The 10 most overrated fighters in UFC history

Overrated is a term I honestly don’t like using when it comes to professional MMA fighters, particularly those who have made it into the UFC, as if you make it to the world’s biggest promotion then by default you’ve got to be pretty damn good.

With that said, the term could well fit the following ten fighters, whether they were overrated by the fans or online experts, or by the UFC itself in terms of the promotional push they received. It doesn’t make them bad fighters of course, but they probably didn’t quite deserve the hype they got at the time of their UFC careers. Here are the ten most overrated fighters in UFC history.

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#10 Paige VanZant

Paige VanZant has yet to live up to the lofty expectations set by the UFC

I actually toyed with leaving Paige VanZant off this list simply because she does have a couple of really impressive wins, including one over a current top ten contender in Felice Herrig. But realistically, ’12 Gauge’ has been treated by the UFC as a legitimate title contender in two separate divisions when in reality she hasn’t proven all that much.

Her wins over Herrig, Kailin Curran and Alex Chambers were all impressive, but the UFC simply pushed her too fast into a fight with former title challenger – and future champion – Rose Namajunas, back in December 2015. VanZant was destroyed by Thug Rose and has never truly recovered.

The insane pace and grappling skill she showed in the Herrig and Curran victories now seems gone, replaced by a somewhat ineffective long-range striking style, and she’s been thoroughly beaten by both Michelle Waterson and Jessica-Rose Clark – the latter in a fight at 125lbs where the UFC were hoping to push her as a title contender.

VanZant could still develop into something special – she has the raw talent and at just 23 she could still improve massively – but the seeming decline in her skills since debuting is worrying and it feels like the UFC just push her because of her looks at this stage.

#9 Nick Diaz

Nick Diaz is overrated by his huge fanbase

Only a fool would deny that Nick Diaz is – or was, at least – a legitimate elite-level Welterweight both in and outside the UFC, so you simply can’t argue that he’s been overrated at any stage of his career by regular fans.

Unfortunately, he’s been so heavily overrated by other sources that he belongs firmly on this list.

Firstly, he’s one of those rare fighters with legions of online fanboys who seem to feel that he’s never truly lost a fight in his career – even ones that seemed like clear-cut losses such as his fights with Sean Sherk or Diego Sanchez.

His loss to Carlos Condit, which saw Diaz basically outplayed for five rounds, was treated with particular disdain by this crowd.

Secondly, it feels like the UFC itself seems to overrate his skills, more so because he draws in the fans.

He was granted a fair title shot after coming over from StrikeForce and defeating BJ Penn, but lost pretty firmly to Condit and then sat a year out – only to somehow be rewarded with another title shot upon his return.

He lost that one too, beaten comfortably by Georges St-Pierre, but after another year on the shelf he was back in another big fight with Anderson Silva.

Even now, Diaz is still talked about as a title contender at 170lbs despite his last win coming in October 2011 – almost seven years ago!

Diaz was a tremendously skilled fighter in his prime, but simply doesn’t belong in any sort of title discussion these days, and to that end, he’s become firmly overrated by the UFC brass and by his fanbase.

#8: Kimbo Slice

Kimbo Slice just didn't belong in the UFC

By the time he arrived in the UFC in late 2009, former street brawler Kimbo Slice had already been basically exposed as a fraud in the MMA world.

Pushed as the next Mike Tyson by the Elite XC promotion, Slice defeated a trio of lower-level opponents before being knocked out by journeyman Seth Petruzelli, and it seemed like his career would probably be over from there.

Surprisingly though he was brought into the UFC in 2009 to take part in the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter. After receiving insane amounts of hype he was easily beaten by Roy Nelson and eliminated from the tournament, but it felt like every subsequent episode teased a comeback that never happened.

Even after that he was brought into the UFC proper and beat Houston Alexander in a truly terrible fight at the Finale show. Still refusing to read the writing on the wall, Kimbo returned again, only to lose in one-sided fashion to Matt Mitrione – a loss that mercifully signalled the end of his UFC tenure.

Slice was handled better by the UFC than Elite XC as he was portrayed as a guy who lucked into fame and was trying to improve himself rather than being the baddest man on the planet, but the mere fact that they actually used him three times means they overrated his skills.

#7 Melvin Guillard

Melvin Guillard flattered to deceive too many times

Originally debuting in the UFC back in 2005 following a run on TUF, it felt like the UFC were waiting for the best part of a decade for Melvin Guillard to live up to his potential, and they gave him a crazy amount of chances to do so.

Unfortunately, ‘The Young Assassin’ simply couldn’t hold up his end of the bargain.

An initial run of two explosive knockouts was ended in the main event of Fight Night 9 when Joe Stevenson tapped him with a guillotine in just 27 seconds.

But wins over Dennis Siver and Gleison Tibau put him right back into the spotlight, where he was defeated this time by Nate Diaz.

The best run of his UFC career followed – five impressive wins – but that run was quickly curtailed by Joe Lauzon and a rear naked choke.

By this point the pattern had been established; Guillard was insanely powerful and quick on the feet, but his ground game wildly lagged behind the rest of his skill set and consistently let him down.

But the UFC continued to push him as a possible title contender, right until a final slide in 2014 saw him released.

Over his nine-year UFC tenure, Guillard appeared in seven main events or co-main events despite ending his time in the promotion with a spotty record of 12-9. He was a solid fighter in his prime but was never as good as the UFC thought he was or pushed him as being.

#6 Matt Mitrione

Matt Mitrione never truly rounded out his skills

Matt Mitrione was never pushed as a title contender by the UFC, nor did he appear in many top ten rankings during his time with the promotion.

During his UFC career, in fact, he only on the main event for one show, and that too as a late replacement for Shane Carwin in a fight with Roy Nelson. So how does he land on the list of most overrated fighters?

Mitrione was in fact wildly overrated by the fans rather than the UFC, in particular, online analysts who you’d expect to know better.

Despite only ever really showing strong skills in his kickboxing game – and even then he displayed plenty of holes and a questionable chin at times – it felt like online writers were always waiting for him to break out as an elite-level fighter.

He did pick up some solid wins, but the majority of his victories came over lower-level opposition, with his best wins being a quick KO of Derrick Lewis and a KO over a past-his-best Gabriel Gonzaga.

Every time he was given a step up in competition – against Cheick Kongo, Nelson, Brendan Schaub and Ben Rothwell – he lost pretty handily.

And yet he was still seen as a major loss to the UFC when he jumped ship to Bellator in 2016, despite being 37 years old and never having truly developed his skills in all areas.

He’s now the favourite for Bellator’s ongoing Heavyweight Grand Prix after a knockout of the ageing Fedor Emelianenko and a questionable win over Nelson in a rematch.

#5 Roger Huerta

Roger Huerta received a huge promotional push from the UFC

Don’t get me wrong – back in 2006/7/8 Roger Huerta was one of my favourite fighters in the UFC, period.

He simply couldn’t put on a dull fight and his December 2007 match with Clay Guida remains one of the best in promotional history.

But despite being massively exciting, ‘El Matador’ was largely unproven at the top level and probably didn’t deserve the monstrous push he was given by the UFC.

Huerta burst onto the scene in 2006 by winning an exciting brawl with Jason Dent, and the UFC immediately latched onto him as a possible star for the Hispanic market.

And so he was pushed hugely and reeled off a further five wins, although with the exception of Guida, none of his opponents were really UFC-level – three of them were debutants in fact.

And yet the UFC portrayed Huerta as the top contender to watch at 155lbs – even using a shot of him on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine.

The bubble burst when Huerta was outpointed by Kenny Florian pretty handily, but at that stage, his relationship with the UFC had gone sour anyway – he felt he was worth far more money than the promotion would pay him.

Eventually, Huerta sat out a year, was beaten by Gray Maynard and then went on to a dreadful run in Bellator. It was a case of too much, too soon in terms of promotional push, but if he’d have been handled better by the UFC – and built slowly rather than pushed as a contender from the off – he could’ve been something special.

#4 Tank Abbott

Tank Abbott was pushed as a big star for almost a decade

In the early days of the UFC few fighters were pushed as hard as Tank Abbott.

The former street fighter burst onto the scene with two wins – and a large amount of charisma – in the tournament at UFC 6, and although he lost in the finals to Oleg Taktarov, he had firmly ingrained himself into the conscience of the UFC fans.

And so the UFC brass pushed him as the big star over the next few years following the departures of Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock, despite him not being anywhere near as good a fighter as the likes of Don Frye and Mark Coleman.

Abbott was given marquee matches constantly and even fought for the UFC Heavyweight title despite coming off two losses.

He lost that fight – to Maurice Smith – too, and eventually departed the UFC in late 1998 with an overall record of 8-7.

After an ill-advised run in professional wrestling, however, Zuffa decided to bring him back in 2003 in an attempt to recapture their old fanbase and replicate the successful return of Ken Shamrock.

It didn’t work as Abbott lost all three of his comeback matches despite being positioned in the co-main event of big pay-per-view cards each time.

In the end Abbott’s UFC career ended with him holding a record of 8-10, with losses ranging from knockouts to submissions.

Essentially without his wild charisma he would’ve likely been forgotten after his first UFC event and yet he was pushed as a big star for almost a decade.

#3 Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock's UFC record wasn't as good as his reputation made out

Ask any longtime fan of the UFC – particularly those who were watching back in the early 90’s when MMA was more spectacle than sport – and they’d probably tell you that Ken Shamrock was one of the top two fighters from that initial era along with Royce Gracie. In reality though, despite having a stellar reputation in the gym and as a trainer, Ken didn’t actually have that much success in the UFC.

His initial UFC run ended in 1996 and while he did pick up some big wins – namely over Dan Severn and Kimo Leopoldo – and also held the UFC ‘Superfight’ title (a precursor to the Heavyweight title) he never really reached the very top, as he failed in three attempts to win UFC tournaments, once losing to Gracie and twice withdrawing with injuries.

It’s hard to hold Shamrock’s later UFC days against him – he was way past his prime when he lost to Tito Ortiz and Rich Franklin – but that initial run of his sure had some stinkers in there – such as his dire draws with Gracie and Oleg Taktarov, and his dull-as-dishwater loss to Severn in a rematch.

Shamrock fared far better outside the UFC – he was a legend in Japanese promotion Pancrase and picked up some huge wins there – but his hype coming out of the Octagon was that he was ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Man’ and that generally wasn’t the case, not in the UFC at least. If you count his poor run from 2002 to 2005, his overall UFC record was 7-6-2.

#2 Matt Lindland

Hardcore fans adored Matt Lindland for years

A true darling of the hardcore fanbase from his debut in the UFC in 2000 to his retirement from MMA in 2011, the UFC brass were terrified of Olympic silver medallist in wrestling Matt Lindland and did everything in their power to keep him from the UFC Middleweight title.

In reality, that was miles away from the truth. While Lindland was a good fighter, he certainly wasn’t ever great – his wrestling was fantastic but his striking and submission skills lagged way behind, particularly in defensive areas – and he was given a title shot in 2002 and promptly lost to champ Murilo Bustamante, technically submitting twice in the fight.

Lindland bounced back from that loss to win a further three UFC fights, but was then knocked out by newcomer David Terrell, and despite picking up a pair of wins over Travis Lutter and Joe Doerksen, he was then released from the UFC for sporting the logo of a banned sponsor. And so his fans latched onto the idea that the UFC wanted to avoid him winning their title.

Realistically though, Lindland hadn’t even earned another title shot – the knockout at the hands of Terrell was still fresh in everyone’s minds and he still hadn’t rounded out his skills. If he’d have fought Rich Franklin, the champ in 2005, he likely would’ve lost badly.

And yet people still claimed he was the world’s top 185lber – even over Anderson Silva – all the way until 2009, making him a hugely overrated, if good fighter.

#1 Brock Lesnar

Brock Lesnar remains the most overrated fighter in UFC history

Despite showing some flashes of greatness – in particular, his win over Frank Mir at UFC 100 – nobody comes close to Brock Lesnar when it comes to being overrated in his UFC run.

Lesnar did win the UFC Heavyweight title, granted, and he did make two successful title defences. But he was always a hugely flawed fighter, only pushed to the level he was due to his WWE background, and once he fought better opponents he was painfully exposed.

Lesnar debuted in an exciting fight with Mir that saw him submitted in the first round, but he bounced back and defeated Heath Herring, and from there the UFC brass decided to grant him a title shot against the returning Randy Couture.

Lesnar KO’d Couture to win the belt and then defeated Mir, but even at that point, there were huge question marks around him.

The UFC were pushing Lesnar as ‘the baddest man on the planet’ by that point, but a bout of diverticulitis kept him out for a year.

Upon his return, he was almost knocked out by Shane Carwin before Carwin gassed and gave up an arm triangle and finally, Cain Velasquez dethroned him in shockingly easy fashion.

Another bout of diverticulitis then kept him out for another year before a loss to the debuting Alistair Overeem finally forced him into retirement.

In both of his losses, he showed a poor chin and stunningly weak defense against striking, belying that claim that he was the world’s top heavyweight.

In essence, Lesnar came in, was pushed to the top based on his out-of-cage reputation, won a couple of big fights and was then gone once he lost to top competition.

Ignoring his steroid-fuelled 2016 return to the Octagon, he remains the most overrated fighter in UFC history.