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Like most sports these days, the UFC is full of heroes and villains in the eyes of the fans. While some fighters remain beloved, plenty of others receive boos whenever they enter the octagon. Naturally though, there are some exceptions.
Some of the UFC’s biggest stars have been able to straddle the line between being loved and hated, dividing the opinion of fans, often right down the middle.
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Those fighters often become bigger stars than the majority of their peers, largely because it’s hard not to be invested in them either way, whether fans want them to win or want them to lose.
With that in mind, here are five UFC stars who divided the opinion of the fans.
#5. Tito Ortiz – former UFC light heavyweight champion
When the Fertitta brothers, alongside their good friend Dana White, bought the UFC back in 2000, the promotion’s biggest star was undoubtedly Tito Ortiz. The reigning UFC light heavyweight champion gave off the kind of star quality that was clearly lacking from the majority of the promotion’s roster at the time.
‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ not only possessed natural charisma, but he also carried himself like a rock star and was more than willing to talk trash in order to build up his fights.
However, while Ortiz was definitely bankable and headlined a number of crucial pay-per-views, some of which essentially kept the UFC afloat, it’d be hard to come to a conclusion over whether he was loved or hated by the fans even today.
While ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ was largely cheered during his famous feud with UFC legend Ken Shamrock, for instance, his behavior in-building that fight was totally villainous, as he clearly enjoyed playing the antagonist.
However, during his later rivalries with the likes of Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Forrest Griffin, the fans turned on him entirely, largely finding his character tired and instead, preferring the everyman qualities of his opponents. By his later days with the UFC, of course, Ortiz had gone full circle. His upset win over Ryan Bader in 2011 drew a huge positive crowd reaction, making it one of the more memorable moments of that year.
Essentially, Ortiz straddled the line between being loved and being hated by UFC fans throughout his tenure with the promotion. However, this straddling ensured he was never seen as anything but a major star, despite his decline in form in his later years.
#4. Brock Lesnar – former UFC heavyweight champion
When former WWE champion Brock Lesnar signed a deal with the UFC in late 2007, it was clear that he’d become a major star for the promotion. However, few observers could’ve realized quite how much ‘The Beast Incarnate’ would divide the opinion of UFC fans.
Upon his octagon debut against Frank Mir at UFC 81, it wasn’t difficult to tell that Lesnar was widely despised by UFC fans, most likely due to his previous tenure with WWE. He was widely booed in the fight and when Mir caught him in a kneebar and submitted him, he became an instant hero to UFC fans worldwide.
Lesnar remained a firm villain in the eyes of UFC fans for his next few fights, particularly when he was given a shot at the UFC heavyweight title that he arguably didn’t deserve.
That fight saw him knock out Randy Couture to claim the title. When he went on a wild rant after defending it against Mir in a rematch, he was cemented firmly in a similar spot that was once occupied by Mike Tyson - the villainous, uncontrollable destroyer.
However, when Lesnar was sidelined with diverticulitis and was then able to come back from the disease following a year on the shelf to beat the dangerous Shane Carwin, something changed.
Suddenly, the self-proclaimed “humble champion” was being widely cheered by UFC fans, something that’d never really happened before. Those cheers then turned into a mixed reaction for his fights with Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem, blurring the lines just as other previous UFC stars had done.
When Lesnar returned to the UFC in 2016 following five years away, meanwhile, he was greeted as a returning hero, only for the fans to turn on him instantly after he tested positive for banned substances following the fight.
Whether UFC fans loved him or hated him remains debatable, but there’s no disputing that Lesnar’s larger-than-life personality made him a superstar during his time with the promotion.
#3. Colby Covington – UFC welterweight contender
On the face of it, Colby Covington should be considered the biggest villain in the UFC today. A master antagonist, the once-soft-spoken welterweight contender has arguably sunken to new lows with some of his trash talk in recent years.
‘Chaos’ spewed xenophobic rants towards the country of Brazil and its fighters. He even edged worryingly closely to outright racism during his rivalries with current UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and former champ Tyron Woodley.
However, while plenty of fans have become accustomed to booing Covington out of the building, even outright interrupting UFC shows when he arrives in the crowd at times, we’ve also seen him garner plenty of cheers in his recent fights.
It’s not really that difficult to understand why, either. Thanks to his outward support for former U.S. President Donald Trump and his ‘Make America Great Again’ movement, Covington has been able to capitalize on the general divide in political opinion across the U.S. like no other UFC fighter.
Essentially, for as many people as there are that can’t stand Trump, there are equally many who adore him. The same can be said for Covington.
What’s more, based on his surprisingly respectful exchange with Usman after their recent fight at UFC 268, it’s hard not to believe that Covington simply adopted this antagonistic character in order to become a star. Like Chael Sonnen before him, a much different person lies below.
So while Covington has already divided the opinion of UFC fans thanks to his Trump-inspired character, a little tweaking could see him divide them even further, becoming a bigger star in the process, too.
#2. Chael Sonnen – former UFC middleweight contender
While fighters like Conor McGregor, Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal have tried their best, it’s arguable that no other UFC star has ever been able to maximize their ability on the microphone quite like Chael Sonnen.
Once considered a journeyman figure, ‘The American Gangster’ shifted his personality in 2010, becoming a trash-talker extraordinaire. In turn he quickly became one of the biggest superstars in the UFC.
While he failed in his quest to claim UFC gold on three different occasions, one thing that Sonnen definitely succeeded in was in dividing the fanbase of the promotion.
Modeling his trash-talking persona on pro-wrestling legends such as Billy Graham and Ric Flair, Sonnen’s mic work was clearly designed to turn him into the UFC’s biggest villain. However, he showed such charisma on the mic that it was hard not to be sucked in by his act, meaning that he regularly received just as many cheers as boos when he entered the octagon.
While his feud with then-UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva painted him firmly as an antagonist, his later rivalries with Jon Jones and Wanderlei Silva showed him in an entirely different light, particularly when his coaching abilities were revealed during two stints on The Ultimate Fighter.
Basically, despite labeling himself ‘the bad guy’ on numerous occasions, Sonnen was never a true villain. Like most of the UFC’s biggest stars, he straddled the line in between.
#1. Conor McGregor – former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion
Perhaps no other fighter in UFC history has been able to divide the opinion of the promotion’s fanbase quite like Conor McGregor. Not only is ‘The Notorious’ the biggest superstar in UFC history, but there’s probably not a fan out there who doesn’t have a strong opinion on him.
To his legions of fans, particularly those in his native Ireland, McGregor can literally do no wrong. He’s the working class kid made good, he’s stayed with his childhood sweetheart and he’s helped to put Irish MMA firmly on the map.
Those fans are even willing to overlook McGregor’s multiple indiscretions; incidents which have involved numerous brushes with the law, as well as a number of tasteless insults on social media aimed at rivals such as Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier.
Of course, any fighter willing to talk as much trash as McGregor, particularly in such an antagonistic manner, is always guaranteed to gain as many haters as fans. Those afore-mentioned indiscretions don’t help matters in that sense, either.
Therefore, ‘The Notorious’ has truly divided the UFC fanbase. For as many fans who want to see him win when he steps into the octagon, just as many are desperate to see him get his comeuppance.
The one major winner in all of this, of course, is McGregor himself. The Irishman is responsible for the UFC’s biggest-selling pay-per-views, ensuring that he brings in millions of dollars every time he steps into the octagon.
That’s why in a lot of respects, dividing the UFC’s fanbase is the quickest and most direct path to super-stardom, something that ‘The Notorious’ clearly understands greatly.
