Fighters you thought were really good at one point, but then realized they were never that good?

Benoitthegr8 said:
I was riding first class on the Brandon Thatch hype-express, I was forcibly removed from the train by the Conductors Bendo and Gunnar. I was thrown from the moving train, interestingly enough the train ran off the UFC rails and into a ravine shortly after being thrown off.

I later found out via Matt Brown on a podcast, that Brandon’s ground game was inept was due to being on limited reps all throughout his camps. Thatch had a nasty skin fungus that would flair up quickly after prolonged grappling. Matt said it kept coming back with nearly every camp, the doctors would put him on some anti fungal medication and was told not to roll until healed. He didn’t listen to advice and he rolled sparingly and the fungal infection got much worse, to the point that he could barely get on the matts. As this went on wasn’t able to get enough reps in and was at a severe disadvantage when facing the elite grapplers. When he fought legit ranked guys Brandon was handled by moving up from LW Bendo and ranked Gunnar Nelson, his confidence was shattered and the L’s kept coming.

In a 17 month span Brandon went from an 11-1 highly touted prospect who was riding high and close to breaking into the WW rankings, to reeling off 4 L’s in a row, being cut by the UFC and retiring from MMA.
Click to expand...

Never knew that about Thatch. Good stuff, thanks.
 
doggo said:
He was special, the UFC created a fucking portable circus for him, threw Aldo in it and made it cross the globe. Aldo was Mentaly fffffucked by the time the fight happened.
Click to expand...

Maybe Aldo should've fought Conor in the spring like the UFC and Conor wanted instead of just sitting out for no reason and making Conor fight Siver to get on the Boston card.

Maybe Aldo should've fought Conor in the summer like the UFC and Conor wanted instead of getting injured and making Conor fight Mendes to become interim champ.

If Aldo was mentally fucked when they finally fought in December, he has no one to blame but himself for constantly putting off the fight for a year.
 
ThereIsNoSpoon said:
The perfect example. He was 20-1, 6-0 in the UFC after beating Clay Guida, he had a tenacious fighting style, never-say-die attitude and he was only 24. I thought he was going to be better and better, improve his skills and with his aggression and heart would be a champ in no time.

Instead he thought he could be a Hollywood star, abandoned his training and discipline and has a record of 4-12 in his last 16 fights, one of his wins being a DQ after getting crushed by illegal elbows, basically winning 3 fights against people who don't have a Wiki page for the rest of his career.
Click to expand...

Also find it ironic how later on he got a brief media blitz due to the TMZ coverage of his street brawl with a random guy for punching a woman. Only for himself to get destroyed in a fight by future spouse abuser War Machine.
 
Brandon Thatch. He was a huge WW with good striking and very good KO power, he trained at grudge training center with Marquardt which is in Colorado. I figured he would have to have decent cardio and grappling training in that environment, he didn't.
 
Aluminati said:
Alessio Sakara. Even a touch more professionalism and that guy could have went places.

Sokodjou and Houston Alexander also come to mind.
Click to expand...
Sakara was a guy who tried to brawl but didnt have the chin for it. Def had the look tho.
 
ThereIsNoSpoon said:
The perfect example. He was 20-1, 6-0 in the UFC after beating Clay Guida, he had a tenacious fighting style, never-say-die attitude and he was only 24. I thought he was going to be better and better, improve his skills and with his aggression and heart would be a champ in no time.

Instead he thought he could be a Hollywood star, abandoned his training and discipline and has a record of 4-12 in his last 16 fights, one of his wins being a DQ after getting crushed by illegal elbows, basically winning 3 fights against people who don't have a Wiki page for the rest of his career.
Click to expand...

Huerta still did something that showed crazy awareness and fight IQ that I don't recall ever seeing anyone else do in his fight with Guida. Guida had his back in a sitting position, and Huerta was looking up the video screen to see where Guida's head was and ripping him with hard elbows. That was the moment I thought he was going to be a huge star.
 
xentreos said:
Frozenstruick is a recent example that comes to mind, he pretends to be much more technical than he really is. No disrespect to the man, I mean we are talking about a top 15 fighter but I thought he was gonna be a serious title contender.
Click to expand...
I expected him to beat Volkov. 1st round KO against Volkov was very disappointing
 
Jarilo said:
I mean , they didnt come far as one would think.
First for me is Gunni, i really thought he was champ material, he came to ufc a bit earlier than Conor, and i tought Conor is more of a one trick pony, while Gunni had karateka+ ju juitsu.
Geoff Neal - strong ,good on his feet, good tdd, he looked like perfect package, until i cant really remember what happened ( gun ,drunk , mental problems?) ,Heis still good, buti dont fell the "aoura" around him anymore.
Click to expand...
I think Neal is still good and went far.

Gunni - well he was below expectations, but I think he didn't fully commit later to his career. I think he could have done more in UFC if he fought more frequently
 
BEATDOWNS said:
Hooker
Hermansson

still a joker fan but don't really care for Hookers arrogance after all the losses. You'd think he's he humbled don a bit but still talks like a worldbeater Jack is as humble as they come.
Click to expand...
I think they both went far and probably you didn't expect them to become champions. Jack is still im top 10, he was in top 5. Hooker in his prime was great as well, but lightweight is stacked and his fall was fast
 
cade187 said:
Huerta still did something that showed crazy awareness and fight IQ that I don't recall ever seeing anyone else do in his fight with Guida. Guida had his back in a sitting position, and Huerta was looking up the video screen to see where Guida's head was and ripping him with hard elbows. That was the moment I thought he was going to be a huge star.
Click to expand...

Yes, he was a smart fighter and he was very tough, he took a devastating right hook by Guida in the second round while standing up and not having his legs under him, ate a ton of ground and pound, and yet came back the next round fighting like a barbarian, beat him up and choked him.

Considering his toughness, heart, fight IQ and his age at the time, it seems really improbable that he never beat a good fighter again.
 
The list is endless. The combat sports landscape is littered with the careers of guys who were supposed to be the next big thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

killakillakilla
Who were your first favorite fighters?
2 3
Replies
51
Views
1K
Kb7
Kb7

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,238,244
Messages
55,546,306
Members
174,824
Latest member
Rank Wang

Share this page

Back
Top