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Outside of a fight, fighters in the UFC often make use of words and actions against their opponents that casual fans would generally regard as distasteful behavior.
However, this behavior not only helps fighters get in their opponent's head, but it also helps to promote their fights by giving fight fans some content to gossip over. Hence, the trash-talking is not going to stop any time soon.
Trash-talking has been present in combat sports since time immemorial, notably the times of Muhammad Ali. Fighters who engage in it and fighters on the receiving end of trash-talk, usually conduct themselves professionally and do not take personally what is being said about them.
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The ideal way for a fighter at the receiving end of this behavior to respond is by just being focused on winning and being headstrong enough to not let any of that affect them. That puts their trash-talking opponents under the obligation to live up to their words. If fighters are good at being unaffected by trash-talk, sometimes they dish out trash-talk of their own.
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In many cases, when a fighter is unaffected, their opponent tends to go the extra mile by making personal comments. The trash-talker's behavior then goes into irrational territory at this point. The pressure from the obligation to live up to the trash-talk often gets the better of them and sees them lose the fight.
On that note, here are five UFC fighters who lost after getting personal with their opponents:
#5 Ronda Rousey vs Holly Holm at UFC 196
Half a decade ago, Ronda 'Rowdy' Rousey was the most dominant figure in the UFC women's bantamweight division. 'Rowdy' was one of the UFC's biggest cash cows in that era. She was known for being ruthless with her fighting as well as her outspoken nature outside the octagon, the first of her kind in the UFC women's division and even in all women's sports.
'Rowdy' was on a 12-fight undefeated professional streak, with most of her fights being first-round finishes. However, that streak only lasted till she faced 'The Preacher's Daughter' Holly Holm at UFC 193.
Holm is known for being a calm woman despite having a decorated professional kickboxing and boxing career before going into the UFC. She always seems to be the last person, especially among women fighters, to get affected by trash-talk.
However, Rousey tried to impose a raging and arrogant image of herself on Holm during their pre-fight face-off. Prior to that, there was no display of animosity between the two fighters. That made Ronda Rousey's actions in the face-off appear highly out of place.
While it was obvious that Rousey placed her fist on Holm's face after walking aggressively towards her opponent during the face-off, she claimed the opposite when Joe Rogan asked her why the staredown was intense, saying:
"I just wanted to get in her face and show her that I was there for a reason. She's the one that put the fist on my face. I didn't touch her; she's the one that touched me, and I touched her and I told her that fake sweet act, I see right through it. I really do; it's all fake. All until now, all that respect and everything, all you (Holm) being sweet, I see right now that it's fake, and you're gonna get it on sunday."
The fight turned out to be one of the greatest upset wins in the UF,C as Rousey was handed the beating of a lifetime.
After out-striking Rousey in the first round, Holm knocked her opponent out in the second round by way of head kicks and punches.
#4 Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs Rose Namajunas at UFC 217
Like her predecessor on the list, Polish fighter Joanna Jedrzejczyk was a dominant undefeated champion in the UFC women's strawweight division.
Before her fight with Rose Namajunas at UFC 217, Jedrzejczyk was on a 14-fight undefeated streak. However, it was only after facing 'Thug' Rose Namajunas for the first time that fight fans witnessed another instance of an undefeated champion losing a fight after going too far.
In the build-up to this fight, the Polish fighter made 'Thug's history of mental health issues part of her trash-talk. Namajunas has had mental health issues coming from being a victim of child sexual abuse and her father being a patient of schizophrenia who died when 'Thug' was still a teenager.
Jedrzejczyk called Namajunas 'mentally unstable' on multiple counts and implied that she was not strong enough mentally to become a champion.
In the fight that ensued, Namajunas came in as a heavy underdog. She had a fairly average professional record, losing thrice. Yet, the American fighter knocked her Polish opponent out in the very first round by punches.
#3 Conor McGregor vs Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229
Being the biggest fight in the history of MMA, the main event of UFC 229 also had the wildest trash-talk and antics in its buildup from arguably the best trash-talker in the game, 'The Notorious' Conor McGregor.
His rivalry with Khabib Nurmagomedov began when the Dagestani fighter went up to the Irishman and called him out while he was getting ready for the weigh-ins for his fight against Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205.
'The Eagle' was replaced by McGregor for a title shot against then UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez. Nurmagomedov was booked for a fight on the preliminary card on the same night as consolation. That left a sour taste in Nurmagomedov's mouth, thus making him approach McGregor the way he did.
Later on, McGregor faced Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match after which McGregor's UFC lightweight title was vacated due to his inactivity in the octagon. Nurmagomedov would go on to defeat Al Iaquinta for the vacant UFC lightweight belt and become the champion.
Following many back and forth between the two fighters and some of their team members since their first altercation, a fight was finally booked between McGregor and Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 for the lightweight title.
The build-up to this fight saw the wildest trash-talk from McGregor as he made insults directed at Nurmagomedov's religion and his region of Dagestan.
McGregor called Nurmagomedov a 'backwards c**t' after the practicing Muslim turned down a whisky that was offered to him by the Irishman at the pre-fight press conference. McGregor also referred to his manager Ali Abdelaziz as a terrorist, among other things. McGregor called Nurmagomedov a 'Dagestani rat' too.
The Dagestani fighter would go on to defeat McGregor dominantly by not only out-grappling him but also out-striking him. Nurmagomedov submitted McGregor in the fourth round by way of neck-crank submission.
An infamous altercation followed between his and McGregor's team right after 'The Eagle's victory.
#2 Bethe Correia vs Ronda Rousey at UFC 190
Ronda Rousey makes this list again but on a different side this time. Bethe 'Pit bull' Correia was on a three-fight win streak in the UFC and was undefeated in her professional MMA career. She was scheduled to face undefeated bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey, at UFC 190.
While speaking about her fight with Rousey to a Brazilian sports outlet Combate, Correia made some nasty comments on Rousey. Although the comments could be deemed to be poorly worded, she had said:
"I want to knock her out, show to everyone that she is a lie. She wants to stand up with me, let's see. I want to humiliate her and show the world she has no MMA. She is focused on movies, books. I am much stronger; I come from a developing country, where people are struggling to survive, not to starve. It is very different from her life of reality. Under pressure, she is proving weak."
"When her mom put pressure on her, she ran away from home. When she lost, it was because of drugs. That's not a superhero. She is not mentally healthy; she needs to take care of herself. She is winning; so everybody is around her cheering her up. But when she realizes she is not everything that she believes she is, I don't know what might happen. I hope she does not kill herself later on."
The comment about suicide rubbed Rousey in a very bad way, as her father had committed suicide when she was eight years old. Correia received a lot of backlash from fight fans as well as the UFC bantamweight champion herself.
Although Correia apologized for her comments before the fight, saying that she did not know about the suicide of Rousey's father, 'Rowdy' punished her in their fight with a first-round knockout win.
#1 Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier at UFC 264
The feud between Conor 'The Notorious' McGregor and Dustin 'The Diamond' Poirier began with their first meeting in a featherweight fight at UFC 178.
After getting into his American opponent's head with his trash-talk, the Irishman won the bout in the first round via TKO. Seven years later, they faced each other in a lightweight bout at UFC 257, where a much bigger Poirier avenged his loss via a second-round TKO.
After the win, 'Diamond' made a gesture to indicate that the score was tied at 1-1, thus implying that a third fight must happen, hence getting the ball rolling for UFC 264.
Following the loss to Poirier, fans claimed that McGregor had become complacent from all the money he has earned throughout his career. His friendly and cordial public behavior, minus any trash-talk after his humbling loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 did not help to make the case against what his fans were claiming. Everybody wanted the hungry old trash-talking McGregor back.
The animosity in an otherwise friendly relationship with Poirier after their second fight was brought back when Poirier called McGregor out for not living up to his promise of donating to his charity foundation.
Following the call-out, McGregor donated the promised amount to a different charity organization from Poirier's hometown instead of donating to Poirier's charity. Four days before the fight at UFC 264, McGregor posted a doctored screenshot on Twitter suggesting that Poirier's wife Jolie Poirier was sending messages to him on Instagram.
It was then speculated that the old McGregor was back. He did bring back his trash-talking in the pre-fight press conference and the weigh-ins, but there was something odd about it.
McGregor seemed to be forcing himself into a frame of mind that he did not truly want to be in. After observing that his trash-talk was not good enough to get into Poirier's head this time, McGregor started making death threats to Poirier.
The rest, as we know it, is history. McGregor suffered a gruesome leg injury that came from his rigorous sparring during training.
The Irishman already had an ankle injury resulting from his heavy sparring drills during training. His shin had suffered multiple stress fractures from the same, and it crumbled eventually in the fight with Poirier.
Hence it could be said that McGregor had lost the fight before stepping into the octagon, as he was forcing his old self to come out by training too hard for the fight.
