The 10 Most Inconsistent Fighters in MMA Right Now

Are you like me? Are you still recuperating from Chris Weidman stunning Anderson Silva and the rest of the MMA world at UFC 162 Saturday night? Even if you predicted that outcome (I sure didn't), you probably didn't call a straight knockout—and in the second round no less. 

The end came thanks in no small part to Silva's insistence on tempting and taunting Weidman from close range. And it ended Silva's eleventy-gillion-fight win streak. 

Long streak and all, the result hints just a bit at a reality of the Anderson Era: consistency, or a lack thereof. Despite the fact that he has won so much in recent years and is still likely the best fighter ever, he did indeed experience some performance inconsistency. (If you don't believe me, look no farther than the two Chael Sonnen fights, or compare the Forrest Griffin beatdown with the Demian Maia stand-around.)

All to say, it got me thinking. Who are the most inconsistent fighters in MMA right now? Here are the 10 biggest culprits.

A few ground rules: We're talking about active fighters who are inconsistent as of this very moment. No lifetime achievement awards for guys who have been inconsistent at different points in their career arcs but who currently sit one side of the fence or the other (e.g., B.J. Penn, Cub Swanson).

This is also not for gatekeepers and similar types. One sign of true inconsistency is difficulty figuring out exactly where a fighter fits into a larger picture.

So there you go. Here's the list. 

Not Anderson Silva

OK, you can stow that poison-tipped pitchfork now. Deep breaths. 

I meant what I said in the intro slide—Silva has, inside that epic win streak, performed inconsistently. But is he one of the most inconsistent fighters in MMA today? Eh, no. No overreaction to see here. Please disperse.

10. Bryan Baker

Division: Welterweight
Promotion: Bellator
Record in last five fights: 3-2

I'm including each fighter's record over his past five contests, but keep in mind that it's just a general data point and should not be construed as the only such point on which my evaluations are based. 

All right, that was the last ground rule, I promise. Anyway, Bryan Baker has wins over guys like Joe Riggs and Jeremy Horn. Last year, he upended Ben Saunders. But his win streaks always seem to be punctuated by losses, and vice versa. If the trend holds, he'll get a W in his next outing, given that he has dropped two straight.

It's certainly an outcome fans should root for. Baker, 27, is a cancer survivor and seems, by all accounts, to be a genuinely good guy. Bellator catches heat for signing (and marketing) various unsavory characters, but they have in Baker a fighter fans can feel good about supporting. 

9. Yves Edwards

Division: Lightweight
Promotion: UFC
Record in last five fights: 2-3

Yves Edwards might be one of the sport's most underrated fighters, of this or any other era. At age 36 and with more than 60 pro fights under his belt, Edwards is still kicking along. But he's been markedly inconsistent in recent years.

In 2011, Edwards choked out a choke artist in Cody McKenzie (and this was back when people considered the theretofore undefeated McKenzie to be good). But he followed that up with a brutal knockout loss to fellow inconsistent lightweight Sam Stout.

He closed 2012 with a Knockout of the Night-winning counter-right KO on Jeremy Stephens; it was the first time Stephens had ever been knocked out. 

How did Edwards follow that up? With a slugfest loss to Strikeforce transfer Isaac Vallie-Flagg. If you know where Edwards belongs in the division, you're a better man than I.

8. Mac Danzig

Division: Lightweight
Promotion: UFC
Record in last five fights: 2-3

Mac Danzig has been noted for inconsistency ever since winning Season 6 of The Ultimate Fighter. In the 10 fights after garnering The Six-Figure Contract, Danzig is 4-6 (or 4-5 if you don't want to count that opening-round Lavigning in the first Matt Wiman fight). He also has alternated wins and losses in his last seven contests.

Sometimes, his fight outcomes meet expectations (dispatching Justin Buckholz, dropping that rematch to Wiman), sometimes they don't (that loss to a flagging Takanori Gomi, that stunning knockout of Joe Stevenson). Basically, when you're in Mac Danzig's house, everything's on the table.

7. Thiago Tavares

Division: Lightweight
Promotion: UFC
Record in last five fights: 3-2

At the time, I thought that stirring UFC 134 TKO on Spencer Fisher constituted a corner turned for the then-26-year-old Thiago Tavares. But it didn't. Inconsistency in the cage, as well as injuries or positive drug tests outside it, always seem to align to stymie the Brazilian lightweight's momentum.

The athletic jiu-jitsu black belt apparently prefers to either win a squeaker or lose spectacularly. In his six-year, 12-fight UFC career, Tavares has never won or lost more than two consecutive bouts. He has also taken home Fight of the Night bonus checks three times; all were losing efforts.

6. Jim Miller

Division: Lightweight
Promotion: UFC
Record in last five fights: 2-2 (1)

Jim Miller is an excellent and popular fighter. He's also inconsistent.

It's a juxtaposition with Miller's public persona, which exudes steadiness and a businesslike approach to the game. He's a guy you expect to do what you expect him to do.

But it doesn't always go that way. In fact, it usually doesn't. Remember: Back in August 2011, Miller was favored to defeat some WEC refugee, by the name of Benson Henderson. Henderson's win (which snapped a seven-fight Miller win streak) helped catalyze his run to the title.

A win over Melvin Guillard (and more later on that guy) got him back on track, but an upset loss to Nate Diaz on Fox—with a title shot on the line—knocked him right back off.

So maybe Miller just isn't as elite as we thought? Wrong again. Miller was a bat from the seventh circle of hell at UFC 155, winning a Fight of the Year slugfest with Joe Lauzon and leaving the Octagon looking like a Bronze-Age operating room. 

Most recently, Miller found a bit of luck when a major upset loss to Pat Healy was overturned ex post facto. No word yet on Miller's next opponent, but the only thing I'm sure about is that the crowd will get to its feet when the speakers launch the first notes of "Bad Moon Risin." 

5. Takeya Mizugaki

Division: Bantamweight
Promotion: UFC
Record in last five fights: 3-2

Takeya Mizugaki isn't just inconsistent. He's not just consistently inconsistent. He's the model of MMA inconsistency, the Mozart of the concept. Mortals can only stand by and watch when Takeya Mizugaki is plying his art. 

Why the adulation? You'd receive it, too, if you went "win-loss" over the course of 10 fights, spanning your entire UFC and WEC tenures. For three long and glorious years, we watched Mizugaki win. Then lose. Then win. Take a seat, Cal Ripken. Eat your heart out, DiMaggio. It was a staggering streak. And, for a time, we thought it would live forever.

But sadly, just four short months ago, the curtain finally fell. Thanks to some ill-advised Bryan Caraway coasting, Mizugaki eked out a come-from-behind split decision at UFC on Fuel 8 to take his second consecutive win. 

Even so, I, for one, will never forget those three magical years. And it's not over yet. Mizugaki has a chance to start a new streak when he faces Erik Perez in August.

4. Patricky Freire

Division: Lightweight
Promotion: Bellator
Record in last five fights: 2-3

Patricky Freire stormed into Bellator as a 7-1, 25-year-old, buoyed by a wave of hype created in part by his own success on the Brazilian circuit and in part by the success already earned in the Bellator cage by his younger brother Patricio. 

That hype seemed well-founded when Freire scored big knockouts in each of the first two rounds of the season four lightweight tourney. And now comes the inconsistent part, which I imagine you knew was coming.

Freire lost in the tournament finals to future champion Michael Chandler. It's not necessarily any shame in that, and he recovered by beating UFC veteran Kurt Pellegrino.

But then came a huge letdown loss to Lloyd Woodard in the next season's tournament quarters. In his next bout, Freire was unlucky enough to come across a recently de-belted Eddie Alvarez, who kicked Freire's head in before the first-round bell had sounded. 

Freire is currently injured, but if trends hold he should be due for a win upon his return. But I've been wrong about Freire before, and I'm not the only one.

3. Donald Cerrone

Division: Lightweight
Promotion: UFC
Record in last five fights: 3-2

Donald Cerrone is an interesting case. He is, by more or less any measure, a terrific and accomplished fighter. His record (20-5-1, 7-2 UFC) is a testament to that. 

But when the lights are brightest, he's not the same fighter. If there's a title or a title shot on the line, Cerrone seems to clench up. Cerrone himself has (bravely) admitted to this.

"Cowboy" is now seeing a sports psychologist (as others, including Georges St-Pierre, have done before him) in hopes of solving the problem. But until or unless he does, the fact is, Cerrone's unevenness is the definition of inconsistent.

2. Melvin Guillard

Division: Lightweight
Promotion: UFC 
Record in last five fights: 1-4

And you knew this was coming. Cerrone and Melvin Guillard are very similar in this regard, hence the tie, though if pressed I may give the tiniest of nods to Guillard.

He turned 30 this year. Here's hoping, for Guillard's sake, the rest of this year is better than his 2012, during which time he finished 1-3. One-quarter of his career losses came in that time frame.

So what differentiates Guillard from other fighters who have typically been inconsistent, but now simply find themselves on losing streaks (fighters like, say, Chris Leben)?

The difference is Guillard can still do it. He's still the guy who knocked out Dennis Siver in 36 seconds, who finished Evan Dunham and Shane Roller in consecutive contests as part of a five-fight win streak in 2010-11. The guy who came within a whisker of finishing Cerrone last summer.

But inconsistency has still been the overriding narrative of Guillard's career. Every run of momentum (and there have been several) is met with an equal and opposite momentum stopper.

It could be a key loss. It could be missing weight or getting caught breaking the rules. It could happen amid the backdrop of a training camp switch. No matter the specifics, to this point, the only constant in Guillard's career is variability. 

1. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua

Division: Light heavyweight
Promotion: UFC
Record in last five fights: 3-2

I have always pictured Mauricio "Shogun" Rua living in a remote mansion somewhere. The kind of place that's only barely on the grid. That would explain why he doesn't appear to realize that he has a fight coming up.

His whole career, really, is a "tale of two Shoguns." And it has only grown more acute of late, with the former champ going "win-loss" in his past seven fights.

For every smearing of Forrest Griffin or five-round (losing) war with Dan Henderson, there's a Pyrrhic victory over Brandon Vera or that flat and flat-out embarrassing performance against Jon Jones (which cost him his belt).

At age 31, Rua is coming off a lopsided loss to young buck Alexander Gustafsson. He might still have some fight left in him, but until he proves he can be a force again, it appears he's relegated to the novelty circuit.

A scheduled tilt with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira was scrapped after a Nogueira injury, but Chael Sonnen stepped into the void. I'd guess Shogun wins that one. But what's next? I don't think anyone knows. Status quo for one of the most enigmatic and star-crossed fighters in modern MMA.

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