Have there been fighters who had a special talent, but just never enjoyed fighting/getting hit?

[Kaiokenrye24]

Mirsad Bektic

 

[markantony20]

GSP is very famous for not enjoying fighting, or at least the lead up to it.

Also boxing prospect Jarred Anderson says he doesn’t really care about boxing and is just doing it for money iirc.

 

[Bren312]

I’ve always wanted to see this documentary but never took the time to watch it until you posted it. It was awesome; thanks much for linking to the entire thing. Dude was a fucking beast.

Mark Kerr hated fighting. He'd get so nervous he'd use drugs to calm his anxiety and ended up addicted.

 

[D 1 Wrestler]

First of we should make the point that no fighter likes getting hit. But if you are not used to getting hit then you won't take it as well.. I know Cole Konrad retired because he didn't want to get hit and end up in a bad way later in life, he was a extremely talented wrestler who was undefeated in MMA.. he could probably wrestle anyone to death in MMA.. but he never liked the striking aspect and thought his life would be better to do proper jobs.

Funnily enough Brock was one of his best friends, who also was not used to getting hit, although I imagine if Brock had stayed around for a long time then he would have been fine and become used to it

I don't think Conor reacts well to getting hit, he wilts and wilts. Thats mainly because he has it all his own way in training with the amateurish fighters used as punching bags in SBG, and they are all scared to death to hit him or do anything wrong, so he just has it all his own way and no one fights back.. if you see his training its all one way, no one is actually fighting back

Mike Perry definitely likes getting hit

 

[D 1 Wrestler]

Has there ever been a fighter who liked getting hit? I'm sure there are some outliers here but for the most part nobody really likes getting hit. To your point though some fighters have big reactions such as the fighter in the first post, Brock Lesnar. You'll usually see this more at HW because well it's HW and getting punched by 265 lb dudes probably hurts.

Pretty sure Mike Perry enjoys it

 

[NovaJon93]

I would assume Bob Sapp has to top the list. He's submitted to strikes five times and has turtled up to prompt a stoppage many times more.

 

[Viking Power]

Rory McDonald has an interesting story arc of being a quite ruthless MMA fighter but after reportedly being reborn as a Christian, developed inner conflict and turmoil about hurting his opponents and sort of faded into obscurity as a result (as far as MMA is concerned).

Also, for me an honorable mention would be Jose Aldo. Although he did very very well in MMA I was particularly struck with how he seemed to have mercy on Uriah Faber in their fight. He destroyed his legs with leg kicks and Uriah was a sitting duck for the finish, and Aldo mysteriously stopped throwing leg kicks and basically carried him for the rest of the fight. I suppose it could have been that Jose hurt his own leg and that was the reason but i prefer the first reason personally.

He must have just hated Cub Swanson then LOL.

 

[El Fernas]

My first thought as well. What's strange about Brock is that it was obvious he didn't handle getting hit well, but somehow had that one fight against Carwin where he survived about 65,000 punches from one of the hardest hitters we've seen in MMA.

I wouldnt call it surviving more like saved by the bell, fight easily could had been stopped, i Carwin missed on the deffinitive punch, but Lesnar was more out of that fight than Sterling against Omalley.

 

[Chillez]

Well look at your Macdonalds salary and keep adding 0s until you can't count anymore.

Who are you again? Get a life dude... My god

 

[Chillez]

Bob Sapp

 

[jitzmonkey]

I know someone who trained with Uriah Hall.

Dude is a ATHLETE that was successful in MMA due to exceptionally high athletic ceiling. I wonder how he would have done in football or track.

Apparently he had issues in the gym. Some days he would look like he could rule the UFC, others like he didn't want to be there.
Supposedly a really nice dude. But I don't think he truly loved fighting and I don't think he was ever ok with hurting people, which is understandable.

MMA isn't really set up to be something you half heartedly commit to.

Frankly, his remorseful expression on TUF (after leaving that one dude convulsing) looked like he felt* genuinely guilty for hurting that dude.

 

[Ironheart]

Uriah Hall comes to mind, not so much in the not liking to get hit but in the didn't enjoy fighting.

He had vicious striking and when he went for it, he had killer instinct, such as his KO on TUF, however, he couldn't really cope with hurting others.

I honestly believe that if he was more of a killer mentally and enjoyed being in there, he could have gone all the way to the title. I came in here just to make sure someone had dropped this name already. He had all the tools, just couldn't get his heart into it.

 

[Ironheart]

My first thought as well. What's strange about Brock is that it was obvious he didn't handle getting hit well, but somehow had that one fight against Carwin where he survived about 65,000 punches from one of the hardest hitters we've seen in MMA.

Haha, this is a really good point. I think about it a lot. Lesnar ate a ridiculous amount of punishment in that fight and ate it like a champ. How?