The Most Underrated Fighters in MMA

1) Means good but not publicized as much as other stuff,opposite of overrated.
2) Something that is better than most people think it is.
3) Something or someone not well known by the mass public but of high quality.

–verb (used with object), -rat⋅ed, -rat⋅ing.
to rate or evaluate too low; underestimate.
Origin:
1615–25; under- + rate 1

Theses are all definitions of UNDERRATED and they all apply to the top six fighters that everyone rates too low. These fighters have either not received enough attention, talk too much, fight with a boring style, or just stay on the blind side of most fans.

Enjoy the Most Underrated Fighters.

6) Jake Shields

Love him or hate him there is a mini Jake Shields era going on.

Shields has been undefeated in his past 13 bouts while fighting tough competition. He has beaten the likes of Jason Miller, Robbie Lawler, Paul Daley, NIck Thompson, Mike Pyle, Yushin Okami, Carlos Condit, Hayato Sakurai, and drew Kazuo Misaki.

He is the current Strikeforce middleweight champion and has very deadly jits. He is a Cesar Gracie prodigy and people give him no appreciation. They are giving him no chance against Dan Henderson but you never know, few people have found a way to beat the reinvented Jake Shields.

Jake Shields is sickly underrated and has proven himself countless of times.

5) Gilbert Yvel

Gilbert Yvel is a devastating striker with insane speed and killer instinct. He was one of those people who were born to fight and are very good at it. He always creates a hurricane when he fights and out of 36 of his wins, not one has made it to the scorecards.

He has legit KO power with 31 wins coming by way of TKO and has improved miles over the past year. Without his DQ's, Yvel has only 9 losses, fewer than the legend Randy. He has been one of the few people to KO k1 champion Semy Schlit and the only person to TKO Cheick Kongo.

Many people think he is just your average journeyman, but with his lethal skills, he is more than that.

Expect him to make a huge breakthrough on UFC 108 when he battles Junior Dos Santos.

4) Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

Only recently have people gotten a taste of Antonio Noguira's true terror. He fought against technically unbeaten Brazilian striker Luiz Cane. Cane's forte is striking and Antonio beat him at just that.

Noguira has been living under his brother's shadow for a long, long time but now is his time to shine. Many people don't think he's all that but he is. He was a former pro boxer with a very good record and has world class BJJ. By training with the likes of Minotauro and Jacare of the ground and Anderson and Junior Dos Santos standing, it would be hard not to be brilliant.

Rogerio is very well rounded and one of the most underrated fighters in the world.

3) Tim Sylvia

Tim Sylvia is the meaning of underrated.

People tend to forget he was one of the most accomplished UFC heavyweight champions ever. He also was undefeated in 16 bouts before losing to Frank Mir. He only lost to the best (not including Ray Mercer) and has gotten some big wins among people like Andrei Arlovski X2 and was absolutely demolishing Nog before getting caught in a submission.

Now when he is on a slight downturn of his career, people are calling him a can and that he sucks. He obviously didn't take the Ray Mercer fight seriously and for that he was handed a loss, but that is no reason to start hating on him.

People may not like him, but Tim Sylvia is one strong dude.

2) Alistair Overeem

When you mention the name Overeem, people immediately say he is a joke. I think not and he will soon prove all of his haters wrong.

Alistair was in the wrong weight division for most of his career, the light heavyweight division. Only recently has he moved up in weight to go to the heavyweight division and he is a complete monster. Overeem has greatly improved his striking to the extent that he competed in K1 tournaments. Only the best in the world can accomplish that and Overeem not only competed but beat Badr Hari, Peter Aerts, and lost a very controversial decision to Remy Bonjasky.

He has proved that he can hang with the best in striking and that it is his forte. He not only has striking but also has more wins by submissions than TKOs, so that means he's well rounded. He is 265 pounds of pure muscle and can use that strength to power into submissions or knock fighters out.

Overeem is in his right division and believe me, he's no joke.

1) Ricardo Arona

Ricardo Arona is a fighter that a top promotion like Strikeforce or the UFC has to sign fast.

Ricardo Arona (born July 17, 1978 in Brazil) is a Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter and PRIDE FC Middleweight Grand Prix finalist. He has competed in PRIDE Fighting Championships and RINGS in his mixed martial arts career. Arona is known for his strength and is a world BJJ champion. He is one of the few people to win ADCC and also be undefeated in the tournament. He holds notable wins over Wanderlei Silva, Alistair Overeem, Kazushi Sakuraba, Dan Henderson, Guy Mezger, Dean Lister, Murilo Rua, Jeremy Horn, and Marvin Eastman.

His early fight against Fedor many thought he won and the second time he fought Wanderlei he was robbed.

Also a thing that not may people knew was that he got knocked out by the illegal headbutt that Rampage did, not the slam.

Almost nobody has heard his name and many think he's not even good enough to be in a big company but in reality Arona is one of the deadliest fighters out there.