This week not only brought the news of Irish hype-machine Conor McGregor’s return to the octagon, but that he will in fact be headlining the UFC’s return to Dublin at Fight Night 46 in July against TUF 3 alum Cole Miller.
“Notorious” has lived up to his nickname thus far in his UFC career, scoring impressive victories over Marcus Brimage and Max Holloway and drawing the attention of fans worldwide in the process. But perhaps the only thing that has overshadowed McGregor’s athleticism and dominance inside the octagon has been the praise and publicity he has received outside of it. Whether it’s Heineken ads, impromptu modeling opportunities, or his ever-expanding Twitter persona, McGregor has quickly become one the UFC’s biggest and brightest stars, thanks in no small part to his almost unprecedented amount of insolence and arrogance.
Whether or not McGregor will live up to the hype he’s earned is yet to be determined, but in order to truly gauge how far McGregor can go in the UFC, we should probably look back at how well some of the prospects who have been held in his likeness have fared over the years. Prospects like…
Houston Alexander
History: As if by the whim of some mythical deity of righteous ass-whoopings, Houston Alexander was plucked from absolute obscurity to face Keith Jardine, who had just come off the biggest win of his career over Forrest Griffin, at UFC 71. The fight was said to be a squash match in every sense of the word, to the point that Jardine engaged in some rare pre-fight trash-talk with Alexander, calling him “a nobody” who “wasn’t on his level.”
Alexander put all doubts to rest (and several Vegas bookies out of a job) on fight night, however, leveling (nailed it) Jardine in under a minute and striking fear into the hearts of damn-near everyone who witnessed the fight live. While Alexander’s punching power would be validated in his next win over Alessio Sakara (“Houston Alexander is for real!!”), it would be his ground game that was exposed in his next four UFC fights, which he would drop to Kimbo Slice and Eric Shafer among others.
Bank or Bust?: Bust. Just don’t tell Houston I said that. Please. I’m begging you.
Brandon Vera
History: A fierce finisher with equally dazzling Muay Thai and submission skills, Brandon Vera promised to be the UFC’s first multi-division champion when he was signed by the promotion back in 2005. With four straight stoppage victories including a first round TKO of Frank Mir, it looked like the undefeated Vera was well on his way to securing both the heavyweight and light heavyweight belts, especially given how weak the UFC’s Heavyweight division was at the time.
But it was Vera’s first loss as a professional that would all but lead to his complete undoing.
The event was UFC 77. Vera was paired against Tim Sylvia, who had only recently lost the heavyweight belt to Randy Couture at UFC 68, and the result was an ugly decision loss that brought Vera’s multi-divisional dream crumbling down. Or maybe his first round TKO loss to Fabricio Werdum in his next fight is what killed that dream. In either case, Vera dropped to light heavyweight in his next fight, where he has gone 4-5 1 NC since. Not to mention he was literally used as bongos by Thiago Silva.
Bank or Bust?: Bust. The thing about saying you’ll be a two-division champion and never even earning a title shot is, it’s dishonest.
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
History: In just five fights as a pro, Sokoudjou had scored massive upset victories over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona under the Pride banner. That he had won both those fights via brutal knockouts in under two minutes was all the UFC needed to sign the Cameroonian judoka. As (bad) luck would have it, Sokoudjou would be paired against an equally hyped prospect in his promotional debut at UFC 79: Lyoto Machida. Based on what you know about Lyoto Machida and what you know about Sokoudjou, I think you can picture how that fight went down.
Sokoudjou would bounce back in his sophomore fight, though, battering Kazuhiro Nakamura with leg kicks that eventually forced him to give up on his stool at UFC 84. But the thrill of victory would be short-lived for the man whose name Mike Goldberg absolutely f*cking loved to pronounce, as his next fight with Luiz Cane at UFC 89 would expose his cardio shortcomings as well as his inability to defend Cane’s patented bitch-slap combo. Sokoudjou would drop eat another loss, receive his walking papers, and spending the rest of his career getting his ass-kicked by anyone good enough to have a Wikipedia page.
Uriah Hall
History: Chances are that if you caught an episode of TUF 17: Jones vs. Sonnen, you saw at least one replay of Hall’s KO via spinning deathkick over Adam Cella. Instantly earning Dana White’s praise as “one of the nastiest f*cking knockouts in TUF History,” Hall’s KO (and successive stompings of Bubba McDaniel and Dylan Andrews) would make him a virtual superstar, and between the constant comparisons to Anderson Silva and claims as being “the baddest dude in TUF History” (also courtesy of Dana White), Halls was easily the most hyped fighter to come out of the reality show in some time.
Unfortunately, Hall’s actual UFC career has not been privy to such smooth sailing. After dropping a lackluster decision to Kelvin Gastelum (a natural welterweight) in the show’s finale, Hall would similarly fail to impress in his follow-up fight with John Howard at Fight Night 26 last August. For as hard a hitter as Hall was, he looked gun-shy and tentative in both those appearances, as if he had grown weary of the devastating power he possessed and became all but afraid to use it inside the ring as a result.
A pep talk/tongue-thrasing from Dana White would change things, however, and Hall would show a fine return to form in his next fight, forcing Chris Leben to throw in the towel in their one-round banger at UFC 168. Chew on that for a second: Uriah Hall forced this man to call it quits.
Bank or Bust?: Hold. It’s hard to tell where a guy with as much potential as Hall could wind up, but he rebounded from a couple tough defeats in the best way possible, so we’ll have to see a little more from him before we make a ruling one way or the other.
Brock Lesnar
History: I must have been in a coma when this happened, but apparently, there was this giant, albino King Kong-looking mother*cker from the WWE who not only flew into the UFC on a magic carpet of preconceived hype, but ascended to the ranks of UFC Heavyweight champion, defended the belt, and retired in under 10 UFC fights. Don’t know how I missed that.
Bank or Bust?: Bank. Say what you want about Lesnar, but the man was able to achieve some amazing things during his brief UFC stint, even if he was fast-tracked into those opportunities thanks largely to his popularity in the professional wrestling world. In any case, he brought a lot to the game for a Jack Links Jerky-pushing Sasquatch who had been captured in the wild and taught to speak rudimentary English.
Ronda Rousey
History: Brock Lesnar may have parlayed a wrestling background/career into MMA glory, but Ronda Rousey got to where she is the hard way: By being an ass-kicking former Olympian who cleans up pretty nice to boot. F*CK YEAH, AMERICA!
Look, chances are that if you’ve found your way to Haymaker, you’re probably more than familiar with Rousey’s rise to popularity, so I won’t even waste your time with filler: Ronda Rousey blah blah blah Olympic bronze in Judo blah blah five straight armbars in Strikeforce blah inaugural UFC women’s champion. Blah blah Cris Cyborg feud blah ESPN BODY ISSUE blah blah still undefeated, can’t stop, won’t stop (Rockafella records).
Set to defend her title for the fourth time against Alexis Davis in July (which, all due respect, she will), there’s no denying that Rousey is perhaps the most successful hyped prospect to ever compete in the UFC. Hell, she’s basically the reason the UFC’s women’s division was created, and how many of the other people on this list can say that?
Honorable Mentions: Hector Lombard (Hold), Kimbo Slice (Bust), Cain Velasquez (Bank), and James Toney (LOL!)
