Name a fighter with deceptively good accomplishments.

[WoozyFailGuy]

Joe Benavidez.
Definition of always the bridesmaid, never the bride. In his first 29 fights, he was 25-4 with those losses coming to Dom Cruz x2 and Mighty Mouse x2. 28-8 overall with 6 of those losses being the aforementioned, plus Figgy x2, Askar, and Sergio Pettis.

Beat every other man put in front of him, from the pioneers of the midget divisions like Miguel Torres and Rani Yaha; to the mid year guys like McCall (underrated), Formiga, Eliiot, and Bagautinov.

What's truly unfortunate is that towards the end of his career, he became known for the violent finishes figgy bestowed upon him (especially the exorcist RNC) rather than the storied career behind him.

Thankfully most people forget him screaming in horror when he woke up

 

[oski]

Hughes wasn't "top of the game" yet. His first loss to Hallman was his fifth fight during his first year fighting and his second loss was his second UFC fight two years later before he started working his BJJ hard with Horn and becoming champ. Still impressive, as Hughes was always a wrestling powerhouse, but his grappling improved dramatically once he started working with Horn and became good enough to put a grappling clinic on Carlos Newton, nearly break Royce's arm, and tap GSP.

Had Hallman beaten Trigg at UFC 48, they probably would've let him challenge Hughes for the belt at UFC 52 instead of Trigg getting his rematch. That would've been interesting. Hughes probably would've gone for a submission, and he probably would've gotten it.

If memory serves me, Matt had been knocking out and submitting fools everywhere and he must have had over 20 fights when Hallman subbed him the 2nd time, Matt's only two blemishes at the time. Long story short, soon after he's UFC champ and still just killing everyone they threw in front of him until BJ years later.

He might not have been recognized as "top of the world," but at the same time and as we know now, was likely the most dangerous man on Earth at 170 for quite some time.

 

[Zach The Maniac]

Buchecha great BJJ career but he’s been outgrappled by much lesser competition in MMA.

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

akiyama, fitch, phil davis, and every other fighter robbed

 

[MigitAs]

i think you're misremembering, he knocked him out in the most HW awkward oaf way possible lmao

If you watch the full fight you see what I mean, Matt was at his best here

 

[MigitAs]

mitrione was in his prime. super athletic for his size and KO power.

Hard to believe he is almost 50 lol

 

[JakePaulMMA]

View attachment 1131390

Absolutely owned Hughes (twice) when he was top of the game.

Peak Male

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

Guida has wins over RDA, Pettis, Nate, MJ, Gomi, Hioki, Penn, Josh Thomson, Joe Lauzon

 

[Pierce 34]

Jacare Souza has split decision losses to rockhold and romero

Fights could have gone either way

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

If you watch the full fight you see what I mean, Matt was at his best here

at what part does "Matt put him away with straight punches that were so clean it was a thing of beauty." happen?


you must be thinking of a different fight. that's the entire fight there i just posted.

 

[RichardHarrow]

Sokodjou if you remember him

 

[RockyLockridge]

Phil is a really good choice.

Good wins, very strong strength of schedule (only 4 of his 34 pro fights have been regional level guys) and probably the most impressive is he's never been finished once in his entire career.

And he fought prime rumble still never finished

 

[Gatti111]

Martin Kampmann. UFC record of 11-6, really 13-4 because he got robbed vs Shields and Diego. Although if he didnt get robbed vs Shields he would've fought GSP and lost which would've made him 12-5. I actually think his TDD and his striking would have made a tough fight for GSP, 49-46 or maybe 48-47 type of fight.

His back-to-back comebacks vs Alves and Ellenberger in a 3-month span were borderline epic. Unfortunately they took place on FuelTV and nobody saw them.

WAR HITMAN

Very good striker, just got overwhelmed and blitzed by more aggressive and athletically gifted fighters. One time that didn't happen was vs Drew McFedries, great comeback. Hitman was lowkey one of my favorite fighters from that era.

 

[Elvis.]

Gegard Mousasi is 49-9-2
His resume of fighters he’s defeated is super stacked

 

[Aluminati]

Dustin hazlet. dude seemed chill and had some of the coolest holy fuck what did i just see subs.

Johnny walker. Does anyone really hate the guy? Win or lose, we are entertained.

I used to love watching him and Joe Doerkeson. Their arm iso attacks from back mount were a thing of beauty and Hazlett had some ideas about striking from rubber guard.

 

[fortheo]

Aljamain sterling. Say whatever you want, but he had 3 consecutive top 5 wins going into his title fight then after winning the title (albeit via dubious circumstances) he defended it 3 times. Then after losing the title he went up in weight and has only lost to undefeated mosvar evloev, in a fight that was very very close.

He still has wins over Barao, Riveria, munhoz, sandhagen, Yan x2, cejudo and dillashaw. Then moved to FW and beat katter and Ortega. Both of which were top contenders at FW at one point with Ortega being a 2x title challenger. You might even argue he's in the mix at fw

Felt like 90 percent of the mma world never gave him the props he deserved.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Felt like 90 percent of the mma world never gave him the props he deserved.

It's all becacuse the first yan fight, but if we're being real, He did not have an easy path to the title. He had to fight a lot of good fighters before he made it to the top. That one fight soured peoples outlook on him he really is one of the best bantamweights ever.

 

[Michael Wetzel]

Fabricio Werdum. Former UFC HW champ, submitted Fedor, Big Nog, Cain. But never mentioned on GOAT lists. He lost to JDS when he was not expected to, but that loss does not look bad in hindsight.

 

[2004 account]

Hendo
Big nog

 

[Subline]

Frankie Edgar has one of the deepest resumes in MMA, across 3 different eras.