UFC 139 Fight Card: Urijah Faber and the 12 Most Overrated Fighters in the UFC

Win a few fights inside the Octagon, and it doesn’t take long before you have an entire army of UFC fans saying you’re the best thing since BJJ.

The UFC hype train is always going at full speed, and some fighters get a full-fledged push by the promotion only to lose their momentum slowly.

The problem is by the time anyone realizes that they are a shell of their former selves, they have a huge fanbase that still thinks they are one of the best in the world.

While this obviously happens in every sport, MMA is unique in that it is an individual sport with a company that loves to throw its fighters on television every chance it gets.

The following fighters have been and may continue to be in promotional materials for the UFC, but it is obvious that their best days are behind them, and they are now completely overrated by the majority of fight fans.

Cheick Kongo

Despite his incredible physique and good all-around game, Cheick Kongo has never defeated a top-five opponent, and it can be argued that he is the most overrated heavyweight in the world.

Kongo is a decent fighter and the perfect gatekeeper in the heavyweight division, but he will never be more than a borderline top-10 fighter.

Wanderlei Silva

As much as it must pain longtime fans of the sport to see him on this list, it can’t be argued that Wanderlei Silva is a shell of the fighter he once was.

Since entering the UFC back in 2007, Silva has gone 2-4, yet the UFC keeps in putting him in high-profile matchups due to his name value.

Dan Hardy

While he was marketed as a knockout artist going into his fight with Georges St-Pierre, Dan Hardy has only finished one opponent since joining the UFC.

Of course, he had quite a few knockouts on the regional scene, but he has really never displayed that power outside of his lone knockout win since joining the organization and has suffered four losses in a row.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

Since entering the Octagon in late 2009, Little Nog has gone just 2-2 in the organization, and to be honest, he’s lucky he isn’t 1-3.

Rogerio arguably lost a close fight to Jason Brilz at UFC 114, and his two subsequent fights haven’t done him any favors in the eyes of the public.

Shane Carwin

I’ll probably catch a lot of criticism for putting Shane Carwin on this list, but stay with me here.

While losses to Junior dos Santos and Brock Lesnar are acceptable, only one of Carwin’s UFC wins has come against an opponent still with the organization, and to be honest, Frank Mir was a perfect matchup for the hard-hitting heavyweight.

Thiago Silva

It’s hard to even consider Thiago Silva a top-10 light heavyweight, but somehow he always ends up in the discussion.

Fans who look closer will realize that his best wins have come against the glass chins of Houston Alexander and Keith Jardine, and his impressive victory over Brandon Vera has since been overturned due to a failed drug test.

Amir Sadollah

An Ultimate Fighter winner with a huge fanbase, Amir Sadollah gets a lot of visibility since he shows up during commercial segments during every episode of TUF, but in reality he is an average fighter.

Sadollah is 5-3 in the UFC and has never beaten a top-20 opponent, but for some reason the UFC keeps putting him on the main card of events despite his mediocrity.

Roy Nelson

While most MMA fans know that Roy Nelson is a game fighter who is nearly impossible to finish, the casual fan only knows him for one thing: his dominant win over Kimbo Slice on TUF Season 10.

Nelson has since been marketed as an everyday fat man who can fight, but he has had an up-and-down UFC career that doesn’t exactly make him a contender.

Dennis Siver

It seems incredible that Dennis Siver has fought inside the Octagon 13 times, as he has only had one or two performances worth remembering.

Siver has only beaten one opponent who was considered in the top 10 of the division at the time of the win (George Sotiropoulos) and has lost every other fight against a big-name opponent.

Mark Hominick

Apparently putting on a gritty performance against Jose Aldo has made Mark Hominick one of the best fighters in the featherweight division.

While I’ll never say a harsh word towards Hominick’s toughness or his desire, he has still never truly beaten a top opponent, and his best wins are over middle-of-the-pack fighters George Roop and Leonard Garcia.

George Sotiropoulos

For a while, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before George Sotiropoulos found himself in a UFC title fight.

G-Sots went on a tear through the lightweight division after his UFC debut, winning seven straight fights before suffering back-to-back losses in 2011.

Looking back, Sotiropoulos only actually defeated two fighters who are still employed by Zuffa during his hot streak, and he was exposed as a fighter with a weak standup game in his last two fights.

Urijah Faber

The California Kid was a force back in the heyday of the WEC, but ever since he lost his featherweight title to Mike Brown at WEC 36, he has gone 4-3 with all three of his losses coming in title fights.

But for the casual fan, Urijah Faber is still considered the best bantamweight in the world despite his loss to Dominick Cruz at UFC 132.