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A follow up to my other thread about the 5 ways to lose in mma, a lot of you liked the thread but suggested that it needed more categories so here is an update. I guess one could go on and invent a new category for every case scenario but I got impatient after 13 so I'll stick with that lucky number for now.
Here are the degrees of severity in my opinion for best case to worst.
I'm sure some of my examples will be contested, but that's the way I saw them.
13. GOT ROBBED
Not much more to say here, you won but you were handed a loss. I guess some will argue don't leave it in the hands of the judges, a few will argue the judges got it right, but in the end not really a loss tho a still loss on paper, but stock doesn't drop if anything it rises.
Examples of fighters getting robbed of a clear win by bad judging:
Shogun Rua vs Lyoto Machida
Matt Hamill vs Michael Bisping
Ross Pearson vs Diego Sanchez
12. FREAK ACCIDENT
Again, technically a loss, but not really. I won't count the leg breaks on checked kicks in this one because you could easily make the argument that checking a kick is part of fighting and that fighter deserved the win. I'm talking pure freak accident here.
Examples of fighters losing by freak accident:
Shogun Rua vs Mark Coleman
Carlos Newton vs Matt Hughes
Randy Couture vs Vitor Belfort
11. GAVE IT AWAY BY DQ
This one is a bit weird and only applies to fights where a fighter was in complete control and somehow managed to fuck up a sure win by getting himself disqualified.
Examples of fighters giving away a sure win to lose by DQ:
Piotr Yan vs Aljo Sterling
Jon Jones vs Matt Hamill
Alistair Overeem vs Mirko Cro Cop
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10. GOT EDGED OUT
This one is pretty straight forward, two guys went back n' forth, and one guy simply managed to do a bit more than the other guy to get the win. This is usually not a robbery or a controversial decision, just one of those fights you know was very close, but one guy just seemed to do a bit more when it counted. You walk away from this fight seeing both fighters as winners and see the heads up matchup as a complete tossup.
Examples of fighters getting edged out:
Gilbert Burns vs Khamzat Chimaev
Brendan Moreno vs Deveison Figureido
Robbie Lawler vs Johnny Hendricks
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9. GOT BESTED
No one walked away from this fight completely convinced that you can't beat that same opponent on another night. You were competitive, you had your moments, you put up a great fight, maybe on a different day things go your way but your opponent did all the right things and simply got the best of you that time.
Examples of fighters getting bested:
Daniel Cormier vs Jon Jones 1
Max Hollloway vs Dustin Poirier 2
Colby Covington vs Kamaru Usman
8. GOT CAUGHT
This one applies strictly to cases where guys get knocked out early in the fight they were favourite to win, and one decisive strike leads to the finish. Is the guy who won the better fighter? Maybe, but maybe not... this is a fight where neither guy has really had a chance to showcase their skill and you'd be willing to bet the farm that if they fought 10 more times you would never get anything close to that ending again. Still an embarrassing loss, and nothing to take away from the winning fighter, but one can certainly be more forgiving here knowing anything can happen and every now and then lighting strikes you.
Examples of fighters getting caught:
Jose Aldo vs Conor McGregor
Mirko Cro Cop vs Kevin Randleman
St Pierre vs Matt Serra
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7. WINNING BEFORE LOSING
I know a lot of sherdoggers will say that this is Chris Weidman's specialty, but there are a few guys who have this tendency. Pretty simple, these guys are early sprinters who are seemingly in cruise control, then at some point either run out of gas, or take their foot off the pedal, or do something stupid and let victory slip away.
Examples of fighters who won before they lost:
Chael Sonnen vs Anderson Silva
Aleks Volkov vs Black Beast
Marlon Moraes vs Henry Cejudo
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6. GOT OUTCLASSED
In this case you got beat pretty soundly, while you still didn't embarrass yourself. You put up a fight, but you were a step behind most of the time, and didn't really leave the impression that a rematch could go any differently.
Examples of fighters getting outclassed:
Jorge Masvidal vs Wonderboy
Rafael Dos Anjos vs Khabib Nurmagomedov
Big Nog vs Fedor Emelianenko
5. GOT GRAPPLEFUCKED
Some fighters will use this one as an excuse for getting dominated, like "he just layed on top of me the whole fight". Of course the response to that is well you couldn't stop him. Not the worst way to lose, but not a very good way either, you got controlled and could do nothing to stop it.
Examples of fighters getting grapplefucked:
Mark Hunt vs Stipe Miocic
Edson Barboza vs Khabib Nurmagomedov
Anthony Pettis vs Clay Guida
4. GOT SMASHED
Pretty self explanatory, you got smashed. You tried to put up a fight but you offered little resistance. You basically got beat throughout the fight for as long as it lasted, if you were lucky the ref was merciful enough to stop it at some point.
Examples of fighters getting smashed:
Junior Dos Santos vs Cain Velasquez
Jon Fitch vs Georges St Pierre
Shogun Rua vs Jon Jones
3. GOT STEAMROLLED
This is like watching smashed in fast forward. Your opponent bludgeoned you so bad early on that the ref mercifully stopped it before a death could occur. It was a quick and vicious one sided beatdown and you offered little to no resistance whatsoever.
Examples of fighters getting steamrolled:
Big Foot Silva vs Cain Velasquez
Rampage Jackson vs Shogun Rua
Gary Goodridge vs Fedor Emelianenko
2. GOT MATRIXED (styled on)
This is a pretty humiliating way to lose. You looked silly in there while your opponent looked invincible. You did everything wrong and he did everything right. You didn't look like you belong in the cage with the guy you were fighting, the crowd that usually loves violence is watching and hoping someone puts an end to your misery soon.
Example of fighters getting matrixed:
Forrest Griffin vs Anderson Silva
Eddie Alvarez vs Conor McGregor
Wanderlei Silva vs Mirko Cro Cop
1. GOT HUMBLED
I had Matrixed as the worst way to lose, but I can think of a way one can sink even lower. I'm gonna call it the "got humbled" category, and this is when the losing fighter talked a massive amount of shit, generated a massive amount of hate form the majority of fans, and basically made it impossible for a decent person to cheer for them. Then when it blows up in their face and they have to eat their words, it's beautiful, it's poetry, it's nature being in complete harmony for just that one brief moment.
Examples of fighters getting humbled:
Ronda Rousey vs Holly Holm
Conor McGregor vs Khabib Nurmagomedov
Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier
Here are the degrees of severity in my opinion for best case to worst.
I'm sure some of my examples will be contested, but that's the way I saw them.
13. GOT ROBBED
Not much more to say here, you won but you were handed a loss. I guess some will argue don't leave it in the hands of the judges, a few will argue the judges got it right, but in the end not really a loss tho a still loss on paper, but stock doesn't drop if anything it rises.
Examples of fighters getting robbed of a clear win by bad judging:
Shogun Rua vs Lyoto Machida
Matt Hamill vs Michael Bisping
Ross Pearson vs Diego Sanchez
12. FREAK ACCIDENT
Again, technically a loss, but not really. I won't count the leg breaks on checked kicks in this one because you could easily make the argument that checking a kick is part of fighting and that fighter deserved the win. I'm talking pure freak accident here.
Examples of fighters losing by freak accident:
Shogun Rua vs Mark Coleman
Carlos Newton vs Matt Hughes
Randy Couture vs Vitor Belfort
11. GAVE IT AWAY BY DQ
This one is a bit weird and only applies to fights where a fighter was in complete control and somehow managed to fuck up a sure win by getting himself disqualified.
Examples of fighters giving away a sure win to lose by DQ:
Piotr Yan vs Aljo Sterling
Jon Jones vs Matt Hamill
Alistair Overeem vs Mirko Cro Cop
10. GOT EDGED OUT
This one is pretty straight forward, two guys went back n' forth, and one guy simply managed to do a bit more than the other guy to get the win. This is usually not a robbery or a controversial decision, just one of those fights you know was very close, but one guy just seemed to do a bit more when it counted. You walk away from this fight seeing both fighters as winners and see the heads up matchup as a complete tossup.
Examples of fighters getting edged out:
Gilbert Burns vs Khamzat Chimaev
Brendan Moreno vs Deveison Figureido
Robbie Lawler vs Johnny Hendricks
9. GOT BESTED
No one walked away from this fight completely convinced that you can't beat that same opponent on another night. You were competitive, you had your moments, you put up a great fight, maybe on a different day things go your way but your opponent did all the right things and simply got the best of you that time.
Examples of fighters getting bested:
Daniel Cormier vs Jon Jones 1
Max Hollloway vs Dustin Poirier 2
Colby Covington vs Kamaru Usman
8. GOT CAUGHT
This one applies strictly to cases where guys get knocked out early in the fight they were favourite to win, and one decisive strike leads to the finish. Is the guy who won the better fighter? Maybe, but maybe not... this is a fight where neither guy has really had a chance to showcase their skill and you'd be willing to bet the farm that if they fought 10 more times you would never get anything close to that ending again. Still an embarrassing loss, and nothing to take away from the winning fighter, but one can certainly be more forgiving here knowing anything can happen and every now and then lighting strikes you.
Examples of fighters getting caught:
Jose Aldo vs Conor McGregor
Mirko Cro Cop vs Kevin Randleman
St Pierre vs Matt Serra
7. WINNING BEFORE LOSING
I know a lot of sherdoggers will say that this is Chris Weidman's specialty, but there are a few guys who have this tendency. Pretty simple, these guys are early sprinters who are seemingly in cruise control, then at some point either run out of gas, or take their foot off the pedal, or do something stupid and let victory slip away.
Examples of fighters who won before they lost:
Chael Sonnen vs Anderson Silva
Aleks Volkov vs Black Beast
Marlon Moraes vs Henry Cejudo
6. GOT OUTCLASSED
In this case you got beat pretty soundly, while you still didn't embarrass yourself. You put up a fight, but you were a step behind most of the time, and didn't really leave the impression that a rematch could go any differently.
Examples of fighters getting outclassed:
Jorge Masvidal vs Wonderboy
Rafael Dos Anjos vs Khabib Nurmagomedov
Big Nog vs Fedor Emelianenko
5. GOT GRAPPLEFUCKED
Some fighters will use this one as an excuse for getting dominated, like "he just layed on top of me the whole fight". Of course the response to that is well you couldn't stop him. Not the worst way to lose, but not a very good way either, you got controlled and could do nothing to stop it.
Examples of fighters getting grapplefucked:
Mark Hunt vs Stipe Miocic
Edson Barboza vs Khabib Nurmagomedov
Anthony Pettis vs Clay Guida
4. GOT SMASHED
Pretty self explanatory, you got smashed. You tried to put up a fight but you offered little resistance. You basically got beat throughout the fight for as long as it lasted, if you were lucky the ref was merciful enough to stop it at some point.
Examples of fighters getting smashed:
Junior Dos Santos vs Cain Velasquez
Jon Fitch vs Georges St Pierre
Shogun Rua vs Jon Jones
3. GOT STEAMROLLED
This is like watching smashed in fast forward. Your opponent bludgeoned you so bad early on that the ref mercifully stopped it before a death could occur. It was a quick and vicious one sided beatdown and you offered little to no resistance whatsoever.
Examples of fighters getting steamrolled:
Big Foot Silva vs Cain Velasquez
Rampage Jackson vs Shogun Rua
Gary Goodridge vs Fedor Emelianenko
2. GOT MATRIXED (styled on)
This is a pretty humiliating way to lose. You looked silly in there while your opponent looked invincible. You did everything wrong and he did everything right. You didn't look like you belong in the cage with the guy you were fighting, the crowd that usually loves violence is watching and hoping someone puts an end to your misery soon.
Example of fighters getting matrixed:
Forrest Griffin vs Anderson Silva
Eddie Alvarez vs Conor McGregor
Wanderlei Silva vs Mirko Cro Cop
1. GOT HUMBLED
I had Matrixed as the worst way to lose, but I can think of a way one can sink even lower. I'm gonna call it the "got humbled" category, and this is when the losing fighter talked a massive amount of shit, generated a massive amount of hate form the majority of fans, and basically made it impossible for a decent person to cheer for them. Then when it blows up in their face and they have to eat their words, it's beautiful, it's poetry, it's nature being in complete harmony for just that one brief moment.
Examples of fighters getting humbled:
Ronda Rousey vs Holly Holm
Conor McGregor vs Khabib Nurmagomedov
Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier
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