The 10 Most Nefarious Fighters in MMA History

At the intersection of Creepy Roommate Street and Pure Evil Drive, you have nefarious.

It's not a scenic intersection. It's not the kind of place where you want to pull the Town and Country over to the shoulder and just get out and stretch a spell, maybe take the camera out and maybe answer nature's call. Nothing doing, Jack. Nature doesn't exist out this way. At least it's not the nature you know, with your law-abiding ways and "treating people equitably" and whatever.

These 10 MMA fighters (and a legion of dishonorable mentions both in and out of the cage) are here to show you what nefarious looks like. It doesn't look good, man. It has a very bad hair cut. It's slovenly. It has a penchant for hurtiness clearly apparent in its eyes. Gaze upon its collective rap sheet and feel that slip just a little deeper into madness.

Fighters evaluated based on dirty tactics in the cage and, well, also out of the cage, possibly in a criminal context. Erm, enjoy!

Dishonorable Mentions (Non-Fighter Division)

USA TODAY Sports

UFC President Dana White

Just a basic list. The degree of nefarity varies. Individuals listed in no particular order. Want more info on their reasons for being here? Google away.

Dana White

Bjorn Rebney

Vadim Finkelstein

Naoto Morishita

Lloyd Irvin

Todd Beard

Anyone from EFC South Africa

Bob Arum

Edith LaBelle

Bob Meyrowitz

Cecil Peoples 

Dishonorable Mentions (Fighter Division)

Gregory Payan/Associated Press

Alistair Overeem

Once again, if you don't know, you better Google somebody.

Rob Emerson

Kimo Leopoldo

Matt Hughes

Most of the Gracie family

Brett Rogers

Gerard Gordeau

Thiago Silva

Melvin Costa

War Machine

Alistair Overeem

Renato "Babalu" Sobral

Ryan Ford

Jessica Eye

Maiquel Falcao

Chael P. Sonnen

Vitor Belfort

Andre Penner/Associated Press

It's not just that he's a known flouter of the rules, though there is that. (And it's a "that" that has dogged him for years.)

It's that he does it all so self-righteously. He's not unlike an MMA answer to Lance Armstrong, employing downright Clintonian wordsmithing in his responses, threatening those who dare to challenge him or invoking his faith as an answer to a question other than the one that was asked.

He's just a shady dude. But don't take my word for it. Take it from fellow fighter Luke Rockhold, who said Belfort led "a shady life." 

Brock Lesnar

Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

If I was drafting nefarious MMA fighters based on pure upside, I think I'd have to go with Brock Lesnar.

With all his opponent taunting and gay-disliking and sword-tattoo-having and gun-toting and anger-having-a-hard-time-managing character, you'd have to think he'd be in trouble a lot more often if he didn't live in the middle of freaking nowhere.

He's often been described as a natural-born warrior, someone who would have ridden at the front of the army back in the old days. You just wonder what army that would have been. Well, actually I don't wonder much. It would have been the bad guys.

Will Chope

Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images

Will Chope received his UFC walking papers this March after documents came out (thanks to Bleacher Report, no less) that he was discharged from the Air Force for repeatedly assaulting his wife. 

Brandon Saling

Nicknamed White Steel, Brandon Saling certainly can't be accused of any stealth nefarity.

Nope, it's all right there. Literally, on his skin. He's a Neo-Nazi, all right.

The Strikeforce and Bellator veteran is also a repeat criminal and sex offender. Luckily, his career in or anywhere near the spotlight appears to be over, as he hasn't fought in a few years.

Ricco Rodriguez

Al Bello/Getty Images

At 53-21 (1), Rodriguez has certainly had a good MMA career for a long time. But for just as long a time, he's had a bad reputation.

There was the DUI arrest, yes. And there was also the stint on Celebrity Rehab. 

But another little line item on the resume, this one from 2011, might better encapsulate the kind of personality we're talking about. After taking a $70 cab ride, Rodriguez refused to pay the cab driver more than $20. An argument ensued. The police came. Rodriguez fought them. It took three officers to subdue him.

That's the kind of guy we're talking about.

Gilbert Yvel

Whenever you have a "DQ (biting)" and a "DQ (KO'd referee)" on your record, you know that you're either a professional wrestler, or you have lost your mind.

But so goes Gilbert Yvel, a fighter fearsome enough you'd think he wouldn't need to resort to such things. And he didn't. He was just crazy.

Yvel also has a disqualification for eye-gouging. So it's like the dirty-fighter trifecta there. But this ref KO. Can you believe he was allowed back into any sort of cage after that? He actually fought in the UFC three times after that happened! Someone get Jason High on the phone.

Dan McGuane

Dan McGuane and his brother were put on trial for manslaughter after they beat a much smaller kid to death in a parking lot.

That didn't stop Bellator from signing him. He luckily never fought for them after the public outcry, but still. This could be the biggest black mark of all of Bellator's dubious signings. And that's saying something.

Joe Son

Joe Son is now in jail for the rest of his natural life.

Random Task was thrown in the slammer in 2011 after being convicted of torture. Not long after, he was accused of murdering his cellmate.

This is bad stuff.

Viacheslav Datsik

The Viacheslav Datsik story must always begin at one place. The dude once knocked out Andrei Arlovski.

That lends just enough credence to his talents that he was allowed to continue in pro MMA for several years, against all other instincts or logic.

I mean, the guy's just a psycho. He escaped from a psych ward by tearing a hole in a chain-link fence with his bare hands. He was later caught when he was apprehended after robbing a mobile-phone store.

And those are just his most recent capers.

Lee Murray

Give it up for "Lightning" Lee Murray.

The story of this arch criminal and pretty darn good MMA fighter (he once gave Anderson Silva a decent scrap) is well-documented.

He grew up violent, living as a drug dealer before trying MMA and ultimately masterminding a $92 million—that's not a misprint—bank heist in his native Great Britain. He eluded capture for a while before being arrested in Morocco. He's still incarcerated there today, despite his best efforts.

This is just K-1 level nefarity right here.

Scott Harris likes to think of himself as nefarious. So follow him on Twitter, why don't you. Or else.