Anderson Silva and 10 Fighters That Just Do Not Look Like MMA Fighters

High-level professional athletes are typically easy to spot, particularly within a macho sport like mixed martial arts. With muscles bulging from their shirts and an intimidating look on their faces, fighters just have that look.

But then there are others who leave new fans to ask that question we’ve all heard before.

“Wait, is he a fighter!?”

I’m not some amazing physical specimen myself, and it’s not that these guys (and gals) aren’t amazing athletes. Some of them are not only amazing, they are even in the category that many would call the best of all time.

They just don’t look like it. I mean no offense to anyone found in this article, but they have probably already all heard it before anyway.

There are 10 fighters who don’t look like fighters in this slideshow, but there are many others as well.

Sometimes the Bleacher Report readers even have better ones than us writers do. So please feel free to leave comments with other fighters who fit this description!

10. Tim Sylvia

Height: 6’8”
Weight: 280 pounds

A former UFC heavyweight champion, Tim Sylvia is certainly one of the obvious choices for this slideshow about fighters with questionable physiques.

At 6’8”, Sylvia is definitely one of the most physically imposing fighters in the heavyweight division. There are only a handful of heavyweights who are taller than him, and he regularly needed to cut down 20-or-more pounds to even reach the 265-pound limit for the UFC’s heavyweight division.

He even tested positive for steroids once, citing the need to shed weight prior to one of his fights.

Since leaving the UFC, though, Sylvia has really let himself go. He has ballooned up, and not surprisingly, he has struggled to get into the win column. 

9. Roy Nelson

Height: 6’0”
Weight: 260 pounds

If you didn’t see this one coming, I feel bad for you.

Roy Nelson might have the most ridiculous physique of any mixed martial artist ever. Not only does he have a ridiculous, mullet-like haircut, but he also lets his belly hang over his shorts like a 60-year-old man who has been on a hot dog-only diet throughout his whole adult life.

But unlike some of the other fighters on this list, Roy Nelson plays along with the joke and even has fun with it.

He regularly enters the cage with the song “Fat” by Weird Al Yankovic playing in through the arena.

8. Mark Hunt

Height: 5’10”
Weight: 263 pounds

A K-1 kickboxing superstar, Mark Hunt not only doesn’t look like a kickboxer, he also doesn’t really look like an MMA fighter.

Sure, he has tattoos and facial hair. He even dyes the hair on the top of his head blonde. Normally those things would be associated with being a fighter, but then you look at his potbelly and weird patchy chest hair and it just makes you forget all about his other characteristics.

Hunt is a bad ass and was pummeling top-level fighters before the sport exploded, but now that things are more competitive, he has really found it difficult to stay competitive.

Perhaps if he got himself to get himself into top physical shape, he’d be able to make one last run.

7. Gina Carano

Height: 5’8”
Weight: 143 pounds

The first lady of MMA is not only a bad ass, she is also one of the hottest women on the planet.

Gina Carano has the skills to pay the bills, but she could also make a living without needing to get punched in the face. Other female athletes are attractive, but few have the looks to get herself into a magazine like Maxim.

Unless you knew she was a fighter, I doubt that anyone could guess that she beats people up for a living. 

6. Tank Abbott

Height: 6’0”
Weight: 270 pounds

He may be retired, but David “Tank” Abbott practically invented the “heavy slugger” physique when it comes to mixed martial arts. He did it all the way back at UFC 6 when he exploded onto the scene by making it all the way to the final of that event’s tournament.

Unfortunately, Tank’s career has been hit-and-miss since that night all the way back in 1995, and he has just a 10-14 career record. He has made a lot of money doing it, though, and even got a job working as a professional wrestler in the late-90s and early-00s because of his unique style.

Tank looks like a fighter, but he actually looks more like bar-room brawler and member of a biker gang than he does a mixed martial artist. 

5. Fedor Emelianenko

Height: 6’0”
Weight: 223 pounds

From one out-of-shape heavyweight to another, Fedor Emelianenko follows up Tank Abbott on this list of fighters who just don’t look like fighters. Then again, that’s about where the comparisons end.

While Tank Abbott has one of the ugliest MMA records in history, Fedor’s heavyweight record is, without question, the best of all time.

For the better part of a decade, Fedor defeated just about every top-level heavyweight in Pride before the organization folded.

The consensus may have changed after Fedor’s terrible performance in 2010, but he was widely considered by most to be the best mixed martial artist ever for most of his career. And he did it while looking like some guy who just stumbled out of a bar at 2:00am.

4. Roxanne Modafferi

Height: 5’8”
Weight: 135 pounds

She’s currently ranked the No. 7 bantamweight in the world by the Unified Women’s MMA Rankings, but Roxanne Modafferi looks like she should be working in a library or watching anime in a dorm room, not fighting!

But at 28 years old, she has already been doing it professionally for almost eight years, including winning numerous championships and even competing for the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight championship in 2010.

Not only do her looks make it surprising that she’s a fighter, but it’s also surprising that she’s actually really good!

3. Eric “Butterbean” Esch

Height: 5’11”
Weight: 420 pounds

A former Toughman competitor and professional wrestler, Eric Esch doesn’t look anything like someone who would be doing any sort of athletic competition for a living. Especially not something that takes as much overall physical skill as mixed martial arts does.

But “Butterbean” has been fighting as a mixed martial artist, off-and-on, since 2003. He has only fought once this year but is scheduled to fight twice in the month of October alone.

Most fighters are done by the time they get to 45 years old, but Butterbean somehow keeps going strong. 

2. Tamdan McCrory

Height: 6’5”
Weight: 185 pounds

At 6’5”, Tamdan McCrory has to be one of the most wirey 185-pounders on the planet. He is also a self-admitted “nerd” who actually began fighting because of what he has referred to as “pent up rage.” He even revealed that he met his trainer on MySpace.

But don’t let the eyeglasses fool you because Tamdan McCrory can fight. He had six fights in the UFC, putting together an even 3-3 record in those fights.

Unfortunately, he was cut by the UFC following his loss to John Howard at UFC 101.

1. Anderson Silva

Height: 6’2”
Weight: 185 pounds

He might be the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, but if a non-MMA fan ever saw him walking on the street, it’d be hard to convince them that Anderson Silva is one of, if not, the baddest dude on the planet.

He’s long and lanky like a fighter, but his body frame is just so weird! And those glasses!

Silva makes other fighters look like they don’t even deserve to be in the cage with him. He humiliated Yushin Okami, he practically kicked Vitor Belfort’s head off and he made Forrest Griffin run out of the cage in shame.

But he just doesn’t look like he’d be anywhere near that good.

Looks can be deceiving, and there may be no better example than the UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva.