'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
To succeed in the UFC, naturally, a fighter must have stellar abilities inside the octagon. However, to become a genuine megastar, a fighter needs to have skills on the microphone, too.
Over the years, we’ve seen a number of excellent microphone workers in the UFC. Surprisingly, there have been a handful of them whose bark was often more menacing than their bite.
Any fighter who makes it to the world’s biggest promotion has to be great, of course. However, it’s safe to say that sometimes, it’s possible to produce more fireworks on the microphone than inside the octagon.
With that in mind, here are five UFC fighters whose skills on the microphone were more exciting than their fights.
#5. Sean Strickland – current UFC middleweight contender
While current UFC middleweight title contender Sean Strickland has been around the promotion for a long time now, dating back to his 2014 debut, it’s safe to say that ‘Tarzan’ has only really come to the forefront recently.
Strickland has worked his way towards the top of the middleweight division by consistently winning his fights, as he’s now 5-0 since moving to 185 pounds in 2020. However, he’s also garnered plenty of recent headlines due to his unique abilities on the microphone.
Nobody would really claim Strickland is a fountain of charisma, but he’s certainly an outspoken and confident fighter. Recently, he’s come out with more outlandish statements than ever before.
2021 saw him admit to a previous existence as a Neo-Nazi, as well as claim that his ultimate goal was to kill someone inside the octagon. Meanwhile, he’s also become renowned for talking plenty of trash during his fights.
This odd nature has caused the likes of former middleweight champion Michael Bisping to label ‘Tarzan’ a “psychopath.” In fact, he doesn’t fight like a crazy man at all. If anything, he’s more cerebral and his most recent bouts have seen him utilize almost a point-fighting style.
All of this adds up to the suspicion that Strickland is simply using his outlandish personality to draw the fans in, as based on his most recent bouts, he isn’t likely to gain any awards for being an exciting fighter any time soon.
#4. Josh Koscheck – former UFC welterweight contender
One of the greatest trash-talkers in UFC history, from his first appearance on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter in 2005 through to his departure from the promotion in 2015, Josh Koscheck was always more than happy to embrace the role of a villain.
Koscheck established himself as a major antagonist during the tapings of TUF by provoking a drunk Chris Leben. He continued that kind of behaviour when he emerged into the promotion fully, as he talked trash on opponents such as Diego Sanchez and Paul Daley. He then embarked on a major feud with Georges St-Pierre that led to an unsuccessful shot at the welterweight title.
However, it’s probably safe to say that for the most part, Koscheck’s ability to build a fight up using his mic skills was largely more entertaining than his fighting style in the octagon.
‘Kos’ wasn’t always dull to watch. His knockouts of fighters like Yoshiyuki Yoshida and Frank Trigg were genuinely brutal. However, in a great number of his bouts, he would fall back on his stellar wrestling skills to get him by, causing the fans to become frustrated with what they perceived as a lay-and-pray approach.
If anything, though, the fact that so many fans accused him of being a boring fighter only added to his villainous persona. It paid off handsomely for Koscheck, who was largely used as a headline act by the promotion throughout his tenure there.
#3. Ben Askren – former UFC welterweight contender
While his time with the UFC didn’t last long at all, three fights, to be exact, two of which saw him lose in devastating fashion, the reason that there was such a clamor Ben Askren’s debut was largely down to his charisma.
A two-time NCAA Division I national champion in amateur wrestling, Askren made the move into MMA after failing to secure a medal at the 2008 Olympics and immediately established himself as a fighter to watch.
However, despite running through Bellator MMA’s welterweight roster, beating the likes of Karl Amoussou, Douglas Lima and Andrey Koreshkov to claim the promotion’s title, ‘Funky’ often suffered criticism due to a perceived dull fighting style.
Like Josh Koscheck before him, though, Askren seemed more than happy to embrace his role as a villain. He talked plenty of trash prior to each bout and regularly claimed that he could beat the best 170lbers that the UFC had to offer despite not being part of the promotion.
His feud with Dana White garnered him even more publicity, as he would often taunt White in the media. He even produced an Adele-themed music video to poke fun at him.
Eventually, it was this charismatic style outside the octagon rather than his actual fighting skills that inspired White to sign him in 2018. While his time with the promotion didn’t go to plan, his fights there were at least exciting, something that couldn’t often be said for his previous ones.
#2. Tito Ortiz – former UFC light heavyweight champion
Not only was Tito Ortiz once the biggest star in the UFC, he was probably the biggest drawing card in the world of MMA, too. ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ held the promotion’s light heavyweight title from 2000 to 2003, defending it on five occasions.
Ortiz always talked a good game. He would tell everyone that would listen that he was going to take his opponents to the ground and punish them. However, the truth is that his fights were often not as exciting as the feuds that preceded them.
‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ was rarely accused of lay-and-pray tactics. For the most part, unless he was faced with a largely overmatched foe, he was often unable to finish his opponents in the octagon.
In fact, his victories over Vladimir Matyushenko and Patrick Cote were probably as slow as the fights produced by far more maligned fighters like Jon Fitch and Jake Shields. The only difference was that Ortiz had the innate ability to ensure that the fans were emotionally invested in everything he did.
These days, fans often poke fun at Ortiz for a perceived clunky nature on the microphone, but 20 years ago, this would’ve been a crazy statement to make.
When he was at his peak in the UFC, few fighters possessed the charisma of ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’, meaning that even if some of his actual bouts were dull, it was hard not to be drawn in by his pre-fight trash talk, explaining why he became such a huge superstar.
#1. Chael Sonnen – former UFC middleweight contender
When it comes to talking trash and building feuds up, no fighter can really come close to former middleweight title contender Chael Sonnen.
Once widely seen as another stoic wrestler, ‘The American Gangster’ established himself as a master on the microphone during his 2010 feud with Anderson Silva. He never looked back from there, becoming one of the biggest stars the UFC had to offer at the time.
Sonnen would not only brag about his own abilities inside the octagon, but he was so witty in the way that he would put his opponents down that he ended up being seen as more of an anti-hero than an outright villain.
However, despite his ability to talk a good fight, his actual abilities inside the octagon rarely led to true fireworks.
There’s no denying that in his prime, ‘The American Gangster’ was a fantastic talent. He defeated top contenders like Michael Bisping, Nate Marquardt and Mauricio Rua, and pushed Silva harder than anyone had done at that point.
While he did push a harder pace than most of his contemporaries, the truth is that his approach of takedowns and ground-and-pound was very similar to perceived dull fighters like Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck.
Sonnen’s mic skills meant that he got away with this scot-free, though, and his fights were usually viewed as must-see attractions. In 2013, he literally talked his way into a largely undeserved shot at the UFC light heavyweight title.
Essentially, then, ‘The American Gangster’ is the prime example of a fighter whose skills on the microphone helped fans to ignore a less exciting fighting style.
