I don't dislike the guy, but I do find him to be fake.
I remember first noticing it when he fought Siver, he ate a few leg kicks and grimaced every time he got hit. It looked like it was hurting him like hell and he kept flinching. One of the first things he said post fight was 'Siver is supposed to have hard leg kicks and it didn't hurt at all'. I thought "Hmm interesting, he's using deflection to cover up his weaknesses, and trying to put off future opponents from doing it to him again". I thought 'great plan' at first. Then, I seen the early fights he had where he tapped out quickly. It was strange to me as I had always heard him bang on about 'mental toughness and being mentally bullet proof'. I thought again "ah it's that deflection again so people don't notice his mental weakness". Finally, I noticed his stance was very Nick Diaz like in that his limbs stay very stiff and he only moves his head, not his waist and that he bounces back and forward too much in the same stiff knee'd crouching stance. All of a sudden he started saying things like 'I see stiffness in my opponents', and he started working with Ido Portal. Finally, he admitted to walking the streets of Dublin as a teen, scared, and carrying a dumbell in his bag at all times. He then went on to call other people cowards and pussies. More deflection.
At first I thought 'Ah thats his game plan, to recognise his own weaknesses, work on them, all the while covering them up with deflection so his future opponents don't notice them'.
That was all fine with me, until recently. Recently I started to feel that he actually buys the shit that comes out his mouth and it is no longer just a gameplan. He's moved from being a likeable
Chael Sonnen, to a dickish Honda Housey. Because of such, if he loses to RDA and Frankie, he's going to go from 10 million a fight to 200k to show and 200k bonus. Maybe i'm wrong...