5 Toughest Fighters In MMA

When one discusses the subject of "toughness" in the MMA realm, both fans, as well as experts, generally seem to be divided in their opinions as to what attribute truly constitutes toughness in a fighter. Truth be told -- toughness includes not only the physical realm but also matters of the mental dominion.

The sport of Mixed Martial Arts is an unforgiving one, and adversity in the form of injuries, brain damage and at times even death, isn't uncommon. Regardless, although the fight game may seem to be cruel on a given day, the fact remains that it does come with a truckload of benefits that aren't usually available to the common man.

In this article, we take a look at some of the toughest fighters in the sport of MMA. Bear in mind though, that said toughness includes not only the physical side of the game, but also the fighters' mental fortitude...

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#5 Eddie Alvarez

Eddie Alvarez is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, one of the toughest fighters to have ever graced a Mixed Martial Arts cage. The Underground King has been fighting for a long time now, and has held titles in reputable organizations such as Bellator MMA as well as the UFC -- besides, also setting his sights on the east now, recently having signed with ONE FC.

The reason behind Alvarez being widely regarded as one of the most resilient fighters to have ever competed in combat sports, is that the man never gives up. You quite literally have to incapacitate him to such a grave extent that either the referee calls off the fight, or Alvarez passes out.

Alvarez has always been a highly entertaining fighter, who is ready for a good old-fashioned brawl. Interestingly, his detractors often resort to pointing out the fact that Alvarez gets rocked in several fights, even in ones that he'd been controlling comfortably before a wild exchange dazes him.

Nevertheless, what most of his critics leave out, is the fact that The Underground King from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, almost always comes back to damage his opponent worse than he's been hurt...Resilient as a true king ought to be...

#4 Junior Dos Santos

Well, no surprises here. Junior Dos Santos is indeed one of the toughest fighters not only in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, but in all of combat sports. The man known as "Cigano" started off as a BJJ fighter, and eventually took to the art of boxing -- The rest, as they say, is history.

JDS absolutely destroyed everyone who stood in front of him, during his ascent to the UFC Heavyweight throne. He notably became the first man to KO one of the most well-rounded Heavyweights of all time -- Cain Velasquez -- in their first encounter back in 2011.

Unfortunately, Dos Santos subsequently suffered a pair of devastating losses to the aforementioned Velasquez, at UFC 155 and UFC 166 respectively -- enduring a prolonged beating in both fights which lasted almost 10 rounds in total.

Nevertheless, Dos Santos still fights on in his bid to regain the UFC Heavyweight Title, and is well known for never letting losses hurt his confidence -- adhering to the principle of never giving up, much like his idol, the fictional movie character "Rocky Balboa"...

#3 Matt Brown

Matt Brown truly is "The Immortal"

Perhaps one of the most legendary stories in the world of MMA, is that of Matt Brown having survived a heroin overdose incident, and turning his life around for good after the scary occurrence. In fact, it's a rather well-known fact that the aforesaid incident is what earned Brown the moniker of "The Immortal".

Brown's toughness undoubtedly carried over to the MMA cage as well, what with the fact that despite not possessing great defensive acumen in the striking and grappling realms of the sport, Brown still made it as a top-10 fighter in the shark tank that is the UFC Welterweight division. The Immortal One is known for simply absorbing strikes to the head, smiling, and walking down his opponents, as though he wasn't fazed by said strikes in the slightest bit!

Furthermore, apart from his battle with heroin, Brown also suffered from addiction to cocaine and meth -- eventually utilizing MMA as a positive influence on his life, and shucking away his drug habits...

#2 Mark Hunt

Having survived a traumatic childhood, Mark Hunt eventually went on to become one of the greatest KO artists of all time, as the man referred to by his fans as the King of the walk-off Knockout, found tremendous success in both the kickboxing as well as MMA realms.

In almost all of his fights, Hunt -- a smaller man by today's Heavyweight standards -- gave up a significant amount of reach and height to his opponents. Nevertheless, the man's legendary toughness helped him even the playing field, albeit to a certain extent.

Hunt is known for his impeccable timing and of course, his ferocious KO power. What's intriguing here, is that giving up a reach and height advantage to most opponents, Hunt would either have to wade through their shots or wait for them to strike and then time them -- Which, needless to say, is an extremely dangerous style of fighting.

Furthermore, in a sport infested by cheats who resort to using illegal PEDs (Performance Enhancing Drugs) so as to gain an advantage over their opponents, "Hunto" has always been one of the rare clean fighters...

#1 Diego Sanchez

Diego Sanchez may very well be the toughest man to ever lace up a pair of MMA gloves. The Dream aka The Nightmare aka Lionheart aka El Corazon de Leon has been around for so long, and taken ungodly amounts of damage. The vast majority of MMA fans and experts were strongly calling for the man to hang up the gloves -- particularly after he suffered back-to-back KO losses to Al Iaquinta and Matt Brown last year.

Nevertheless, Sanchez continues his fighting career -- most recently beating Craig White by way of Unanimous Decision at UFC 228. Sanchez is unanimously regarded as one of the most resilient fighters in MMA history, as the man -- whose defensive skills have been heavily criticized by one and all over the years -- simply keeps coming forward and fighting.

When it's all said and done, Sanchez may likely go down as one of the rare humans, to have scientifically proven that the human body is indeed capable of greater things -- including the ability to take seemingly unnatural amounts of damage, and recovering nonetheless.

Which MMA fighter do you think is the toughest? Sound off in the comments!