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Any fighter who rises up the ladder to claim a UFC title should be renowned as a true great. Naturally, most of the promotion’s legends are former champions. However, at times, even the best have come under fire.
Over the years we’ve seen a number of UFC champions come under largely unfair criticism, as even during virtuoso performances they were somehow slammed by a portion of the fanbase.
At times, these champions were able to silence their critics later down the line, but on other occasions, the abuse they took stuck with them for the remainder of their title reign.
Here are five UFC champions who came in for unfair criticism during their title reign.
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#5. Demetrious Johnson – former UFC flyweight champion
These days, just over four years after his flyweight title reign came to a semi-controversial end at the hands of Henry Cejudo, most fans recognize the fact that Demetrious Johnson should be seen as an all-time great of the UFC.
After all, ‘Mighty Mouse’ put together an insane winning streak in the octagon at 125lbs, going 13 fights unbeaten over six years as a flyweight before losing to Cejudo via split decision. More importantly, 11 of those wins came in title defenses, giving him a promotional record that still stands today.
Somehow, though, Johnson still came under plenty of criticism during his title reign, and most of it was thoroughly unfair.
‘Mighty Mouse’ was, at times, labeled a point-fighter who would rather let his bouts go the distance than finish his foes. To be frank, this was a ridiculous accusation given that he actually finished six of his title defenses, including one via submission with just one second to go in the final round!
Fans also scoffed at his lack of drawing power when it came to selling pay-per-views. In reality, this was probably down to the fact that he was so dominant over his competitors and the fact that the UFC weren’t always willing to give the flyweight division enough spotlight.
Essentially, it wasn’t until his departure in 2018 that some fans began to really appreciate ‘Mighty Mouse’ as a true great, something that should be seen as disappointing, if not shameful, to this day.
#4. Tim Sylvia – former UFC heavyweight champion
Another UFC champion who often came under fire for an apparently dull fighting style was Tim Sylvia, who held the heavyweight title on two occasions, firstly in 2003 and then from 2006 to 2007. However, did ‘The Maine-iac’ really warrant so much criticism?
It’s a question that’s still highly debatable now, well over a decade after his title run came to an end at the hands of Randy Couture.
Nobody labeled him dull in his first title run, which saw him knock out Ricco Rodriguez to claim the gold before dispatching challenger Gan McGee with another knockout in his first defense.
A positive test for banned substances ended that reign, but when he reclaimed the title in a thriller against Andrei Arlovski in early 2006 – taking revenge for an earlier loss in 2005 – it was hard not to give him respect.
After all, Sylvia somehow survived a hellacious knockdown to come back and stop Arlovski just seconds later in what was one of the promotion’s all-time great comeback wins.
It was after this fight that things went downhill for Sylvia in terms of his reputation with the fans, though. A long-awaited trilogy bout with Arlovski turned out to be a stinker, and while ‘The Pitbull’ was forgiven by fans, ‘The Maine-iac’ seemed to take the brunt of the blame, particularly when his next defense against Jeff Monson wasn’t a thriller.
By the time Couture beat him in 2007, then, most fans were desperate to see him lose. In hindsight, though, the criticism he faced was a little unfair.
Sylvia basically put on two dull fights during his title reigns, and it seemed like fans turned on his slightly awkward personality more than anything else and just jumped onto the “boring fighter” bandwagon by default.
Sure, he wouldn’t be considered an all-time great at this stage, but it’s now safe to say that ‘The Maine-iac’ didn’t warrant all the criticism he faced.
#3. Jon Jones – former UFC light heavyweight champion
Okay, so it’s probably true that Jon Jones deserved criticism at times during his lengthy reign as UFC light heavyweight champion, most notably for incidents that took place outside of the octagon, such as his hit-and-run incident in 2015 or his multiple drug test failures.
However, ‘Bones’ did come under fire in 2012 from both the fans and UFC president Dana White for a truly ridiculous reason, a piece of nasty criticism that still can’t be justified a decade on.
That September was supposed to see Jones headline UFC 151 against top contender Dan Henderson. With just nine days to go before the event, Henderson was ruled out thanks to a serious knee injury.
The promotion pegged Chael Sonnen as a late-notice replacement, but taking the advice of his coach Greg Jackson, Jones surprisingly refused the bout, despite the fact that Sonnen had not fought at 205lbs for years at that point.
The result of this was not only the cancelation of Jones’ title bout, but of the entire event, something that instantly drew the ire of White, who labeled ‘Bones’ and his coaching team “sport killers.”
Many fans agreed and Jones’ reputation with a lot of them seemed damaged beyond repair. But did he really deserve such criticism?
Sure, it could be argued that he would’ve squashed the overmatched Sonnen easily, but that’s easy to say in hindsight. After gameplanning for a very different fighter in Henderson, his decision to refuse the late-notice clash was perhaps understandable.
More to the point, it wasn’t Jones’ fault that the UFC had booked such a weak undercard on the event, leaving them with no viable replacement headliner.
The truth, therefore, is that Jones made a decision that was probably right for his own career and title reign – and just because it impacted the promotion in a negative way shouldn’t have meant he came under the fire he did.
#2. Israel Adesanya – current UFC middleweight champion
When Israel Adesanya brutally dispatched Robert Whittaker to claim the UFC middleweight title in late 2019, it seemed that he could do no wrong. ‘The Last Stylebender’ had a wildly entertaining fighting style based around his sniper-like counterstriking, tons of charisma, and looked like the heir to the throne vacated by Anderson Silva years before.
Since then, though, Adesanya’s reputation has taken a bit of a dent in the eyes of the fans. While he’s defended his title successfully on five occasions, he’s only finished one of his challengers – Paulo Costa, who was knocked out in September 2020.
Essentially, ‘The Last Stylebender’ has outclassed the likes of Jared Cannonier and Marvin Vettori, but he hasn’t come close to finishing them, either – meaning that he’s currently coming under criticism from fans, with some of them labeling him a point-fighter.
Does Adesanya deserve this kind of criticism? It’s massively debatable. It’s true that he hasn’t finished a foe in over two years, but equally, he’s always been a counterstriker by nature.
That means that unless an opponent comes at him wildly, as Whittaker and Derek Brunson did, he’s much more likely to simply snipe at them from range, never truly opening himself up to potentially eat a big shot the other way.
Sure, it might be more entertaining to see him brawl, but that’s never been his style. So why should he change it up when so much is on the line now, both from a financial point of view and in terms of his legacy?
Overall, like a number of champions before him, Adesanya certainly doesn’t deserve the criticism he’s gotten from the fans. If anything, he deserves even more respect for his ability to dominate high-level foes without taking too much damage in return.
#1. Georges St-Pierre – former UFC welterweight champion
While great champions like Anderson Silva and Tyron Woodley came under deserved fire for some of their below-par performances in title fights, it’s probably fair to say that the most heavily criticized titleholder in UFC history is former welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre.
Did ‘GSP’ deserve the kind of abuse he took from certain portions of the fanbase, though? In hindsight, the answer is quite clearly no.
During his rise up the ladder, St-Pierre was beloved, largely because of his incredible performances in taking out tough fighters like Frank Trigg and Sean Sherk in brutal fashion. Indeed, when he destroyed Matt Hughes to claim the welterweight title, it felt like he could do no wrong.
However, after suffering an upset defeat to Matt Serra in 2007 before regaining his title from ‘The Terror’ in 2008, the finishes began to dry up for the Canadian. ‘GSP’ defended his title successfully on nine occasions, but only one of those opponents – BJ Penn – was stopped.
Some fans accused St-Pierre of switching up his fighting style to a safety-first approach, but was that really the case? In hindsight, the answer is probably no.
Rather, St-Pierre simply came up against tougher foes during his title reign than he did beforehand, as the likes of Carlos Condit, Thiago Alves and Jon Fitch rarely suffered losses, let alone finishes during that time period.
To add to this, while ‘GSP’ didn’t finish his foes, he still beat them relentlessly in all areas. It’s arguable that the likes of Josh Koscheck and Dan Hardy were simply never the same again after being beaten by the Canadian.
More importantly, St-Pierre’s fights weren’t outright dull anyway – they simply featured him dominating opponents in a way that was scarcely imaginable at the time.
Time has obviously proven that GSP’s approach was the right one – he’s largely recognized as the greatest MMA fighter of all time at this point – and in hindsight, it’s safe to say that the criticism he came in for was thoroughly unwarranted.
