Jon Fitch, Dominick Cruz and Five UFC Fighters to Watch If You Have Insomnia

Yes, boring fighters exist in combat sports, especially in MMA.

Sometimes it's because they take people down and hold them there, sometimes it's because they pin opponents against the cage for three rounds and sometimes it's the fact that they're just so hard to catch.

Now, for some people like myself, guys such as the more-elusive fighters are actually interesting to watch because you never know when they'll pull the trigger and land their proverbial one-kill-shots on opponents, but if you're an insomniac and haven't gotten a good night's rest since the sixth grade, there's a good chance that some guys might actually help out with that.

It's tough to say who would be the biggest cure for insomnia outside of the UFC, but wherever you look, there are guys that are just flat out boring to watch in MMA. The only reason we watch them fight is really in the hopes that whomever they face will be the man to put them in a coma.

Some of the guys you're about to see will cure your insomnia and there might be some that may actually cause it to linger for some, but all of the men you're about to see have been accused of being boring fighters.

Would you guys like to meet these five guys?

How Did These Guys Make the List?

Eminem's "Go To Sleep," featuring hip-hop legend DMX and current BME recording artist Obie Trice (a former artist of Eminem's Shady Records label), is mostly for you guys to listen to something while you view this slide.

Anyways, what did it take to make this list?

It was a case of either:

A. A large majority of MMA fans have complained about them, as in they wouldn't bother to watch these guys even if they were in a title fight on a free card.

B. They had managed to actually be boring. In other words, they were seen as overly elusive or they "layed and prayed," or they relied heavily on controlling their opponents and felt content on "not losing" more than winning the fight.

OR...

C. They constantly said they were going to look for a knockout or a submission, and all of these guys never got around to that.

If you guys have any other suggestions for boring fighters, leave a comment and I will add them as a "Hall of Fame" entry.

I don't believe in honorable mentions...one mention of their name and BOOM! Covered without effort.

Hall of Fame entries take way less effort, so if you would like to nominate anyone, let me know!

(Disclaimer: this list, as the title implies, is mostly only UFC guys, as I don't believe that many guys are boring outside of the UFC. If you think anyone outside the UFC is boring, they will get an honorable mention)

Hall of Fame Question: Should Lyoto Machida Count?

Short answer: it's a split.

He shouldn't get flak for his entire career, because to say his fights with Thiago Silva, Rashad Evans, both his fights with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, his UFC 123 bout with long-overdue opponent Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and his heart-wrenching UFC 129 win over Randy Couture were "boring" is asinine.

Should he catch some heat for a few bouts, like the Tito Ortiz bout? Maybe, but Machida has always been an elusive Karateka with excellent counter-striking and creative offense.

Some people find the whole "landing the most while getting hit the least" style to be pretty cool, but as you will see, others find the style to be a perfect cure to their insomnia.

Dominick Cruz

Like I said from the start, some of the guys on this list I find a bit entertaining, and Dominick Cruz is one of them.

However, not everyone likes his style, which is a more aggressive version of the hit-and-run offense that Lyoto Machida showed before he fought Thiago Silva.

Maybe it's because he doesn't finish most people, or maybe it's because they find something smug about Cruz, and therefore ignore the fact that he does actually fight along the gentle medium between the hit-and-run offense and the "Wand Fight" offense.

Sure, he's one of the few strikers that doesn't always finish, but when your style puts Brian Bowles out of action for over a year, creates a very close and significantly-underrated "Fight of The Year" candidate with Joseph Benavidez, throws the usually-loose Scott Jorgensen off his game and provides a 2011 Fight of The Year candidate in a fight that's only overlooked because Urijah Faber didn't win...is he really that boring?

Some say it's so.

Jake Shields

Fifteen fights, three years and seven decisions in that span—and yet Shields is on this list.

Strange, considering he finished most of his fights in that fifteen-fight streak, but somehow his style is just not that appealing.

Maybe it's his two Strikeforce bouts post-Robbie Lawler, when he earned unanimous decisions over Jason Miller and Dan Henderson by taking them down and controlling them for most of the fight.

Shields might get a free pass because he survived Henderson's famous right hand, but weight cut or not, you can't ignore the fact that he didn't look anything but sluggish against Martin Kampmann. And while he may have taken a round against Georges St-Pierre, he didn't exactly do all that much to convince people that he earned the other twenty minutes.

Shields is a smart fighter, and he is a very strategic fighter.

He's just not as appealing as some might want you to believe.

Gray Maynard (before UFC 125)

If you saw Gray Maynard fight before UFC 125, you shouldn't be surprised that he made this list for what he did before he dropped Frankie Edgar.

Even the first fight with Edgar wasn't all that exciting to watch—and neither were his fights before UFC 125.

It was bullying opponents by using his strength and his wrestling to wear his opponents down to where they couldn't mount any significant offense; that was what defined Maynard's career after his run on The Ultimate Fighter Five.

Now, many people have changed their minds on Maynard while others are still not convinced that Maynard truly can finish a fight.

The first man to beat Frankie Edgar came close to also being the first guy to finish him in a fight, but I suppose that's not enough.

If he knocks Frankie Edgar out in the first 15 seconds of their UFC 136 bout, will people stop calling him boring?

As long as he uses his wrestling, that's about as likely as James Toney becoming relevant enough in MMA to win a major title.

Georges St-Pierre

I'd be lying if I said I didn't find something at least mildly entertaining about Georges St-Pierre, even if his last fight sucked.

I find it entertaining when he works inside someone's guard, I find his takedowns entertaining and I find it entertaining when he does try and deliver some standup.

However, most perceive him as a boring wrestler with subpar striking and no real problems with doing enough to not lose, rather than trying to win fights.

Apart from the BJ Penn fight and the Thiago Alves fight, some point to his past performances as examples of fights GSP probably could have finished, but was somewhat unable to.

The fact that he has not finished since he forced a corner stoppage from BJ Penn's team at UFC 94 tells you why GSP is seen as boring.

He's the champion for a reason: he dominates people and he makes it look easy enough, but like a lot of wrestlers, his style is only exciting if you stick around long enough to see what he's trying to do, rather than focus on what it looks like he's doing.

Jon Fitch

Granted, the Thiago Alves fights weren't bad and I actually wanted to stay awake for his fight with BJ Penn (mostly because BJ Penn won the first round), but before those two fights, how excited were people to see Fitch fight?

Excited enough to where he's the fighter people point to for fights that are going to suck.

All that talk about making people look like they just went through a meat grinder, and yet they end up looking like they gassed out at worst, maybe with a few bumps here and there.

You call that a UFC Welterweight Title contender?

No disrespect to him, but with his record right now and with him not having finished a fight since June 2007, I buy Joe Warren becoming UFC Bantamweight Champion in 2014 before I buy Fitch deserving a crack at the belt without finishing his next opponent.

The sad part is, I don't think I'm going much against the grain in saying so.