As set out in the thread title. This is a safe space to reminisce on fighters who were touted as the next big thing but who never managed to meet their potential (or whose potential was massively overblown). 1) Roger Huerta: It is difficult to remember now what a big deal Roger Huerta was eight years ago. In May 2007, Roger Huerta was the first MMA fighter ever to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. At the time, he was supposed to be the new face of MMA. However, Huerta, then 20-1-1, hit the ceiling in late 2007, barely scraping by Clay Guida with a late submission, before suffering back to back decision losses to Kenny Florian and Gray Maynard which closed out his UFC contract. Since the Guida fight, Huerta's records has been 2-6. 2) Diego Sanchez: It is hard to remember now (and almost unbelievable given their career trajectories since then), but in late 2006 Sanchez, then 17-0, was frequently mentioned as a real threat (perhaps the only threat) to then newly-minted WW champion Georges St. Pierre. That threat never materialized, and Sanchez never fought for the title, as he consistently fell short against top competition (although he did fight for, and lose, a LW title fight in 2009). 3) Brandon Vera: Given the way his career turned out since then, it seems ridiculous in retrospect, but in 2007, Vera looked like a sure thing as the next UFC superstar, sporting an 8-0 record topped by a dominant win over Frank Mir. Those dreams of superstardom vanished in October 2007 when he suffered a lopsided decision loss to Tim Sylvia. Since then, he failed to beat a single name opponent, dropping fights to Werdum, Jardine, Randy Couture, Jon Jones, Thiago Silva, Shogun, and Ben Rothwell. Vera was released from the UFC in 2013. That's it for me. Anyone else think of anyone?
I think Crocop was the UFC's highest paid fighter to shit the bed, in today's age I'm sure someone has fucked up worse lol.
I agree and disagree. Cro Cop has achieved great things in the sport ie the open weight gp win but his UFC run has been a total bust........so far
CroCop never met his potential in the UFC, but he had already been the OPGW champ in Pride in 2006 and had proven his ability to compete at the highest level of MMA, so while I would agree he was disappointing in his UFC run, he wasn't exactly a prospect at that point; he was a proven fighter whose ability fell off rapidly for a variety of reasons.
I don't remember there being that much hype around him in the UFC. A lot of exciting fights but a really spotty record once he actually made it to the big leagues.
Kimbo. I don't know if you can count James Toney. He did what was expected in bringing a big name to the old MMA vs Boxing debate and clearly was compensated well. Almost a Sapp level of performance. Personally I feel Jimmo. He's a good old Western Canadian like me And I had hopes for him. I'm also thinking in six months to a year I might was be back and saying Mein It's always good to see this list get updated accordingly every couple months. Sherdoggers are on top of their lists. And they're checking it twice!
Yeah, but that is a free card, and he is an exciting fighter. It makes sense he would be used to build interest. But he isn't even a top 15 fighter at WW (Edit: I acknowledge that I may need to re-evaluate this assessment if he gets by Story).
I remember when Houston Alexander, and Sokodju were supposed to be the next big things following big upset wins. Machida gained the title and stayed in the top 10 forever, but "the Machida era" didn't really pan out. He was supposed to be the 2nd coming, and instead he had 1 very controversial title defense which beats the hell out of what most will ever accomplish, but it didn't live up to what he was hyped to be. Thiago Alves prior to UFC 100 he was on a 7 fight tear trouncing Parisyan, Hughes, and Kos en route to his title shot back when that meant a lot. He looked like a genuine threat to GSP. After dropping that high profile fight, he went 5-4.
Actually kind of crazy when you realize he fought on TUF as a middleweight. I honestly do regret that he never quite managed to make it to a match with GSP. At the time the idea generated a lot of interest. In retrospect it seems clear GSP would have just murdered him.
Holy shit, I can't believe I didn't include Sokoudjou on the list. The hype he had from beating Arona and Lil Nog going into the fight against Machinda was unreal.
Remember Josh Grispi? At his UFC debut he was heralded as the guy to challenge Aldo for the title; Goes 0-4
Tyson Griffin. He started his UFC career 7-2 with his only losses being Fight of the Night affairs against Sean Sherk and Frankie Edgar, and a win over some guy named Rafael dos Anjos. After he knocked out Franca I actually had him as the 5th or 6th best LW in the UFC. Then he got outworked by Dunham, hadouken'd by Gomi, and robbed blind against Lentz before dropping to 145 where he picked up a lackluster win over Manny Gamburyan and came in fat against Palaszewski before getting blasted in the first round and fading in to obscurity.
Gray Maynard has fizzled massively since the Edgar trilogy. He's gone 1-4 and basically just wasted four years and faded from relevance since.
sokajew and Houston Alexander were getting huge hype.. And people were doing good things.. The it ended suddenly. Amir Sodallah was getting hyped based on TUF owning Cb twice.
