5 UFC champions who had highly underrated records

For any professional MMA fighter, winning a UFC title represents the absolute pinnacle of a career. Essentially, anyone who becomes a UFC champion tends to be recognized as a true great, but even those greats can become underrated.

Over the years, the UFC has been home to a number of champions who, for various reasons, ended up being somewhat underrated by fans despite their tremendous records.

Some of these champions ended up being more well-respected once they left the UFC or began to slide down the ladder.

Right now, Alexander Volkanovski is arguably heading in the same direction, although he may gain more respect if he beats Brian Ortega at UFC 266 this weekend.

However, many of his predecessors remain widely underrated to this day.

With that in mind, here are five UFC champions who had highly underrated records.

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#5. Rich Franklin – former UFC middleweight champion

In a world without Anderson Silva, Rich Franklin might be remembered as the UFC's greatest middleweight

Once considered the most dominant 185-pound fighter on the planet, former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin has somehow largely been forgotten by UFC fans these days. Even in his prime, it’s arguable that ‘Ace’ had a massively underrated record overall.

Franklin eventually retired from MMA with a record of 29-7-1, which in itself is solid enough. But when you consider that of his seven losses, three came outside of his natural weight class and one, against Cung Le, came when he was past his prime, it looks even more impressive.

Essentially then, Franklin lost to just three men at middleweight during his MMA career. And ignoring Le, there’s absolutely no shame in falling at the hands of Dan Henderson and Anderson Silva. So why is ‘Ace’ not really remembered as the all-time great he should be seen as? Well, it’s largely all down to those two losses to Silva.

Franklin was badly beaten twice by ‘The Spider’. Due to the nature of those losses, he never really came close to getting back into title contention at 185 pounds. That left him taking fights at odd catchweights and forced him up to light heavyweight at times in his quest for relevance.

However, if Silva had never made his way to the UFC, there’s every chance that ‘Ace’ would be remembered as the UFC’s greatest ever middleweight to this day. Unfortunately, though, he remains little more than the owner of one of the UFC’s most underrated records.

#4. Dominick Cruz – former UFC bantamweight champion

Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz appears to have been forgotten by some UFC fans

If it were not for his record with injuries, Dominick Cruz could well be recognized as one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters in UFC history, period. As it is, there’s an argument that he remains the UFC’s greatest-ever bantamweight.

However, probably due to his lengthy stretches of inactivity, he seems to be largely underrated. That's also due to the fact he’d slipped out of his prime somewhat when fighters such as Petr Yan, Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo really arrived in the division

But in reality, ‘The Dominator’ should be much more respected by UFC fans than he seems to be. Not only did he go unbeaten for the best part of a decade, but he absolutely whitewashed fellow greats such as Urijah Faber, Takeya Mizugaki, Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez.

And due to his unorthodox style, which was built heavily around his strong wrestling base, excellent timing and footwork, even his toughest opponents were barely able to lay a glove on him.

Cruz famously spent the best part of five years out of action between 2011 and 2016. Somehow he was still able to return and defeat T.J. Dillashaw to regain the UFC bantamweight title he never lost.

And while he did fall to defeat at the hands of Cody Garbrandt later that year, his record of 22-3 remains truly phenomenal. His only losses came against Garbrandt, Faber and Cejudo. Why he isn’t more widely recognized as an all-time great is truly baffling.

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#3. Rashad Evans – former UFC light heavyweight champion

A poor end to his UFC career has meant that Rashad Evans' record has become underrated by UFC fans

It’s probably fair to suggest that Rashad Evans stuck around in the UFC for far too long before his eventual retirement in 2018. ‘Suga’ ended his UFC tenure on an unfortunate five-fight losing streak. He suffered particularly soul-destroying defeats to Sam Alvey and Dan Kelly.

However, if you ignore everything that happened after his 2013 win over Chael Sonnen, the picture looks entirely different. Evans suffered a serious knee injury following that fight and ended up spending two years on the shelf. It was only after he returned, when he looked like an entirely different, gun-shy fighter, that his losing streak began.

Prior to that, though, he held a phenomenal record of 19-3-1, with his only losses coming at the hands of three tremendous fighters in the form of Lyoto Machida, Jon Jones and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. And of course, only Machida was able to finish ‘Suga’. He was able to go the distance even in his losing effort against Jones.

The list of fighters that Evans defeated is highly impressive too, even to this day. He was able to defeat a total of five former or future UFC titleholders, including four UFC light heavyweight champions.

It’s likely that ‘Suga’ has become underrated for two reasons. Firstly, the bad losing streak he ended his UFC career with. And secondly, the fact that he was never able to make a successful defense of his UFC light heavyweight title.

However, three years after his last fight, it’s fair to say that he deserves far more respect than he currently receives from UFC fans.

#2. Daniel Cormier – former UFC heavyweight & light heavyweight champion

Daniel Cormier should be widely considered one of the greatest fighters of all time, period

On the one hand, it seems ridiculous to suggest that Daniel Cormier is at all underrated by UFC fans. ‘DC’ is widely recognized as an all-time great, as well as one of the most popular fighters of the promotion’s modern era.

However, when you consider all of his accomplishments and his phenomenal record, he should probably be considered as not just an all-time great, but possibly the greatest fighter of all time.

No other fighter was able to hold both the UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight titles at the same time. That accomplishment was made even more impressive when you consider the fact that Cormier wasn’t even the biggest fighter at 205 pounds.

More to the point, while ‘DC’ has a total of four losses on his ledger, he was only ever beaten by two fighters inside the octagon, Stipe Miocic and Jon Jones. Miocic is widely seen as the UFC’s greatest-ever heavyweight, while the same can be said for Jones at light heavyweight.

And across his career, he defeated a ridiculous number of tremendous fighters, including Miocic, Anthony Johnson, Frank Mir, Alexander Gustafsson and Anderson Silva.

Why isn’t ‘DC’ even more respected than he is, then? The truth is that it’s probably down to the nature of his losses to Jones. They were losses that ensured he was never seen as “the man” at 205 pounds. Another reason is the fact that at heavyweight, he didn’t beat the other big names of his era like Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem.

In truth, though, Cormier is one of the greatest fighters of all time, point blank. He has one of the most underrated records not just in UFC history, but in MMA history too.

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#1. Frankie Edgar - former UFC lightweight champion

Before his recent decline, Frankie Edgar's UFC record was highly underrated

Frankie Edgar's stock has taken a big hit in the UFC in recent years. 'The Answer' now holds a record of 24-9-1 and has lost four of his last six fights.

However, prior to this recent decline, Edgar's record was a truly exemplarary one. Before his loss to Brian Ortega at UFC 222, the former UFC lightweight champion had just five losses to his name. All of them, aside from one, came at the hands of fellow UFC titleholders and four came to the same two men, Jose Aldo and Benson Henderson.

Even more impressively, it'd be easy to argue that both of Edgar's losses to Henderson could've gone the other way had the judges seen things slightly differently. If that were the case, 'The Answer' would never have lost his UFC lightweight title and the history of the UFC's 155-pound division could have been very different indeed.

As it is, though, Edgar's UFC record remains one of the most underrated in the promotion's history. The New Jersey native was able to secure wins over not only the great BJ Penn, but also the likes of Sean Sherk, Charles Oliveira, Chad Mendes and Urijah Faber.

Quite why he isn't more respected is a major question mark, although it may well be due to his propensity for winning fights via decision. However, there can be no doubt that 'The Answer' remains the perfect example of a UFC champion with a highly underrated record.