The 10 most overrated fighters in UFC history

#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.