Which fighters did you write off too soon?

[sampuncher]

What fighters did you write off the first few times you saw them only to be ultimately proved wrong?

For me its Derrick Lewis. I think the first fight I saw him was against Mitrione where from memory he lost in under a minute, I remember also seeing lose to Shawn Jordan maybe the next fight over.

Both decent fighters in their own right but I remember after that, always predicting guys like Roy, Travis would all beat him based on my earlier memories of him.

Safe to say he proved me wrong completely and hes now one of my favourite personalities in the sport.

I remember also thinking Nunes wasnt anything special, I remember the Zingano loss and a win over Baszler there was talk of her getting a shot and at the time I found it ridiculous, she then fought Shevchenko really early on in her UFC career and I remember thinking her title shot was undeserved at the time. I lost a fair bit of money betting against her because im an idiot.

Which fighters would this apply for with yourself?

 

[Dirge]

Matt Brown. Liked him on the Ultimate fighter but never thought he would amount to much.

Then he went on a tear, beating Wonderboy to a pulp in the process. Would never win a belt but he improved dramatically and became a favorite of mine.

 

[Reach4theSky]

Tony Ferguson. Seeing him lose to Michael Johnson made me think he was a middle of the pack guy...

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

Werdum.... above average fighter that didn't fare well in his first UFC run. Had him pretty much journeyman status when he went to Strikeforce... beating the GOAT Fedor... thought we might be on to something and again looked god awful against Reem in the GP with a pathetic showing... came back to the UFC with the Strikeforce purchase and looked like a different fighter, top notch striking along with his legendary grappling. Became UFC champion...

 

[IndyCovaHart]

Erick Silva.

and Papy Abedi.

 

[sampuncher]

Matt Brown. Liked him on the Ultimate fighter but never thought he would amount to much.

Then he went on a tear, beating Wonderboy to a pulp in the process. Would never win a belt but he improved dramatically and became a favorite of mine.

Great shout, when he went on that run of getting subbed like 4 fights in a row I thought hed be done for. Think he went from those into the title eliminator with Robbie which is still an incredibly underrated fight.

 

[Bruce Lee666]

Bisping when he lost to Tim,I thought this guy is average will never be champion.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

Max Holloway, when he lost to Poirer i thought he would be average at best. looking back on it, it was fucking stupid to think that because Poirer was like 12-1 and it was Max's first UFC fight and he was only like 5-0. i don't know why i thought that, but it is what it is.

 

[Chuck Ragnar]

Carla Esparza

 

[sampuncher]

Bisping when he lost to Tim,I thought this guy is average will never be champion.

Oh man, as a Bisping fan that was a horrible fight to watch.

Kennedy laid on him all night and Bisping couldn't really do anything about it, im the same as you I thought that was his last real chance.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

oh yeah, i also thought Stipe wouldn't be shit after Struve KO'd him. that shit was like a what the fuck moment for me when he started beating the fuck out of everyone.

 

[sampuncher]

Carla Esparza

Speaking of Esparza, when she subbed Rose I remember thinking Rose would be gatekeeper at best.

 

[13Seconds]

I didnt think Max Holloway was something special until he whopped Cub

 

[smiles mma]

poirer even tho he has a stellar record, didn't think much of him when he made the move up
Tony, thought he was a wrestler that would try to box and lose a lot when he won tuf
jorge, he was always a .500 fighter to me

 

[DestinedAussie]

Matt Serra after Ultimate Fighter v GSP for belt.

This is a bit more flash in the pan than the others, but he hadn't shown anything which made you think he even deserved to be in there with GSP.

 

[BabyBlue_Bomber]

Pettis...

I thought his win over Henderson was a fluke, and he was completely shut down by clay Guida after they got rid of the WEC...

I didn’t think he would come close to even fighting for the title.

 

[Beylerbey]

Gaethje after his first three UFC fights, he absolutely battered all three of his opponents sure, but he lost to two of them anyway and he went to absolute war with Michael Johnson (a very inconsistent fighter, though he beat Tony and Poirier too).

Thought his low IQ fighting style would mean he could never make it to the top. He turned it around.

 

[kalabula]

Maybe Derrik Lewis. Still too soon to tell.

 

[mjfan23]

Shogun rua

 

[Dirge]

Werdum.... above average fighter that didn't fare well in his first UFC run. Had him pretty much journeyman status when he went to Strikeforce... beating the GOAT Fedor... thought we might be on to something and again looked god awful against Reem in the GP with a pathetic showing... came back to the UFC with the Strikeforce purchase and looked like a different fighter, top notch striking along with his legendary grappling. Became UFC champion...

Yes its almost like he got faster, stronger and had much better cardio as he got older. Makes complete sense.