UFC: Mythical Versions of Real MMA Fighters That Fans Still Believe in

MMA fans are affectionate towards their favorite legendary fighters, but sometimes, that affection borders on excessive.

And sometimes, it goes so far past excessive that it creates an everlasting myth around the fighters that's certainly apocryphal, but idealistic fans never fail to believe it without question.

Take BJ Penn, for example, a fighter who was perennially inconsistent but is never chided as such. Instead, his deluded fans only talk about how the "motivated" BJ Penn could destroy any fighter on earth. 

The motivated BJ Penn is a mythical version of the real BJ Penn who had trouble taking the fight fame seriously. 

What are the other mythical versions of real fighters? Read and find out!

'Motivated' BJ Penn

The motivated BJ Penn was mentioned in the intro slide, but it's worth talking about again since it's one of the more egregious examples of fans propagating a myth. 

Whenever BJ Penn lost, it wasn't because his opponent was just the better fighter, it was because his opponent wasn't fighting the "motivated" version of Penn. 

Some lost individuals might even claim that a motivated Penn is one of the top three fighters of all-time, or perhaps even the top fighter of all-time!

However, there's no such thing as the motivated BJ Penn. 

BJ Penn was a good fighter when he was beating up his opponent. When the shoe was on the other foot and he found himself getting beat up, he showed time after time that he didn't have the heart to overcome adversity that truly motivated fighters like Frankie Edgar do.

'Old' Vitor Belfort

When Vitor Belfort gets a fight, one of the first threads to pop up on Internet forums or questions to be asked near water coolers is whether the "old" Vitor Belfort will show up. 

Ironically, what fans mean by "old" Belfort is actually the young Belfort—an aggressive fighter with unbelievable hand speed, power, and killer instinct. 

Unfortunately for Belfort, he suffered a family tragedy in 2004 which likely impacted his ability to perform in the cage/ring. 

Before the tragedy, he was 11-3; afterwards, he dropped to 4-5 until picking himself back up in 2007 when he started a long winning streak that didn't end until he got knocked out by Anderson Silva at UFC 126.

Nevertheless, people still inquire about the "old" Belfort when, in reality, the old Belfort didn't really leave for that long which makes this myth factually inaccurate and annoying.

'Pre-Hollywood' Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson

When Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was in Pride, he was a monster, a true force to be reckoned with. 

When he got to the UFC, he still looked great, but he got progressively less entertaining and less vicious as time went on. 

Some fans credit this with Jackson's brief absence from the UFC to film the silver screen incarnation of the 1980's television show The A-Team.

Since then, he's 2-3 and has looked deflated and demotivated in each of his fights. 

Unlike the other exaggerated versions of fighters, this one seems to have some truth to it. Jackson has looked progressively worse since the movie and has even stated his disillusionment with the UFC and his desire to leave.

'Healthy' Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua

When Mauricio "Shogun" Rua wins, it's because he's the greatest light heavyweight of all-time. 

When he loses, it's because he has bad knees. 

There's not really much more to say than this. Yes, he did have knee surgeries in the past, but c'mon! Don't let that blind you to the realities of the fact that he barely beat a 44-year-old Mark Coleman!

Truthfully, Rua was a great fighter back in his day, but the sport is moving on, and Rua isn't along for the ride, regardless of healthy or unhealthy knees.  

'Pre-Diverticulitis' Brock Lesnar

Diverticulitis is an awful disease, and there's no doubt that it made Brock Lesnar worse for the wear.

However, diverticulitis wasn't the sole reason for Lesnar's decline and eventual retirement. 

Even before he had to go under the knife twice, Lesnar was a green, one-dimensional wrestler. What saved him was his phenomenal strength and athleticism. 

Yes, the two bouts with the disease took some of that strength and athleticism away from him, but he was still the exact same fighter he was before. 

Pre-diverticulitis, Lesnar would've lost to Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem just the same because they were skilled mixed martial artists, while Lesnar was a brute who could wrestle well and knew enough striking and Jiu-Jitsu to get by.

Pride Fedor Emelianenko/Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic/Wanderlei Silva Etc.

Pride fans malign the loss of their organization as well as the decline of former Pride heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko and other Pride legends. 

On YouTube comments and message boards, you'll see them trolling about how great Pride Fedor Emelianenko or Pride Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (or any number of other Pride fighters) were and how they'd carve a bloody path through the modern-day UFC. 

They're right and wrong. 

They're right about the fact that those fighters were great in their time. When the UFC was attempting to pass off Cabbage, Tank Abbott and Tim Sylvia as world beaters, Pride actually had fighters like Fedor who were beating the world. 

However, that doesn't mean that Pride Fedor or Pride anyone would be successful today. Thinking that is tantamount to thinking that young Royce Gracie would dominate in the current UFC.

MMA has evolved dramatically since the birth of the UFC in 1993, and it's evolved dramatically since the heyday of Pride. The baseline level of skill has gone up; the Pride legends of old aren't that far above it anymore. 

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