The Bo Nickal hype train is well and truly underway after his extremely impressive performance at UFC 290. It’s clear that the promotion backs him heavily and sees him as a potential superstar of the future and rightly so. Young and talented, Nickal has the world at his feet and the sky is his limit. He will be hoping to join the likes of Conor McGregor, Francis Ngannou and Israel Adesanya who all experienced massive levels of hype in their careers early on and ultimately managed to fulfil their potential.
Yet for all these success stories there is a whole host of fighters who were expected to do great things in the sport yet ultimately failed to make the impression both the UFC and fans hoped they would. This list will run through 5 noticeable examples.
5 Fighters Who Never Lived Up to Their Hype
Number 5: Brandon Thatch
While the temptation to place Johnny Walker on this list was hard to resist, the fact the Brazilian is currently riding a 3 fight win streak and is making his way into the upper echelons of the Light Heavyweight division says him from making an appearance for now.
Instead, the first fighter up is from a previous generation. One a lot of newer fans may not remember, Brandon Thatch. Thatch made his debut in the UFC back in 2013 as a 9-1 professional. He already had a serious hype train upon entering the promotion with all nine of his wins coming by finishes in the first round and his only loss being a split decision in his second fight.
Thatch would continue this run of form in the UFC beating Justin Edwards and Paulo Thiago by devastating first-round KO in each bout. At this stage, Thatch was among the hottest prospects in the sport and had an unheard-of streak of 10 first-round finishes. There were talks that he was knocking out Heavyweights in his gym and he appeared to be unstoppable.
He was scheduled to take on fellow accomplished striker Stephen Thompson in his first main event in what was sure to have been a purely on-the-feet affair. This bout would never materialise, however, with Thompson pulling out. Benson Henderson was brought in as a replacement. Henderson was coming up from Lightweight and the massive size difference between himself and Thatch (who could’ve passed for a Middleweight) led many to believe that he was simply going to become another member of the first round finish streak.
Yet this did not happen, Henderson was able to expose a hole in Thatch’s game and gained a submission victory. Thatch’s next three opponents would follow Henderson’s blueprint and each one would finish Thatch with a submission. The hype remained with Thatch at least to a certain extent throughout this losing streak as he entered into each fight as the betting favourite including his last against Niko Price. Price would submit Thatch with an arm triangle at UFC 207 and this would be the last time Thatch would ever compete.
Number 4: Edmen Shahbazyan
Edmen Shahbazyan was at one stage one of the most highly regarded prospects in the UFC. Initially gaining fame for being one of Ronda Rousey’s training partners as a teenager, Shahbazyan made his MMA debut in 2017 winning his first 6 fights all by first round knockout. He would then be invited to Dana White’s contender series where he would again pick up another first round KO victory. This would lead to him being signed by the organisation on a full time contract.
Shahbazyan’s first three fights further added to his hype as he picked up three victories, two first round finishes and a decision. Keep in mind that at the time Shahbazyan was only 21 years old during this initial rise and commentators and other fighters are singing his praises. He was given a drastic step up in competition for his fourth fight being paired with Brad Tavares. An extremely solid ranked fighter who only lost to the best in the division and despite losing his previous bout to Israel Adesanya had been riding a four fight win streak. Shahbazyan would dominate this bout and would finish Tavares with a headkick in the very first round, a feat that Israel Adesanya had been unable to accomplish.
After this, his stock rose even higher at 185 lbs with some fans considering him to be an even bigger prospect than Adesanya. A match-up against Derek Brunson was made which was sure to catapult him into the title picture. The Brunson fight was the first time that the weaknesses in Shahbazyan’s game were exploited, mainly that of his limited wrestling game and perhaps more importantly major cardio issues. After being defeated by Brunson he would try his hand with another grappler in the division, Jack Hermansson. Hermansson too was able to easily defeat Shahbazyan who at this point was looking like a shell of his former self.
A fight against Nassourdine Imavov would see the dreaded three fight losing streak come to life and utterly derail the hype train that was once behind him. Shahbazyan has gone 1-1 in his career since the Imavov bout and seems unlikely to break into the top 15 again let alone become a champion. Still at only 25 there is plenty of time for him to address the issues in his game and reach the heights that were once expected of him.
Four in a row for @ilovebamf! 😤
He leaves our #UFCVegas73 co-main with a TKO over Edmen Shahbazyan pic.twitter.com/2DQuHBKyLJ
— UFC (@ufc) May 21, 2023
Number 3: Sage Northcutt
Sage Northcutt was bred to be a fighter. From a young age, Northcutt would begin training and winning championships famously winning 77 youth championships in karate as well as becoming an undefeated kickboxer. He would become one of the biggest prospects in MMA and shortly after making his debut would attract the attention of the UFC and would make his debut for the organisation at the tender age of 19.
Northcutt would impress in his run with the UFC winning his first two fights. His incredible athleticism, impressive physique and non-controversial personality saw the UFC push him to the moon and he began appearing on more and more platforms associated with the company. Northcutt would pick up his first defeat in his career in his third fight against Bryan Barberena and would see his momentum stopped for a time. He would then win a fight before losing once again to Mickey Gall.
Despite then going on a three-fight win streak Northcutt would not be offered a new contract once his current one had expired and was allowed to leave the organisation with Dana White simply saying that he was young and needed to work on his game and that the UFC may come back to him in the future. Northcutt was signed by ONE Championships and would make his debut against Cosmo Alexandre where he would be defeated by devastating knockout in the first round with Northcutt receiving eight fractures in his face from the loss.
This defeat caused him to take a 4 year hiatus from MMA with him only making his return this year again at ONE Championship, in a winning effort where he would pick up a submission victory. Northcutt’s case is an interesting one as he still holds an extremely impressive record of 12-3 as well as a UFC record of 6-2. Yet he has never looked close to achieving the heights that many believed he was capable of. Still only 27, time is certainly on his side and if he can build some momentum now that he has returned he may return to our screens fighting under the UFC banner and may finally fulfil those previous expectations.
Number 2: Darren Till
Bursting onto the scene back in back in 2017 with an explosive performance over Donald Cerrone, finishing him inside the first round, Darren Till announced himself to the UFC faithful. Till had gone three fights unbeaten in the organisation prior to the Cerrone fight yet had failed to break into the MMA mainstream with two wins and a draw. The finish against Cerrone would do exactly that and his impressive physical stature at 170 lbs alongside his outspoken and brash personality landed him a main event spot for his next contest.
A fight in his hometown of Liverpool up against former two-time title challenger, Stephen Thompson showed how much faith the UFC had in him. A lacklustre fight for sure, yet Till was still awarded the unanimous decision victory and was granted a title shot against at the time champion Tyron Woodley. Till had gone from almost unknown to title fight in two fights in just less than a year.
Ultimately he would come up short against Woodley who easily manhandled the young Liverpudlian handing Till the first loss of his career. A further Kknockout defeat to Jorge Masvidal encouraged Till to move up to Middleweight where he would find success making his debut against Kelvin Gastelum picking up the win.
Since defeating Gastelum, Till has lost three fights on the bounce with each fight being more competitive than the previous fight, getting completely dominated by Dricus Du Plessis in his last outing for the UFC before being released in 2023. At one point in time, Till was 17-0-1 and was speculated by many to beat Woodley and become a champion at Welterweight and Middleweight alike, yet including the loss against Woodley in 2018 he has gone 1-5 and now after leaving the company for a time is further away from his title aspirations than he ever was before.
Number 1: Uriah Hall
The man who at one time was labelled as the next Anderson Silva, Uriah Hall was a product of The Ultimate Fighter who was once considered by many to be the future of the Middleweight division. Hall was delivering performance after performance on the show and his knockout of fellow contestant Adam Cella is widely regarded as one of the most vicious highlight reel knockouts in the entire sport of MMA. His performances on The Ultimate Fighter would lead to UFC president Dana White as well has his own coach Chael Sonnen label him as the heir to Anderson Silva and a future champion in the making.
Hall would make it to the final of the show losing to future title contender Kelvin Gastelum in the final yet would still be offered a contract in the UFC. Hall would go on to have a long career with the organisation and would end up fighting 18 times in the UFC. His physical talents and attributes would be present throughout his career where he would often pick up a spectacular knockout, though he would consistently fail in his attempts to defeat the highest level Middleweights in the organisation. Hall’s main criticisms were not his lack of talent, many felt that he simply lacked the mentality to thrive at the highest level and a common narrative developed that he was simply too much of a nice guy.
Many fans pointed to the clear remorse and guilt on his face after his infamous knockout of Adam Cella in The Ultimate Fighter days and maintained that Hall was simply too scared to pull the trigger for fear of hurting someone like that again.
These same fans will point to Hall’s contest against Chris Weidman where Weidman would suffer a horrific leg break at the opening of Round one. Hall appeared shaken by the incident and went on to lose his next two fights. Ultimately Uriah Hall would have an extremely solid career in the UFC going 10-8 in his time with the company and would only lose to some of the best Middleweights on the planet, yet ultimately he never got close to the expectations that were set for him when entering the UFC.
Uriah Hall has announced his retirement on Instagram.
He retires with wins over three of the greatest middleweights ever (Silva, Weidman, Mousasi) and one of the greatest knockouts in MMA history when he was on The Ultimate Fighter (it has 11 million YouTube views!) pic.twitter.com/XDo37Hd7Bc
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) August 10, 2022
