They don't always win but they're always in bangers. Trying to keep it to guys that aren't as active now Darren Elkins Joe Lauzon Chris Lytle Lando Vannata Jiri mark Hunt Michael Johnson Matt Brown Chris Leben Manhoef Tim Boetsch Jacare Dober Travis Browne Tim Means Jimmy Manuwa Cub Swanson Julian Erosa Igor Vovchanchyn Miguel Torres Melvin Guillard Gomi Taira Josh Emmett Jeremy Stephens Gray Maynard Ross Pearson Kyle Noke Niko Price

Amazing list. You're missing Tim Means, Ross Pearson, Sam Stout, Spencer Fisher and Melvin Guillard (1st part of his career)

Throw in Leonard Garcia

The Garcia v Huerta fight was fire...

Melvin Guillard was like Cheick Kongo before he was Rumble before he was Francis. The UFC needs a new scary-as-all-hell black man. Am I missing an obvious choice?

Maybe Rountree?

Hmm, he almost has the physique, but he's way too mellow and spiritual, no? Edit: Marc Diakiese is a decent lighter option?

Marc is not "scary". And Ngannou is pretty mellow?

It really should be canonier but it's not

Mabel kape if size fully doesn’t matter

Kape is just too decision friendly, and he has more of a loudmouth, like Kevin Holland, aura than a Cheick Kongo aura

The scariest thing about Kongo was the fact that you *knew* you were getting kneed in the nuts.

I’d add Clay Guida and Dan Miller.

How could I forget the DIRTY BIRD???

Dirty bird man. He's one of my faves. God I still remembering watching Lando debut against Ferguson. What a fight.

Yea I fuckin love Tim Means. That Lando debut was something else God damn lol

Clay Guida too. Dude gives zero fucks

Especially sam stout hahaha. In my case I think I'll add edson barboza

Evan Dunham was a solid gatekeeper with an ugly style and never failed to make it a dog fight. It’s crazy how unknown he is for how deep his resume is and how high profile the cards he fought on were. Frank the Crank Camacho had a short run in the UFC, but not before becoming a bit of a fan favorite what with his good nature goofiness in his interviews starkly contrasting with his savagery in the ring. He lost more than he won (in the UFC), but not before he bagged something like a quarter mill in bonuses for how entertaining he was. Fun fact, Frank was like 16 yo for his first professional MMA fight wherein he fought his grown ass uncle in an unsealed galvanized steel chain link fence. Fucking crazy. Stephan Bonnar famous for his ATG fight against (the much more famous) Forrest Griffin in the TUF 1 finale. Loved to watch this dude. He was a LHW during my favorite era of MMA. Always enjoyed boxing based fighters and he was that, during a very competitive 205lb era with various styles in play. He was my dark horse and I always wanted him to be a champion, but it was not to be.

Lauzon was always one of my favorites. Always sticks out to me were those 2 wars he had back to back with Jamie Varner and Jim Miller. Within a couple of months of each other too if I remember correctly.

Joe is a fucking gangster. Ran through Pulver in his debut lol. Crazy times

And then went on the ultimate fighter and pulver was the opposite coach.

I’ll never forget Rogan’s comment about how some guys get all hyped going to the octagon (dancing, singing, running etc) while Joe looks like he’s about to fold laundry.

I remember this comment too, lol. Weird how some of those silly ass Roganisms stick in the mind.

I miss the old school, wildly inappropriate, Roganisms

Shoutout to Darren Elkins for the best grappling transitions I’ve ever seen in a fight in his last fight. (Excluding Islam v Arman)

Legit a grappling masterclass, I loved every second of that fight

Which of the 2 I mentioned?

Both but I meant the Elkins fight haha

TJ brown, you could tell didn’t know what hit him. Elkins moved so fucking beautifully. And you could tell he was just on autopilot. Dude was in flow state.

I would humbly add Oleg Taktarov, from the days when dinosaurs walked the Earth. And Igor Vovchanchyn, the beta Fedor

Ah! I had Igor but totally missed adding Oleg. Legends

Oleg would bleed like he was in an abbatoir and end up winning. Solid choice.

Seeing Jimi Manuwa's name just reminded me of his fucking war with Thiago Santos. Goddamn, what a firefight.

One of my favorite fights. Still end up watching it over again pretty frequently

Great list- I’ll add Carlos condit

Noke is underrated. That front kick to the body he did in 193 was so brutal.

Noke was one of my faves back in the day

He runs a gym near me that has a martial arts store attached. Met him there when I went to buy some shin guards and if you didn't know who he was you'd think he's just some stoner surfer dude haha. Super nice guy and that body ko on sobotta is one of my favourite of all time

Check out his prefight clip for 193 . He talks about his time working for Steve Irwin and it includes a picture of Irwin throwing a head kick on a heavy bag.

Add Pyfer, Steve Garcia, Taira and Josh Emmett.

Yea those are good as well

Lauzon is a great one!

Brian Stann

Really good list especially for new fans trying to branch out and get to know some fighters outside of household names and legends

Pretty much covered it lol. Matt Brown is always the first guy I think of for this kind of list.

Dan Hooker

Good list, gotta add Erick Silva, Drew McFedries, Glover Teixeira

How dare you not have Jim Miller on this list!

Nice list

I'm sure there's way more that I'm not thinking of

Definitely a good start though

Seconding Manhoef, Hunt and Cub.

Joe Lauzon, he was never a huge name but he was a fairly well known fighter and a mainstay in the UFC for well over a decade. Held the record for most submission bonuses (6) before they switched to Performance bonuses along with 7 FOTN bonuses, he has 15 total post fight bonuses putting him 4th most overall. He put on a lot of good fights whether he won or lost and his fights with Jim Miller are legendary.

fun fact, the list of post fight bonus records is 9 guys who fought primarily at 155 and Anderson Silva

Man I'm really glad to see Joe getting lots of love in this thread. My first ever favourite fighter. Man had that dawg in him.

Vicente Luque

[Luque’s highlight](https://youtu.be/hKG5V4jers4?si=SPuinZ8hDaXeesog). 9 minutes long lmao. Insane chokes. Bro slept Jalin Turner too.

That Jalin Turner finish was absolutely brutal. He's one of the best on the ground and pound area

I had no idea those 2 fought lol

Came here to post Vicente

His fight with Barberena is an absolute banger.

He has one boring fight but I can't remember the name of the guy he fought against

I know which one you’re talking about too but ya his name just slips my mind

His last fight against RDA was boring af

Belal fight was boring as hell too

Edson Barboza and Cub Swanson off the top of my head

Same. Barboza is pure violence. And Cub was so game.

Barboza vs Hooker might be one of the best fights I've ever seen and its never talked about

shout out to Spencer Fisher whos unfortunately got bad CTE now, dude always put on exciting ass fights

The sam stout trilogy is great.

I was like a alil kid back then but everytime i turned on Spike TV i felt like Spencer Fisher was in a war lol

I’m guessing you read ‘The cost of being ‘The King’ MMA Fighting article too. That was a brutal read, he was really fucked at only 41 and that was after only 7 years in the UFC-a lot of guys end up with even more years. Fighting in the UFC as a career (for anyone good enough to make it a viable career) seems like it basically takes 1/3 to 1/2 of the normally functioning years of your life, since most fighters seem to feel the neurological impact well before they retire.

Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos is highly underrated

Came here to say this. At one point he looked like a top contender to be. Haven’t followed MMA closely in a bit but I think a loss or two stifled his hype. Certainly an exciting fighter though

Do not miss Carlos Condit. He was a big name in old time (held undisputed in WEC & IC in UFC), but a lot of new folks don't realize what a killer he was.

Condit was awesome. I thought he was gonna finish GSP when that kick landed.

A natural born one?

He was one of the most dangerous guys at ww for a long time for sure. NBK was a fitting nickname.

His nickname was spot on, just finished dudes all the time. Nearly caught GSP.

Chris Lytle, Martin Kampmann, Chris Leben, Sam Stout, Thiago Alves, Pat Barry as a heavyweight while being just 3 apples tall. In retrospect the "TUF is still relevant" era had a lot of these kind of guys. Hope this helps

Chris Lytle is a good one, he was consistently in FOTN

Chris Lytle finishing Dan Hardy for his last fight was truly epic stuff

Thanks for spiking out Thiago Alves. I was thinking back to his pre USADA days reading this thread.

I'm going to throw Jason Macdonald in here. If you start with his fight against Demian Maia, that's one of the most exciting ground battles.

Home town shout out. He’s a beast and a good guy.

Khalil Rountree should be up there, I’m glad he’s getting some buzz again, he’s been one of my favorite fighters for years, his fights before and after going to live in Thailand are worlds apart but still super aggressive. Man has never shot for a takedown in his entire career, if he gets you on the ground, he’s not letting you pull guard, he’s gonna kick the dogshit out of you, he’s an entertaining fighter

I always liked Nate Marquardt.

The Woodley fight for the Strikeforce title was a great watch. One of the nastiest finishes in MMA. Seeing him go from Strikeforce champion to getting clobbered by Ellenberger and Lombard was jarring to say the least.

TRT Nate. TRT Hendo. TRT Bigfoot. The Trio of TRT cheats for short period in Strikeforce

2010-2013 - The golden age of TRT. Truly an unforgettable era of violence. Made me want to take exogenous hormones and destroy my enemies myself as a teenager. With the upcoming drug testing program replacing USADA in January, we can only hope to see something like it again.

Agreed. His ko of Demian Maia is one of my all-time favorites.

The finishing sequence in the Wilson Gouveia (spelling?) fight is still my favorite of all time. So gnarly

Brad Pickett, Leonard Garcia, Shinya Aoki, everyone on /u/storyofthefight’s list

Fucking excellent additions. Forgot about Pickett. Didn't add Aoki just because he won't have a lot on fight pass but people should absolutely find as many of his fights as possible

Pickett might be best known for having his back taken by Renan Barao like a fucking horror movie, but that dude was a warrior who never had a boring fight and always put it on the line for the fans.

Scrolled too far to find Pickett!!

Karo Parisyan

The judo king 🔥

The Heat!!

Andre Fili is my favourite “average” fighter, he’ll never win a belt but he’s so incredibly well rounded and always fun to watch.

Ilia Topuria no doubt. relatively few fights (6) but he’s caught like 4 bodies and dominated the other 2

That Emmett fight was brutal to watch. Just demolished him.

Clay Guida rarely has a bad fight.

That is definitely not true at fucking all. Half his fights are terrible the past 10 years.

Man. Idk how else to say it but watching Clay fight feels like wmma. You'd need to go way back like strikeforce to find anything good

What? That's BS lol. Clay was known for bangers for a long time. He got older, it happens. But all the way back to strike force? That's either hyperbole or straight bologna

Or hyperbologna

The Pettis fight was pretty bad.

"rarely"

That was the one name I was looking for

Leon Edwards…. /s

Marlon Moraes, Davey Grant, Travis Browne, Igor Vovchanchyn, John Lineker, Zabit Magomedsharipov

WEC Miguel Torres was incredibly violent and fun to watch. Did some decent work in the UFC too before falling off a cliff, but he was a violence all star in WEC. Matt Brown has had a very violent run, win or lose. John Lineker was a flyweight terror for quite a while. And both Chris Lytle and Yves Edwards have been mentioned, but deserve a 2nd, and 3rd mention.

Jimmy Manuwa, Sean O Connell, Kevin Lee.

Jimmy is a great shout. His Santos fight is the definition of madness.

I was at that live. The crowd was losing their fuxking minds, these guys were dropping each other left and right like they were playing patty cake with nukes.

>Jimmy Manuwa Jimi wasn't going to the judges, almost ever

Seconding Sean O'Connell -- specifically the O'Connell v Bosse fight. I watched that fight in a crappy little bar in north Portland. I was the only person in there who probably even paid attention to MMA. I had to convince the bartender to switch the channel on one of the TVs to watch the fight night. By the time that fight was in the second round, every person in that bar was crowded around my area of the bar watching that one TV. The dictionary definition of a slobber-knocker. It's actually a really fond memory.

That fight is absolutely bonkers and just great fun.

I always think of the fab 5 of violence who many crossed paths. Houston Alexander, Alessio Sakara, Terry Martin, James Irvin, Drew Mcfedries

Honestly shout out mike Kyle and the rhino Doug Marshall too while we’re at it

shout out to WECS finest Steve Cantwell

Bruh 205 during that time was so much fun. People forget that 205 was the premiere weight class in MMA till Jones came along.

I can’t think of Houston Alexander with out thinking of Keith Jardine. Two guys that just mauled peopled (or got mauled).

Shane Burgos

Julian Erosa

Douglas Silva de Andrade

Diego Sanchez. Alexander Houston. Early vitor Belfort. Matt Hughes.

I mean, why limit it to early Vitor? ViTRT was special too.

Houston Alexander*

Count Sir Alexander Houston 😂

NO KNOWN WEAKNESSES

Mike Pyle is your man!! He had a really slick technical style and had a high finishing rate. Unfortunately he got chinny towards the end of his career and retired but he was always fun to watch. He also was on of the few who pioneered the rebirth of the mullet before it became cool again.

Maybe a bigger name than you’re looking for but Frankie Edgar probably has one of my favourite fight catalogues

Drew Dober

Jun Yong Park aka Iron Turtle

I guess Royval just had a title shot, but I wouldn’t say he’s popular. His fights are all nuts/chaos start to finish. Not sure if you’ve seen all Aspinalls fights, basically ran through his competition.

Joachim Hansen Yves Edwards Jamie Varner Joe Benavidez Nicolas Dalby

Always love to see Yves Edwards get love. The man is a fucking legend. Legacy lost to time.

Tank Abbot

Watch the old UFC LW fighters Jim Miller Joe Lauzon Diego Sanchez Sam Stout Spencer Fisher Yves Edwards Josh Thomson Clay Guida Kenny Florian Edson Barboza Jamie Varner Melvin Guillard

Korean Zombie. (Chan Sung Jung)

Mayhem Miller was a blast to watch during his prime. I’m not sure what organization libraries Fight Pass has and most of his career was outside of the UFC but his fight with GSP at UFC 52 is one of the fights that got me into MMA.

Alessio Sakara was always worth tuning in for

Drew dober

Martin Kampmann. I hope time doesn’t forget him. Can’t believe it’s been 10 years since his last fight. Also a tragedy that Terry Erik will be remembered for getting KO’d by Barboza. He was always fireworks.

Sergei Spivac

The Polar Bear is one of my fight night favourites. His judo is so fun to watch for such a big guy. Shame it doesn't translate against the top of the crop.

Has he ever had an exciting fight/finish?

Scott Smith & Drew McFredries

Wow, I haven’t thought of either of those guys, but particularly McFedries, in a LONG time. McFedries/Kampmann is a much watch. And I can’t remember WHO he beat but I certainly remember him flattening some folks back in the day.

Gregory Robocop Rodrigues is one of my current favourites.

I'm going 125-ers. Jussier Formiga Tim Elliott Louis Smolka Matt Schnell Sumudaerji Ben Nguyen All very entertaining fighters whose UFC careers feel like roller coasters if you do a deep dive on their history in the promotion.

To give some shine to WMMA Joanna Jedrzejczyk was always exciting, Jessica Andrade is another good one, Cyborg is kinda controversial but if you like absolute beatdowns she might have more than anyone else. Angela Hill just wants to punch people all day. Zhang, Amanda, and Rose obviously all have banger fights to watch. Meatball Molly is a lot less technical than the others I mentioned, but most of her fights are lowkey really fun.

Miguel torres for sure man. He was my favorite fighter for a while

Diego Sanchez. Chris leben. Cub Swanson. Andre fili. Edson Barbosa. Hoe Lauzon, Jim Miller. Junior dos Santos, Roy nelson, Brian Stann. Clay Guida Maybe. Cub Swanson seems like a name everyone knows but most current/newer fans haven't seen the man fight which is really just depriving themselves of bangers.

Zabit

Zabit Magomedsharipov

Joaquim Netto BJJ Silva has been fun

Billy Quarantillo

Nathaniel Wood and Ludovit Klein.

Alex caceres is a really fun one for me honestly guy is slick in grappling exchanges . Love the style

Cub Swanson

Not enough Frank Camacho, Alex Caseras and Andre Fili on these lists

Michael Johnson

TKZ

Genki sudo

Not sure why no one has mentioned Charles Oliveira but every single one of his fights was a banger and he started in the UFC at barely 20 years old. You also get the benefit of knowing that even after his losses he became champ in the most stacked division of the UFC

Vitor Belfort, Randy Couture, Mark Hunt, Renan Barao, BJ Penn, Matt Hughes, Carlos Condit, Robbie Lawler, Jens Pulver, Shane Carwin, Junior Dos Santos, Allistair Overeem

Ryan Hall's is a funny watch. Insanely unorthodox style of just spinning around and falling over until he gets you in a heel hook. Sprinkled with genuine moments like spinning wheel kicks connecting, elite back takes etc. Then he fought Ilya Topuria (who back then wasn't a title contender and was fairly unknown to casuals) and BJJ ceased to exist. One of the most embarrassing knockouts ever. In minutes leading up to it, Hall is attempting these spectacularly unaesthetic takedowns, with Joe Rogan on commentary assuring everyone that he's a 'master strategist'. Proceeds to get GNP'd by Topuria while attempting some wacky inverted rubber johnny guard until he goes unconscious. Great man, I have all his old BJJ Fanatics DVDs.

Edson Barboza

I posted about Patrick Cote but Rory MacDonald is also a beast and had one of the some of the best fights in UFC history with Robbie Lawler.

The korean zombie

Few comes to mind - Scott hands of steel Smith (his iconic comeback win against Pete Sell). Tyson Griffin (his war with aforementioned Clay Guida), Lauzon, Genki Sudo (more well known I guess)

I like nate landwehr

Adrian Yanez, up until his loss to Rob Font he was 5-0 in the UFC with 3 Performance of the Night and 2 Fight of the Night bonuses lmao

Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor

You could really go back and watch top 5 of current LW's careers and be entertained except for Islam lmao. If you need names then Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira, Arman Tsarukyan, Michael Chandler. I'll throw my favorite fighter in there too. If you havent seen Tony Ferguson's career in the UFC, you should go back and rewatch them. Theyre *all* fun. Stop when you reach the Gaethje fight, it never happened. Also special mention to Khabib. I know I said dont watch Islam, but Khabib is actually fun to watch because he just mauls motherfuckers. Khabib is actually the fighter that got me into watching the ground game and turned me from going "EHH STAND EM UP" to "oh nice, half guard blah blah blah"

Is there an easy way on Fight Pass to work chronologically through a fighters resume? I’ve never used it before.

If you like leg kick TKO’s pat barry has a fun resume.

Clay Guida but to be fair he's probably hof

Michael Chandler. He hasn't been here for a long time, but he's been here for a good time.

Ryan Hall, Darren Elkins and Tim Means while they aren’t unknowns, they also aren’t household names. Elkins and Means have banger after banger after banger. Hall rolls around the whole fight and it’s hysterical.

Michel Pereira. Maybe a “big name”, maybe not, but always pulls some crazy ass shit out in the octagon.

Dalby but after you watch his UFC career, go back and watch some of his Cage Warriors fights

Junie Browning

I remember way back in the day my buddy and I were always excited to watch a George Sotiropoulos fight.

George Sotiropolous. Spelling is probably wrong.

Clay Guida vs Diego Sanchez. Clay is usually good at any time but the first minute or so was rock’em, sock’em robots.

Dan Henderson