Who is the most overrated fighter in the UFC?
It’s not just a barber shop question, it’s a legitimate one.
Sports lead to overreactions, it’s part of the fun.
The 24-hour news cycle, combined with social media leads to a constant wash-rinse-and-repeat of fighters being on the way up, becoming the greatest thing since sliced bread and then inevitably being called overrated when they lose a fight.
One of the main reasons that fighters become overrated is because they are popular and or good looking. This isn’t limited to fighting as you don’t tend to see very many ugly or unpopular movie stars, or television personalities either.
It’s important to understand that the UFC is not quite a sport and not quite a business. It’s some kind of weird combination of the two that leads to fighters being propped up and then torn down over and over again.
With that in mind, I present a list of the 5 most overrated UFC fighters today.
#5 Ronda Rousey
While the anti-Ronda backlash has swung pretty far the other way, with mainstream pundits like Skip Bayless calling Ronda a creation of the media, there is no denying that very few fighters have ever been hyped the way Ronda Rousey was.
Whether it was comparisons to Michael Jordan or Joe Rogan fanboying out over her after a win, Ronda was sold as a relentless, competitive unbeatable warrior. “A Diaz Brother in a beautiful F**king body” to quote UFC President Dana White.
All this despite the fact she dropped weight classes in Strikeforce to avoid Cyborg, and benefitted from one of the shallowest divisions in modern MMA history. Ronda was even featured on the cover of Ring magazine after her knockout out of Bethe Correia (a former accountant who started doing muay thai to lose weight).
Ronda is talented and was dominant for awhile, but she is also one of the most overrated fighters in the UFC.
#4 Anthony Pettis
Oh how the mighty have fallen. Anthony Pettis went from being on the cover of a Wheaties box to having one win in his last 5 fights in the blink of an eye. While Pettis was athletic and flashy, he also had a game with more holes in it than swiss cheese.
If Pettis couldn’t knock you out quickly with a big kick, he was in trouble. Even at his peak, Pettis was always kind of a bully, he was a fighter who needed to get respect from his opponent in order to open up.
He also had a great killer instinct – so if he had an opening he could capitalise on it and finish the fight. What he couldn’t do was get off the cage, win exchanges with superior kickboxers or stay healthy. While he looked great in a suit and had a guy for everything, Pettis was lucky to ever get ahold of the UFC 155 lb championship.
#3 Holly Holm
Holly Holm has 1 impressive win on her resume. It just happened to come over fellow overrated fighter Ronda Rousey at the height of Rousey-Mania. Do you know why no one saw Holly Holm coming as an upset?
Because her first two fights in the UFC against Raquel Pennington and Marion Reneau were ULTRA unimpressive. You could even argue she probably lost to Pennington. But a few straight lefts and a head kick later and Holm was the UFC champion and a legend killer.
The problem was that Holm actually wasn’t that good at MMA, she was just a nightmare matchup for Rousey. She was comfortably ahead against an almost shot Miesha Tate before giving up the takedown and the fight at UFC 196.
The UFC trying to re-ignite Holm’s star matched her up with fellow striker Valentina Shevchenko, who came into the fight a nearly 3 to 1 underdog and then proceeded to win 4 out of 5 rounds from Holm fairly convincingly.
Was Holm asked to take a step back and fight a lower ranked fighter? Nope, she is going to be fighting for the inaugural UFC women’s Featherweight belt against Germaine De Randamie because fighters on 2 fight losing streaks now fight for belts. It’s normal.
#2 Conor Mcgregor
Call me a hater, I still don’t think Conor Mcgregor is NEARLY the fighter he claims he is or that his fans want him to be. The Aldo win is impressive, but he totally rattled Jose with trash talk and goaded him into being ultra aggressive before he landed a 1 in a million strike.
He beat Mendes on a short camp and was getting his face elbowed in before Mendes gassed. Denis Siver isn’t good, Dustin Poirer is hittable and don’t even get me started on Eddie Alvarez. Mcgregor is a great fighter. But is he really good enough to be a two division champion without the help of selective matchmaking?
If Mcgregor had to fight Khabib, or Tony Ferguson, or quite a few other top ranked 155ers I doubt he becomes champ. If he had to fight a wrestler on a full camp at 145, it’s possible he doesn’t make it there either.
He is an outstanding promoter and has performed every time he’s been given the big stage. Having said that, is he really the equal, historically, of other 2 division champs like BJ Penn and Randy Couture?
Are we even sure he’s a top 5 Lightweight at this point? Mcgregor is far and away the best fighter on the list, but the way he portrays himself and the way the UFC props him up are not reality, and one day soon the whole thing is going to come crashing down.
#1 Paige VanZant
I was tempted to write, “Pretty Girl, can’t fight.” and end this list, but I owe you more than that. Paige Vanzant is the least skilled fighter to EVER main event a UFC card, and it’s not even close. What is Piage good at? Her best attribute is that she is tough, which is a nice way of saying she takes a beating well and doesn’t quit.
The only fights she wins are the ones where she outmatches the girls physically and can beat them on pure athleticism. If Paige Vanzant looked like Cris Cyborg, she never would have made the UFC.
That’s gonna wrap up my article on the most overrated fighters in the UFC, leave me a comment letting me know what you think and who you think is the most overrated fighter in the UFC.
