Nick Diaz and the 13 Fighters MMA Fans Love to Hate

MMA fans are a picky lot and are displeased with a multitude of fighters. However, there are some very specific fighters that fans, for one reason or another, love to hate more than anyone else.

The fans hate these poor fighters for varying reasons, either they are rude and crude or are even too perfect.

Who are these fighters and why do fans love to hate them? Read and find out!

Tito Ortiz

Tito Ortiz was once one of the most hated UFC fighters back in his prime when he was feuding against Ken Shamrock and Chuck Liddell.

He definitely deserved the nickname "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" for his trash talk, and disrespectful antics (which most famously included wearing insulting T-shirts out to the cage) as well as is attitude towards UFC president Dana White.

However, Ortiz briefly became a more popular character due to his victory over Ryan Bader; fans were happy to see a member of the old guard still prove he could hang with the next generation but after his loss to Rashad Evans liking Ortiz became passé.

Now, it's cool to criticize Ortiz and people who thought he could make a run at the title after beating Bader.

Michael Bisping

British superstar Michael Bisping is a hated man in mixed martial arts. Fans dislike him due to his perceived "protection" in the UFC from upper level competition throughout the early parts of his career as well as his...colorful personality.

Bisping didn't help himself when he committed several transgressions of sportsmanship when he landed a seemingly intentional illegal knee against Jorge Rivera and then spat in the direction of his corner. Plus, it doesn't help that the dude speaks English but still needs subtitles.

It is for these reasons that Bisping makes an excellent villain for the fans to root against.

Josh Koscheck

Fans love to hate Josh Koscheck and perhaps Josh Kosheck surreptitiously loves to be hated by fans.

Koscheck is a trash talker and even faked getting hit by an illegal blow when he fought Paul Daley (when Koscheck tried the same thing against Georges St-Pierre, St-Pierre just shook his finger at him)!

Fighters like him give the fans someone to root against and help make the sport more exciting by infusing it with story lines and hype, and Koscheck is one of the best in MMA at wearing the "black hat."

Rashad Evans

Rashad Evans, despite being recently being scheduled to fight the hated Jon Jones, is not a popular figure in the UFC light heavyweight division.

Perhaps people were upset he beat Chuck Liddell? Maybe they were mad he taunted and destroyed the darling of MMA fans everywhere favorite Forrest Griffin? Or maybe they just didn't like his attitude, demeanor, or swag?

Whatever the reason, Evans is a figure that fans don't exactly respond positively to and they were glad to have a humiliating picture of him after he got knocked out by Lyoto Machida.

However, since current UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones burst onto the scene, some hate towards Evans has been diverted toward Jones, but people still don't like Evans a whole lot; they just feel he's cocky and overrated.

B.J. Penn

If you have a lot of fans, you'll have a lot of haters. It's one of the only definitive truths in a sport where "anything can happen" (so the cliché goes). B.J. Penn and many of the other fighters on the list to follow are perfect examples of this maxim.

Fighters like Penn are skilled, accomplished and loved, but a legion of fans still love to hate them perhaps out of spite, jealousy, or thinking the fighters just aren't that good.

Penn himself is touted as one of the all-time greats, but a significant amount of fans think Penn is overrated as a fighter and is generally a cry baby and a whiner. They cite his reaction to Georges St-Pierre's greasing and the whole TRT controversy with Nate Marquardt (which will be explained in the next slide) as proof.

In addition, they also criticize Penn for not always being motivated. Penn may not be the most hated man, but the unfortunate reality is that he certainly has some haters.

Nate Marquardt

Nate Marquardt was fired from the UFC for failing to earn medical clearance for UFC on Versus 4. The whole issue centered on Marquardt's use of testosterone replacement therapy or TRT.


Marquardt's general attitude, lackluster fights and the circumstances of his UFC departure, as well as the fact that he has failed a drug test in the past, have made him a villain amongst many fans of MMA.

Anderson Silva

Many people hated Anderson Silva after paying for UFC 90, UFC 97 and UFC 112 and seeing Silva "defend" his middleweight crown in some of the most infamously boring fights in MMA history.

Fortunately for Silva, his popularity has received a large increase due his successful title defense in an incredibly hyped up fight with Chael Sonnen and the amazing knockout victories over Vitor Belfort and Yushin Okami.

Nevertheless, Silva still has a legion of haters due to his apparent cocky attitude and refusal to speak English to the media and fans in the United States (or Portuguese to the fans/media in Brazil).

In addition, many of these people probably think the champ is overrated. Whenever any fighter is proclaimed to be the pound-for-pound best fighter, there will always be an army of "fans" who will vehemently hate that sentiment as well as that fighter; Anderson Silva is living proof.

Georges St-Pierre

UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is simultaneously one of the most popular and one of the most hated men in the sport of MMA.

St-Pierre actually started out as largely only popular; he was loved by all except his opponents.

However, this began to change when the champion began to change the fighting style that fit his nickname, "Rush," and allegedly began to fight more safely. St-Pierre is now labeled by many fans as a boring fighter because he doesn't finish fights. "He fights to not lose rather than win," they say.

This anti-GSP attitude has only become more prevalent since his decision victory over Jake Shields at UFC 129 and should GSP win a "boring" decision over Carlos Condit at UFC 137, his transformation from hero to villain will be complete; fans will hate him and he will go down in history as a fighter who didn't truly "fight" but rather abused the scoring system.

Jon Fitch

Unfortunately, the hard-working, hard-fighting Jon Fitch is hated by many fans. Fitch is 13-1-1 in the UFC and is 23-3-1 (1 NC) overall in his career. He is undefeated in his last seven fights and has only lost to UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre during his time in the UFC.

Why then is Fitch still hated despite his success?

The general consensus is that Fitch is the most boring fighter on the UFC roster and that he is the champion of the "lay and pray" tactic in which a fighter uses his wrestling to "lay" on an opponent and "pray" for a decision.

There are other issues at work when the hate of Jon Fitch is discussed but they have been previously written about in detail here and will therefore not be further covered.

Brock Lesnar

So hated is former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar that an entire slideshow has been dedicated to why fans love hating him.

So to summarize, why do they hate him so? His time in the WWE, his bad attitude, and his fast track to the title.

Nick Diaz

Nick Diaz has always been a villainous character in MMA because of his outrageous taunting, prolific use of the middle finger, trash talk and avoidance of the media.

However, it seemed as though he was becoming an anti-hero type character when he was set to fight Georges St-Pierre at UFC 137 but he blew it by not showing up to the press conference and losing the title shot.

Since then, even many of Diaz's former fans have turned on him, making Diaz one of the most hated figures in MMA.

Jon Jones

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon "Bones" Jones is swiftly becoming a hated figure in the world of mixed martial arts.

Why? Much of the reason is probably due to the fact that a significant amount of fans feel that Jones' humble Christian shtick is merely a gimmick and that the true Jon Jones (an egotistic maniac) is slowly emerging. 

An entire slideshow was dedicated to possible reasons why fans hate Jon Jones that explains the issue in greater detail.

Chael Sonnen

Chael Sonnen made himself known to all MMA fans when he went on a vigorous trash talking campaign. Because of this, he has made himself the man that fans love to hate the most. Sonnen has talked more trash (although Sonnen himself would say it isn't trash talking, but rather the truth) than anyone in the history of the UFC.

At first, the smack talk was fine with people and they thought it was funny. However, as time went on people began to hate Sonnen for it. Some hated it because it was dishonorable, some hated it because it reminded them of fake WWE-style promos. But what they all had in common was that they hated Sonnen and his trash talk.

Sonnen is also one of the few fighters (if not the only) to have had a lowlight video made of him rather than a highlight; he is hated that much.

So prolific is Sonnen's verbiage that it's difficult to pick just one video to show. So please, watch this video but then search his name in YouTube and enjoy.