The most overrated UFC fighters of all time

Throughout the years the UFC has managed to make its name so much dominant, that each and every member of the fighters competing under its banner are conceivably assumed to be great warriors.

But among these, you can find a group of fighters that receive a lot more appreciation and hype for their virtual performances.

To be specific, when it comes to the overrated fighters, we do not mean that they might not perform well, not in any sense of the word, but what we do mean is that they are given undue credit or better say more credit for their capability than they deserve throughout their careers.

The reason why they are overrated might be the

UFC rankings

and the promotion itself. That is to say, they hype up their fighters to mount a fever of excitement for events to gain more money.

But in addition to UFC rankings, some UFC fighters are overrated in the light of their own self-important attitudes or even may have simply held a lot of attraction to online experts or die-hard fans who adore their favourite fighters as legends notwithstanding the quality of their performance.

Read more to know the most overrated UFC fighters of all time and find out whether the reason behind their being overrated is the UFC rankings or their fanbase support.

The most overrated UFC fighters of all time

Here we would feature the full account of the most overrated UFC fighters of all time.

Jake Shields

The former Shooto Welterweight Champion and former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion had a 15 winning streak during a span of more than six years from his victory over Akira Kikuchi until his defeat to UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre.

With his outstanding triumphs over former UFC Welterweight Champions Tyron Woodley, Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit, it is a bit of a surprise to see him among the most overrated UFC fighters of all time.

Yet, although Dana White brought him from Strikeforce, following his victory over Dan Henderson, he failed to meet the expectations.

While he had an auspicious start against Martin Kampmann, White deemed him to be that much competent to challenge Georges St-Pierre for the Welterweight championship.

But at UFC 129, St-Pierre established dominance and grabbed triumph in a five-round fight via a decision to make his title defence. After all, GSP is one of

.

But apart from this, what has earned him a spot among the

overrated MMA fighters

, is his being a one-dimensional fighter, who was heavily dependant on his wrestling to such an extent that it was difficult for him to gauge his stand-up as he was unable to exchange shots with good strikers.

Frank Mir

The former two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion, competed for the promotion in a span of sixteen years from 2001 to 2016 while he holds the record for the most finishes and the most submission victories in UFC Heavyweight history.

Be that as it may, he is still enlisted among the overrated MMA fighters, while the only aspect he is not overrated for is his great submission and wrestling skill.

In other words, the remaining part of his game is not so much spectacular to the point that if he confront a striker with any submission defence, he would be beaten very easily as he could not even reach the second round, let alone win the fight.

Although he was the first man to knock out and submit Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, even when he reigned the UFC heavyweight division and appeared to be very talented; he could never put everything together for any length of time.

Moreover, given his overall poor performance in his final UFC fights, he would be included in our list of

the most overrated UFC fighters of all time.

Paige VanZant

The American MMA fighter, boxer, author, and model competed in the flyweight category of the UFC, while she is an indispensable member of the

, and that is one of the reasons why she would take a spot among

the most overrated UFC fighters of all time

.

That is to say, her attractive appearance led her to be marketed as beauty and the beast, being immediately pushed by the UFC, in pursuit of finding the new Ronda Rousey.

Nobody denies that she had an impressive feat when she toppled then top contender, Felice Herrig, Kailin Curran and Alex Chambers, but her being picked up to challenge the former title challenger – and future champion – Rose Namajunas was a bit inauspicious for her.

To be specific he was dethroned by Thug Rose and never truly has been recovered from the defeat as it seems that she had Lost her terrific pace and grappling skill.

Then she went on to showcase a rather ineffective long-range striking style, in her miserable defeats against Michelle Waterson and Jessica-Rose Clark.

In fact, she proved that she has fallen short of the massive expectations she and the UFC had early in her career so as to be enlisted among the most overrated UFC fighters of all time.

Matt Mitrione

The American MMA fighter is especially recognised for knocking out his opponents with his right hand from a southpaw stance, notwithstanding his being otherwise left-handed outside the ring and that is what fans would really appreciate, as he is included among the 

.

Yet, although he has wins over Fedor Emelianenko, Roy Nelson, Derrick Lewis, Gabriel Gonzaga, and Kimbo Slice, he is considered to be among one of the most overrated UFC fighters of all time.

That is because he was never picked up as a title contender by the UFC, and he did not turn out to be a top-ranked fighter.

Strictly speaking, just once he took part in the main event of UFC for one show, as a late substitute for Shane Carwin in a fight with Roy Nelson.

In fact, he was among those overrated fighters that were appreciated primarily by the fans and online analysts rather than the UFC itself.

In spite of his grabbing solid triumphs, most of his victories were proved to be against lower-level opposition, while his best victories were a KO of Derrick Lewis and a KO over a past-his-best Gabriel Gonzaga.

Moreover, he was easily beaten by the fighters like Cheick Kongo, Nelson, Brendan Schaub and Ben Rothwell, whenever he coped with them.

Be that as it may, when he moved to Bellator in 2016, many assumed it to be a big loss for the UFC, especially when he knocked out aging Fedor Emelianenko who is one of the

.

Dan Hardy

The former English MMA fighter, started his career in 2004 and competed in the welterweight category of various promotions, like Cage Force and Cage Warriors, until he joined the UFC in 2008.

He is assumed to be among the most overrated UFC fighters 2021, since he grabbed triumph in his first four UFC fights.

Thereby, the UFC gave him a shot at the title, as it was eventually ended up in an unsuccessful performance against Georges St. Pierre.

The real nub of the matter is, although he was held in the highest esteem for his four victories, just beating Akihiro Gono, Rory Markham and Marcus Davis are by no means a very sound logic to place a fighter in a title eliminator.

As a result, being bumped up too early, he underwent three more defeats afterwards and following grabbing two more triumphs, he became retired in 2012.

Tito Ortiz

The American MMA fighter and politician is widely recognized for his stints with the UFC, as he was one of the sport’s early superstars along with Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell.

Moreover, he was a UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, holding the title from April 14, 2000, to September 26, 2003, while he ended up becoming the biggest pay-per-view draw of 2006 for his bouts with Liddell, Forrest Griffin, and Ken Shamrock.

Yet, he is also enlisted among the most overrated UFC fighters of all time, because although he appeared to be a very gifted and competent fighter earlier in his UFC career, he did not go on to perform so much spectacular in the rest of his UFC career.

That is to say, when the promotion was small, he had a glorious record career of 10-2, but as time goes by when the promotion turned out to be more competitive, from 2003 until his retirement from the UFC in 2012, he could just set a career record of 6-9-1.

Therefore he proved that his capabilities were not even roughly as impressive as many had originally thought, earning a spot in our list of the most overrated UFC fighters of all time.

Nick Diaz

The American MMA fighter currently fights in the middleweight category of the UFC and had competed for the promotions like PRIDE, EliteXC, DREAM, and Shooto, while he was the Strikeforce, WEC and IFC welterweight champion but a UFC title challenger.

Precisely as saying all of his greatest accomplishments have been achieved outside of the UFC, as he is considered to be among the

.

In his UFC career, he has failed to topple any of his superstar opponents except for his very first fight following his comeback, which was against B.J. Penn.

Likewise, despite having a triumph over Robbie Lawler about ten years ago, an overwhelming majority of his other UFC victories were against opponents who he should have defeated.

But as soon as he has coped with elite opponents like GSP and Carlos Condit, he was easily beaten. As a result, it is no wonder to see him among the

most overrated UFC fighters 2021

, since, first and foremost, he has a myriad of online fanboys who adores him to the point of denying his clear-cut losses.

Whatsmore, the UFC itself tends to overrate his capabilities since they try to adjust themselves with the fans so as to land him a spot among the most overrated UFC fighters 2021.

Randy Couture

Being widely revered as one of

and one of the all-time greats, it is a bit decisive to include him among one of the most overrated UFC fighters of all time.

Especially if he had become a three-time UFC Heavyweight Champion, two-time UFC Light heavyweight Champion, an interim UFC Light heavyweight Champion, so as to be a six-time UFC Champion.

Be that as it may, there are a number of reasons for his being hyped up, including his career record of 19-11 which very obviously implies that he was not that amazing to be called the best of all time, particularly if the majority of his victories were not against very high ranked and elite fighters.

Although it is quite impressive that he competed in a long span of 15 years and that coincided with his being in his late 30's and 40's, how he was often edged out by other top fighters like Chuck Liddell not once but twice, signifies that he was not that much of a competent to star at the time when the promotion had grown more famous and more competitive and that is why he has grabbed a spot among the most overrated UFC fighters of all time.

Kimbo Slice

As he was a Bahamian MMA fighter, boxer, bare-knuckle boxer, professional wrestler and occasional actor, he was widely hailed as the mutual combat street fighter across the Internet, in the light of his Youtube street fight videos.

So it is of little wonder to see him among

the most overrated UFC fighters of all time

since with his good pace, he could hit hard and thereby showcase a good performance that could make the fans insane.

As a result, after spending a brief span in EliteXC as well as The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights, he was given the opportunity to fight for the UFC.

While he was dubbed as the next Mike Tyson by the Elite XC promotion, he toppled a trio of lower-level opponents until he was knocked out by Seth Petruzelli, and since then he never came back to prominence.

But he went on to be pushed back several times and while he was beaten in his fights one after the other by Roy Nelson and Matt Mitrione, he was still receiving an awful lot of hype during his UFC career and that is the reason why he went down as one of the most overrated UFC fighters of all time.

After his retirement from UFC, since 2015 until his death in June 2016, he was competing under the banner of Bellator MMA.

Brock Lesnar

Despite having an impressive resume full of achievements of WWE, as he was an NCAA wrestling champion and the UFC Heavyweight champion, he goes down as one of the most overrated UFC fighters of all time.

His outstanding strength, power and most importantly raw aggression, along with his career record of 5-3, convinced many people to dub him as a true competent fighter.

Yes, nobody denies that he won the Heavyweight championship, but on the one hand, he was just 2-1 when he was given his title shot against returning Randy Couture after being submitted in his debut by Mir and then grabbing triumph over Herring.

On the other hand, although he knocked out Couture and won the belt, his opponent was 45 years old at that point, thus this would not be assumed as a very impressive victory.

Afterwards, he went on to defend his title in a rematch against Frank Mir and following one more victory he was edged out by Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem while his career have been brought to a halt almost as quickly as it began.

All in all, since he was pushed to the top on the basis of his out-of-cage reputation, when the competition began to become a little tough, he fall short to meet what was expected from him, so as to be included in our list of the overrated MMA fighters.

Read More:

Follow

for the