The 10 most overrated fighters in UFC history

#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.