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In the UFC, psychological warfare can be a dangerous tool. If it works, a fighter can have their opponent defeated before they even step into the octagon. If it fails, there could be a raging bull across the ring just waiting to get his shots in. Trash talk can be hilarious but, when done poorly, it can also go hilariously wrong.
In boxing, everyone from Muhammad Ali all the way up to Tyson Fury have utilized humor, pranks, publicity stunts and more to mess with their opponent’s head. The world of MMA has proven to be no different with a multitude of fighters angling to cruelly throw off their foe’s focus.
Here are just three UFC fighters who have shown a knack for living in their opponents' heads rent-free:
#3. Former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight fighter Chael Sonnen
The original king of talking trash in the UFC, Chael Sonnen’s promos are something professional wrestlers ought to take note of. Witty, mean-spirited and with no holds barred, Sonnen managed to utterly infuriate some of the UFC's finest champions, including Anderson Silva and Jon Jones.
The Greco-Roman wrestling ace narrowly lost one of the greatest UFC fights of all time to Anderson Silva at UFC 117. Following back-to-back wins over Brian Stann and Michael Bisping, Sonnen got another crack at Silva at UFC 148. Visibly tired of Sonnen’s endless joking at his expense, ‘The Spider’ vowed to completely dismantle his challenger. Pulling no punches, Sonnen caught heat for his increasingly personal shots at Silva, including jokes regarding the champ’s wife, Brazilian heritage and coaches.
Sonnen’s mind games on Silva ultimately proved foolhardy. Boiling over from the disrespect, Silva crushed Sonnen with a brutal knee to the body and several punches to net a round two TKO victory.
Despite back-to-back title match losses, Sonnen’s psychological warfare saved the day for his star power. Moving to the light heavyweight scene, he immediately netted a title match against Jon ‘Bones’ Jones. The bout came by way of their time as coaches on The Ultimate Fighter 17. Beyond the obvious money involved in having the two massive personalities clash, Sonnen had done little to warrant getting a title bout so quickly.
Despite losing the Jones fight, Sonnen continues to mock and deride the former UFC light heavyweight king to this day.
#2. Former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor
Where does one even start? The brash southpaw’s made an empire out of his trash talk and self-promotion. Of the many times McGregor has gotten under the skin of his opponents, two stand out the most: Jose Aldo and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Jose Aldo had enjoyed a death grip on the UFC featherweight title for more than five years when the Irishman came calling. McGregor went ahead with turning Aldo into his own verbal punching bag, relentlessly lampooning the Luta Livre black belt at every turn.
Speaking in Aldo’s mother tongue of Portuguese, a wild-eyed McGregor informed the champ he was going to die in their fight during a press conference. In what was perhaps the last straw for Aldo’s self-confidence, McGregor snatched the champ’s belt and mockingly posed with it. By the time UFC 194 came around, Aldo was psychologically broken and fell to McGregor in a mere 13 seconds.
As great as that was for McGregor, his attempts to pull something similar with The Eagle went catastrophically wrong. Determined to finally silence McGregor’s motormouth, a seething Nurmagomedov maintained his focus and dominated his foe.
In arguably the worst beating of his career, McGregor came undone against a champion he’d simply pushed too far. As effective as the Proper No. 12 mastermind’s psychological warfare can be, it’s clear that it can just as easily have the opposite result.
#1. UFC featherweight fighter Brian Ortega
The Ultimate Fighter 29 has seemingly revealed a much darker side of 'T-City'. Driving rival coach and UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski up the wall, Ortega has employed all manner of hijinks so far on the show. Despite frequently turning up late and even outright no-showing training sessions, Ortega’s team have mostly dominated the show so far.
The number two-ranked UFC featherweight has used his team’s winning ways to taunt Volkanovski, who he will face at UFC 266. When the champ chastised Ortega for being late, he simply explained that everyone was on “his time.” Adding a little insult to, well, insult, Ortega went on to imply Volkanovski’s frustrations were merely a result of his team’s losses.
There was also the foosball incident, in which Ortega challenged the show’s contestants to two-on-one games. Laughing it off as his idea of having fun, Ortega’s antics visibly rubbed some of the fighters the wrong way.
Alexander Volkanovski has been very vocal about his frustrations with Brian Ortega following TUF 29. Clearly perturbed ahead of their bout, one can’t help but wonder if that’s exactly what Ortega wants out of the champ. Despite Volkanovski’s vow to use mind games of his own on the “thin-skinned” Ortega, it appears the exact opposite has been the case so far.
Only time will tell whether or not Ortega's curious choice of head games will pay off.
