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If there’s one thing UFC fans value above anything, it’s a fighter who produces exciting bouts in the octagon. However, being entertaining to watch isn’t always a good thing.
We’ve seen a number of UFC fighters over time who were almost too exciting for their own good. While they became popular, they also suffered in the long run.
Could these fighters have found more success had they slowed things down a little in the octagon? Perhaps, but for some, we’ll never know.
Here are five UFC fighters whose style were too exciting for their own good.
#5. Michael Chandler – UFC lightweight contender
The latest entry on this list is former UFC lightweight title challenger Michael Chandler. Renowned as an exciting fighter back in his days with Bellator MMA, ‘Iron Mike’ hasn’t shifted his style since arriving in the UFC in 2021.
His wild fights with Dan Hooker, Charles Oliveira, Justin Gaethje, Tony Ferguson, and Dustin Poirier have produced some serious violence, with more than one being considered an instant classic.
However, Chandler’s record since arriving in the promotion is 2-3, and he’s taken a huge amount of arguably avoidable damage in the octagon. While he remains a major star, how long he can remain at the top while fighting recklessly is questionable.
At least one other fighter has already spoken out about how Chandler’s style might be too exciting for his own good. Welterweight fighter Matt Brown, who is renowned as a wild brawler in his own right, recently stated that while his style was all about “making it dirty” and wearing opponents down, Chandler didn’t necessarily need to be like that.
According to ‘The Immortal,’ Chandler “fights for the fans” and went on to state that while he could be MMA’s Floyd Mayweather, he instead chooses to be like Arturo Gatti, a renowned brawler in boxing.
Could Brown be right, and could ‘Iron Mike’ shift his style to take less damage and be more effective? Perhaps. After all, Gaethje did something similar and didn’t become any less exciting for it. For now, though, the former Bellator lightweight champion could definitely be seen as too exciting for his own good.
#4. Mark Hunt – former UFC heavyweight contender
In the UFC’s heavyweight division, fighters usually have to be more careful in terms of taking big shots than they do in the lower weight classes. That’s because nobody carries knockout power quite like MMA’s big men, and usually, one shot can turn a fighter’s lights out.
That wasn’t the case for Mark Hunt, though, who became hugely popular for his ability to put on thrilling fights that usually saw him absorb an insane amount of damage in the process.
Built like a fire hydrant, ‘The Super Samoan’ rose to fame in Japan, first as a kickboxer with K-1 and then in PRIDE. By the time he arrived at the UFC in 2010, Hunt had already soaked up a ludicrous amount of damage by anyone’s standards in fights with the likes of Mirko Cro Cop and Wanderlei Silva.
However, he certainly didn’t change his exciting style upon his octagon debut. Hunt’s wild brawls with the likes of Cheick Kongo, Junior Dos Santos, and Stefan Struve led him all the way to an interim heavyweight title fight in 2014.
‘The Super Samoan’ never stopped taking serious damage, though, apparently figuring that most of the time, his iron chin would always see him through.
Naturally, that eventually caught up with him. After putting on one of the craziest fights in promotional history with Antonio Silva, a brawl that saw both men score multiple knockdowns, Hunt was never really the same.
He suffered some bad losses towards the back end of his octagon career, including violent knockouts at the hands of Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum. He stepped away from the action in 2018 after admitting to suffering from early signs of CTE.
A gifted technical striker, Hunt may not have gained the popularity that he did had he fought in a safer manner, but it may have been better for his overall health.
#3. Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone – former UFC lightweight contender
From his octagon debut in 2011 through to his eventual retirement in 2022, there were only a few fighters in the UFC more exciting to watch than Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone.
Whether Cerrone was winning or losing didn’t seem to matter. Every time he entered the octagon, fireworks would ensue. ‘Cowboy’ was a fighter who had ruthless finishing abilities in all areas, and it’s almost certainly fair to say that he was a better technician than many gave him credit for.
However, there’s also an argument that Cerrone was too exciting for his own good. ‘Cowboy’ often chose to brawl with opponents that he perhaps could’ve looked to pick apart instead, and this led to him absorbing tremendous amounts of damage.
In his early days with the promotion, that didn’t seem to matter. ‘Cowboy’ survived some horrific moments against the likes of Melvin Guillard and Eddie Alvarez to score come-from-behind wins, and at one point, he rode an eight-fight win streak.
Cerrone also had a habit of taking fights on very short notice, often stepping into action seemingly every other month. Eventually, this caught up to him.
By 2019, his once-legendary durability had begun to wane. Eventually, ‘Cowboy’ ended his career on the back of a seven-fight winless run, suffering four TKO losses along the way.
Whether he could’ve claimed an elusive UFC title with a different style is a question mark, but without his brawling ways, he almost certainly would’ve won more fights. Sure, it would’ve made him a different fighter, but it’s hard not to see him as a man who was almost too exciting for his own good.
#2. Robbie Lawler – former UFC welterweight champion
When it comes to lists of fighters who should probably look to retire in 2022, former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler will usually appear near the top for most fans. ‘Ruthless’ is now 40 years old and has won just one of his last six bouts.
It’s definitely arguable, though, that while time has caught up with Lawler, so has the wild fighting style that he has used for most of his MMA career.
Renowned as a brawler in his early 20s during his first run with the UFC, ‘Ruthless’ put on a few wars with fighters like Aaron Riley and Nick Diaz before departing the promotion for the best part of a decade.
When he returned in 2013, he had changed up his game substantially. Lawler appeared to be more technical than ever before and had reportedly stopped sparring in training in order to maintain his durability.
The style clearly worked, as he gained a welterweight title shot in 2014, losing to Johny Hendricks. However, the loss seemed to awaken a beast inside Lawler, and suddenly, he reverted to his brawling style, albeit on a more controlled basis.
The switch worked for ‘Ruthless,’ as he claimed the title from Hendricks on a second attempt and then put on two of the greatest fights of all time in his wins over Rory MacDonald and Carlos Condit.
However, going back to his brawling style, which saw him take serious amounts o damage, caught up with him quickly. He lost his title to Tyron Woodley via knockout just months after edging out Condit and hasn’t been the same fighter since.
UFC fans almost certainly wouldn’t hold Lawler in the same high regard were it not for his legendary brawls with MacDonald and Condit, but had ‘Ruthless’ avoided going back to his brawling ways, his career and health may be better for it now.
#1. Diego Sanchez – former UFC welterweight contender
It’s almost definitive that the fighter who eventually suffered the most for deploying an exciting style is former welterweight and lightweight contender Diego Sanchez.
‘The Nightmare’ competed in the UFC from 2005 through to 2020, fought in four different weight classes, and was involved in more ‘Fight of the Year’ bouts than any other competitor in MMA history.
However, while he became wildly popular and fought for the lightweight title in his pomp, his career with the promotion also ended on a horrendous slide. His legendary durability ended up being largely shot, and some of the knockouts he suffered late on were truly scary.
Strangely enough, it’s arguable that it didn’t need to be like that for Sanchez. In the early part of his octagon career, he was renowned as a grappler, and his legendary fights with Nick Diaz and Karo Parisyan featured more wild exchanges on the mat than on the feet.
However, rather than work on his wrestling, which turned out to be somewhat of a weakness, ‘The Nightmare’ instead embraced his inner brawler. While he wasn’t the greatest technical striker, Sanchez was willing to brawl on the feet with anyone, from Clay Guida and Martin Kampmann to BJ Penn and Gilbert Melendez.
For a time, his iron chin carried him through, even though he would take an insane amount of punishment at times. In fact, of the first 34 bouts of his career, he was stopped by TKO only once after suffering a bad cut in his fight with Penn.
Unsurprisingly, though, his exciting style eventually caught up with him, leading to the downward spiral that saw him depart the UFC in 2020.
Given some of Sanchez’s issues outside the octagon, with well-documented battles with drugs and alcohol, it’s definitely arguable that ‘The Nightmare’ was too exciting for his own good.
