There is something to be said about being emotionally invested in a fight. On one level, every fighter that steps into the Octagon has to be invested in the fight because his health, well-being and legacy depend on it.
On another level, sometimes things go beyond the feeling of sportsmanship and healthy competition and venture out into the dark spaces of egotism, repressed anger, general bitterness or an extremely pressing concern that one fighter may have with another.
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Whatever the cause of the situation may be, ultimately things turn out to become way uglier than they were meant to, this becomes even more apparent in a sport in which the main objective is to dominate and finish your opponent.
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Drama is not a standard fixture for every fight in this sport. Being humble and respectful sometimes overrides even the most charismatic trash talkers, take Michael Bisping vs. Chael Sonnen for instance. Two of the most comical and outstanding trash talkers and not an iota of disrespect shown during the entire fight and the build up for it.
But here's another scenario.
Imagine being personally disrespected by listening to some gibberish against your family, your coaches or even your own character for weeks or months before the fight. And then during the fight, finding yourself in a bad position and ending up getting submitted. Reminiscent of a symbolic death, would you let go of your ego and tap?
It is very hard to motivate yourself to consistently go hard for the whole duration of the fight, without an extraneous variable at play and every so often fighters give each other the reason to accomplish this feat by engaging in a verbal battle before the cage door closes.
Here are 5 most personal and intense rivalries that have played out in the Octagon.
#1 Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier
After the brawl that surfaced on the internet during one of the promotional tours during their first fight, everyone knew Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier hated each other.
Exactly why they hate each other so much is not as rational as it is emotional. Logic has certainly been shoved under the rug to favour coming up on top of every situation for these legendry fighters.
There are some concerns that they have with each other but none of them would force such an outlandishly angry behaviour against any other opponent that they have ever faced in the Octagon, except for each other.
It almost seems like they have a special place in their heart for each other because to hate someone with such intensity requires as much, if not more emotional investment than to love someone.
Add in the fact that both of them are essentially the greatest Light Heavyweight MMA fighters of the modern era and the clash between them is not simply another case of bad blood between fighters that we see so very often.
This is history being made, reminiscent of classic, culture defining rivalries like Ali-Frazier or Tyson-Holyfield, Jones-DC rivalry has a uniquely authentic touch to it. It seems as if both these fighters would still hate each other as much, if they were fighting for pennies, Jones and Cormier are the perfect antidotes to each other's personalities.
Needless to say, Cormier vs. Jones is a rivalry waiting to settle itself and it is safe to assume that neither fighter would be happy if this rivalry fades into the sunset with a close fight in favour of Jones, as Cormier has proven time and again to potentially be the only fighter to have a good chance of beating the legendry Light Heavyweight Goliath in Jones.
#2 Georges St-Pierre vs. Matt Hughes
This is another interesting rivalry since it is a rather respectful one. But here's the catch 22.
It is a tad bit too respectful and in this case, the fighter giving the respect regretted showing such submissive behaviour in the face of an impending fight with a legend. While Hughes was already considered a legend and had a long trail of broken fighters and contenders that he had demolished while defending his Welterweight title, St-Pierre, who would go on to be the best Welterweight of this era, was still climbing up the ranks.
On getting a shot at his own idol in Matt Hughes after stringing together a couple of victories, St-Pierre was overwhelmed with emotion.
He could hardly contain his feelings to the fact that he had moved to such an elite level in the sport so quickly. In only his eighth pro fight as an MMA fighter, he had the chance to be the best in the world.
And this is where the emotional baggage, overwhelming expectations and unexpected adversity came rushing in. St-Pierre did well in the fight up until the moment he made a rather rookie mistake and was trapped in an arm-bar in the first round.
The second time around, he built his momentum up and stayed mentally on track. This led to a beautiful knockout finish for St-Pierre via head kick and punches. St-Pierre had finally slain the toughest dragon he could possibly come across, in his own mind at least. Ironically, he was knocked out in the next bout against Matt Serra and lost his title.
But a returning St-Pierre was always the most dangerous version of himself, as Hughes could testify. St-Pierre then went on to dominate Josh Koscheck and had the opportunity to fight Matt Hughes for the third time.
This time he went on to dominate the fight in every sphere and ended up serving Hughes with an arm-bar, reminiscent of their first fight. The ups and downs that this rivalry went through added that much more drama to the whole sequence of events.
#3 Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar
Enough respect for today, though. Let's get back to our theme of disrespect and genuine hate towards another human being. While respect is an enormous part of any martial arts in the world, it is hard to ignore the examples that stand out as contradicting that general rule of thumb.
When Brock Lesnar made his UFC debut against the former Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir, a lot of people gave Lesnar the nod for his colossal size and strength advantage over Frank Mir. But Mir has always been a tricky fighter, especially on the ground, where he truly shines.
As the fight began, Lesnar knocked Mir down (or so they say) and began to leap into the dangerous world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with him. Trying to work out his tricky guard, Lesnar fell right into a knee-bar attempt from Frank Mir and the fight was over in under two minutes.
After the fight, Mir continued to be extremely disrespectful to Lesnar and went on to disrespect his family, his status as a role model for young kids and even his profession as a professional wrestler.
In the rematch, however, Mir was completely neutralised on the ground. Lesnar successfully kept a hold of Mir against the cage and systematically went on to demolish him with vicious ground and pound.
The rivalry is still at 1-1. Even though Mir is now on the downside of his career once again, he still couldn't resist making controversial comments against Lesnar, in the hopes that he could get a rubber match.
Although Mir later apologised for his comments, it is clear that this rivalry could be a great returning fight for Brock Lesnar and also help rekindle Frank Mir's lost momentum.
#4 Chuck Lidell vs. Tito Ortiz
This is another rivalry which lacked a blatant form of disrespect towards the other fighter but indirectly. In the series of fights between Chuck and Tito, the former more or less represented Dana White and Team UFC against Tito, the black sheep.
The theatrics that Tito pulled off and the controversies that he ignited, earned him many shots at the Light Heavyweight title.
Although the results of both fights against Chuck Lidell was a vicious knockout after another for Tito Ortiz, it hardly affected his popularity as he continued to float around the top of the heap at Light Heavyweight division and recently ended his career with a bang, choking out a much smaller Chael Sonnen in the first round.
Nonetheless, it was interesting to see the twist of fate for Ortiz and a big toothy smile on Dana White's face after watching Chuck destroy Tito in dominant fashion on more than one occasion.
#5 Michael Bisping vs. Dan Henderson
Disrespect the one who disrespects.
Dan Henderson truly wore these words on his sleeves after many years of his iconic knockout of current Middleweight Champion, Michael Bisping. The knockout itself was vicious enough to begin with and to think that one could be on the receiving end of such brutal power after talking smack for so many months, adds more insult to injury.
After knocking out Michael Bisping, Dan Henderson used the silhouette of a knocked out Bisping for many years as his official logo.
This lit an unusually bitter fire in Bisping's mind since he had to deal with such a picture perfect knockout for the rest of his life in the form of mini clips, gifs and photographs that are so easily available on the internet.
Bisping finally got the chance to avenge his loss against Henderson in an untimely title shot that was essentially bestowed on Henderson because everyone wanted to see this fight in lieu of the compelling narrative.
Finally, Bisping emerged victorious against an aged Henderson but not without eating a barrage of ground and pound, more than a couple of H-bombs and almost getting knocked unconscious on more than one occasion.
While it was no easy task and quite frankly, a very close fight that could have gone either way, Bisping did get the job done in a very inspiring fashion that showed his heart, chin and resiliency against an aged but still extremely dangerous Henderson.
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