but he seemed to have absolutely nothing for Aljo in the second fight. His close decision wins over Samdhagen, Rivera and Dodson weren't impressive at all and he always seemed to lack key things to make someone elite

 

[BearGrounds]

Whatever happened to Gorin Reljic?

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Did you even see the fight? He was destroying Hamill before the illegal elbow ended it. Hamill didn't beat Jones, Jones beat Jones.

Resume doesn’t lie. He was defeated, by stoppage at that.

 

[d0g]

Fedor and Cro Cop. Two of my favourite fighters growing up. They are mediocre by modern standards. How do you lose to Matt Mitrione and Brendan Schaub.

 

[sandokan83]

Well, Joe rogan is not a fighter but, he really thinks that only 50 untrained guys on the planet (earth) can beat him, so.....