The Athletic fighter poll. Most overrated, underrated etc.

[CTYankee]

This week The Athletic’s MMA team constructed a series of features based on an anonymous fighter survey — which polled 170 pros from 24 countries and across all promotions, weight classes and experience levels

Results :

Who is the most underrated fighter in MMA?

• Demetrious Johnson (17)
• Leon Edwards (9)
• Douglas Lima (7)
• Justin Gaethje, Khabib Nurmagomedov (5)
• Henry Cejudo, Patricio Freire (4)
• Dan Hooker, Petr Yan, Alexander Volkanovski, Cory Sandhagen (3)

Who is the most overrated fighter in MMA today?

• Conor McGregor (42)
• Jon Jones (13)
• Sean O’Malley (9)
• Paige VanZant (7)
• Henry Cejudo (5)
• Darren Till, James Gallagher (4)

Who’s the most underrated trainer?

• Firas Zahabi (18)
• Mike Brown (16)
• Marc Montoya, Greg Jackson-Mike Winkeljohn (8)
• Eugene Bareman, Sayif Saud (7)
• Trevor Wittman (6)
• Eric Albarracin, James Krause, Henri Hooft, Duke Roufus (5)
• John Kavanagh (4)

Who is the most overrated trainer?

• Greg Jackson (28)
• John Kavanagh (16)
• Edmond Tarverdyan (15)
• Firas Zahabi, Jackson-Winkeljohn (as a unit) (6)
• Mike Winkeljohn (5)
• Duke Roufus/Joshua Fabia (4)

If you had to switch gyms, where would you go train?

• American Top Team (ATT) (31)
• American Kickboxing Academy (19)
• Tristar Gym (11)
• Roufusport (9)
• Hard Knocks 365 (7)
• Fortis MMA, Elevation Fight Team (5)
• Xtreme Couture (4)

Who is the best commentator, whether its color commentary or play-by-play, in MMA?

• Joe Rogan (67)
• Dominick Cruz (29)
• Daniel Cormier (20)
• Jon Anik (18)
• Paul Felder (9)
• Michael Bisping (5)

Who’s the biggest jerk you’ve met in MMA?

• Dana White (7)
• Colby Covington (4)
• Jon Jones, Michael Bisping, Uriah Hall (3)
• Randy Couture, John Kavanagh, Brock Lesnar, Luke Rockhold, Henry Cejudo, Jake Ellenberger, Dillon Danis, Donald Cerone, Matt Hughes, Terry Trebilcock(2)

Who is the dirtiest fighter in MMA (it terms of committing fouls, not cleanliness)?

• Jon Jones (52)
• Rousimar Palhares, Yoel Romero (21)
• T.J. Dillashaw (3)

What is your favorite fight of all time?

• Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Weili Zhang — UFC 248, Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson 1 — UFC 165 (21)
• Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald 2 — UFC 189 (19)
• Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar 1 — The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale, Dan Henderson vs. Shogun Rua 1 — UFC 139 (11)
• Georges St-Pierre vs. Matt Hughes 2 — UFC 65 (6)
• Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz 1 — UFC 196 (3)

 

[Sweater of AV]

Top 2 overrated fighters definitely makes sense. Good to see people appreciating MM.

 

[Iron Nick]

People who seriously consider Cejudo overrated should be slapped.

...and for every time they ask why they've been slapped, they should get slapped again.

 

[Reach4theSky]

Who is the most overrated fighter in MMA today?

• Jon Jones (13)

This seems a little biased to me. It's almost like they voted for Jon just based off not liking him. Similar to a sherdog poll..

How can an undefeated (minus the genius that is Matt Hamill) champion be overrated?

 

[I Lie To Girls]

This seems a little biased to me. It's almost like they voted for Jon just based off not liking him. Similar to a sherdog poll..

How can an undefeated (minus the genius that is Matt Hamill) champion be overrated?

 

[MaulingMyClown]

Wow, a few surprises I thought...
Underrated they got right but I thought Cejudo should be second.
Dirtiest fighter I think Palhares should be above Jones. I don't believe all of Jones eye pokes are on purpose but I truly believe holding the subs way too long are.
And last I'm surprised by favorite fight. Maybe it won because it's freshest in peoples mind but I thought Rory/Lawler was way better than that and think Shogun/Hendo should be up there.
Edit: and Sage didn't make the over rated list

 

[Frank McEdgar]

Who is the most underrated fighter in MMA?

• Henry Cejudo

Who is the most overrated fighter in MMA today?

• Henry Cejudo

Under the roof but over the hood

 

[aerius]

Dirtiest fighter I think Palhares should be above Jones. I don't believe all of Jones eye pokes are on purpose but I truly believe holding the subs way too long are.
And last I'm surprised by favorite fight. Maybe it won because it's freshest in peoples mind but I thought Rory/Lawler was way better than that and think Shogun/Hendo should be up there.

I think Palhares gets a partial pass since everyone knows he's about as dumb as a tree stump. Sure he's dirty, but we're not entirely sure he knows any better.

Fave fights, yeah, Shogun vs. Hendo should definitely be on there, I'm shocked that it isn't. Rory vs. Lawler was a great fight no doubt, but we also need to remember that it didn't really get going until the 3rd round. There was tension & drama early with the broken nose, but it wasn't until the 3rd that the heavy shots really started flying. Zhang vs. Joanna was just madness from the opening bell, there were momentum shifts every round where the fighters got hurt, then they just bite down and go right back to beating the shit out of each other. I don't know if I'd put it up there as my favourite fight, but it definitely makes the short list.

 

[MaulingMyClown]

Lol, no doubt. But just because Palhares is dumb as a tree stump I had to add in he is built like one as well haha.
But also if u want to talk about madness from opening bell there are 2 or 3 Diego fights you could put in as well.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Nice to see pros know how good johnson is.

 

[BonesWinckleJones]

Firas underrated lmao

 

[mallen7272]

Must have been a very young group of fighters

 

[AimedWithV]

People who seriously consider Cejudo overrated should be slapped.

...and for every time they ask why they've been slapped, they should get slapped again.

The problem is, this is FIGHTERS' vote.
So most probable is after you slap them for the first time, you wake up in a hospital

 

[Xuh]

Well those results are certainly interesting.

some muh observations

- Most underrated fighter:

• Dan Hooker? Lol. Did him & his teammates make that vote?
• Khabib - I sorta get it but it seems a bit weird to say he'd 'underrated' at this point

- Most overrated fighter:

• LOL @ Conman winning by a landslide. Got that right
• James Gallagher? Who the fuck rates him?

-Most underrated trainer:

• Mighty Mouse won 'most underrated fighter' by some margin, but Matt Hume doesn't even get a mention here? I guess Matt Hume is the most underrated trainer by far then.
• I wouldn't call Hooft and Duke Doofus are underrated...

- Most overrated trainer:

• Interesting that Greg Jackson won by quite a bit. I was under the impression that Greg didn't do much these days and Winklejohn had mostly taken over which is the reason that team has largely decended into teh suck. Poor Greg.
• Also lol @ Edmond being 'overrated'.... none of them ever read the forums? or maybe they read them too much and don't understand what 'overrated' means.

- Best commentator:

• Rogan and Cruz on top, my two least favorites. Rogan is 'cool' so I get why he won by a large margin but his commentary has been awful and completely phoned in for years now. DC would have been my choice by far (though he's been sounding a little brain-damaged ever since Stipe II)

- Biggest jerk:

• Couture got some votes. Interdasting.

- Favorite fight of all time:

• Joanna/Zhang - great fight, cool to see it #1 but a bit of recency bias in these choices I suspect, the poll must have been done just after that card
• Griffin/Bonnar: z0mg, so many current fighters are 'just bang br0' TUF n00bs? for shame
• Also lol @ Conman vs Nate 1 being on the list, tee hee

 

[POWER2]

This week The Athletic’s MMA team constructed a series of features based on an anonymous fighter survey — which polled 170 pros from 24 countries and across all promotions, weight classes and experience levels

Results :

Who is the most underrated fighter in MMA?

• Demetrious Johnson (17)
• Leon Edwards (9)
• Douglas Lima (7)
• Justin Gaethje, Khabib Nurmagomedov (5)
• Henry Cejudo, Patricio Freire (4)
• Dan Hooker, Petr Yan, Alexander Volkanovski, Cory Sandhagen (3)

Who is the most overrated fighter in MMA today?

• Conor McGregor (42)
• Jon Jones (13)
• Sean O’Malley (9)
• Paige VanZant (7)
• Henry Cejudo (5)
• Darren Till, James Gallagher (4)

Who’s the most underrated trainer?

• Firas Zahabi (18)
• Mike Brown (16)
• Marc Montoya, Greg Jackson-Mike Winkeljohn (8)
• Eugene Bareman, Sayif Saud (7)
• Trevor Wittman (6)
• Eric Albarracin, James Krause, Henri Hooft, Duke Roufus (5)
• John Kavanagh (4)

Who is the most overrated trainer?

• Greg Jackson (28)
• John Kavanagh (16)
• Edmond Tarverdyan (15)
• Firas Zahabi, Jackson-Winkeljohn (as a unit) (6)
• Mike Winkeljohn (5)
• Duke Roufus/Joshua Fabia (4)

If you had to switch gyms, where would you go train?

• American Top Team (ATT) (31)
• American Kickboxing Academy (19)
• Tristar Gym (11)
• Roufusport (9)
• Hard Knocks 365 (7)
• Fortis MMA, Elevation Fight Team (5)
• Xtreme Couture (4)

Who is the best commentator, whether its color commentary or play-by-play, in MMA?

• Joe Rogan (67)
• Dominick Cruz (29)
• Daniel Cormier (20)
• Jon Anik (18)
• Paul Felder (9)
• Michael Bisping (5)

Who’s the biggest jerk you’ve met in MMA?

• Dana White (7)
• Colby Covington (4)
• Jon Jones, Michael Bisping, Uriah Hall (3)
• Randy Couture, John Kavanagh, Brock Lesnar, Luke Rockhold, Henry Cejudo, Jake Ellenberger, Dillon Danis, Donald Cerone, Matt Hughes, Terry Trebilcock(2)

Who is the dirtiest fighter in MMA (it terms of committing fouls, not cleanliness)?

• Jon Jones (52)
• Rousimar Palhares, Yoel Romero (21)
• T.J. Dillashaw (3)

What is your favorite fight of all time?

• Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Weili Zhang — UFC 248, Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson 1 — UFC 165 (21)
• Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald 2 — UFC 189 (19)
• Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar 1 — The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale, Dan Henderson vs. Shogun Rua 1 — UFC 139 (11)
• Georges St-Pierre vs. Matt Hughes 2 — UFC 65 (6)
• Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz 1 — UFC 196 (3)

So a bunch of fighters, including non-UFC fighters got polled and we're surprised about some of these results?

Jon Jones is overrated? LOL
Leon Edwards is underrated? LMAO

 

[Iron Nick]

The problem is, this is FIGHTERS' vote.
So most probable is after you slap them for the first time, you wake up in a hospital

You're not wrong, lol.

It makes that vote even worse though, imo!

 

[Iroh]

This seems a little biased to me. It's almost like they voted for Jon just based off not liking him. Similar to a sherdog poll..

How can an undefeated (minus the genius that is Matt Hamill) champion be overrated?

Because he shouldn't be undefeated? Because he couldn't achieve what he did without cheating a lot? Those seem like reasons that he is rated higher than he actually should be, to me.

 

[SouthSide971]

So uriah hall is a jerk? I wonder why

 

[Hotora86]

Who is the most overrated fighter in MMA today?

• Conor McGregor (42)
• Jon Jones (13)

Conor #1, always and forever.

 

[SteveColdStone]

Not sure that I agree on Hooker being underrated. I don’t think Firas is underrated either. If anything, I think he is overrated. He’s talked about as if he’s a God but only certain types of fighters seem to thrive under him. I wouldn’t put Tristar in the top 5 gyms around right now. Sayif Saud is very underrated but he’s quite new. I like his style.


Interesting that some fighters feel that Ellenberger is a jerk.