Sinosic is one that came to mind. His record is 8-11 but he was basically used as a stepping stone in the UFC and was never really given a chance to develop himself in the octagon. His losses in the UFC are to Bisping, Sakara, Forrest, Babalu, Tanner and Ortiz. Thats a pretty tough run.
Another person is Kazuhiro Nakamura. His record is 13-9 but all his losses are from TOP competition, he pretty much fought the best of the best in Japan and because hes lost to alot of them, he doesnt get alot of respect or fan fare.
Losses= Santiago TKO, Sokodjou TKO(leg injury), Machida UD, Shogun UD, Barnett RNC, Wanderlai TKO, Henderson UD, Lil Nog x2 Armbar SD.
Notable Wins= Young Randleman UD, Murilo Bustamante UD, Vovchanchyn UD, Cyborg Keylock, "kiss" Nakao UD, Yuki Kondo UD
Vitor Rebeiro, 20-2. Hes 4 time BJJ world champ. His only 2 losses come from JZ and Kawajiri.
Notable wins= Kawajiri UD, Joachim Hansen Arm Traingle, Ishida UD, Daisuke Nakamura Straight Armbar.
Last edited 7/3/09 1:49AM by jimbo Edit note/reason: n/a 4 total post edits
light weight - Lauzon and Neer ... both fighters should be fighting more and on main cards not just fight night events. Frankie Edgar finally got some respect he deserved by beating Sherk... I think he should be the number 1 contender for a title shot.
Welterweight - Brock Larson ... this guys a beast and they need to start giving him good opponents now.
Middleweight - can't think of any
Light Heavy - division seems pretty even to me
Heavy - Shane Carwin
In my opinion there is a hell of a lot more Overrated guys.. I could write a book on those.
Gegard Mousasi Jorge Santiago Satoru Kitaoka Michael Bisping
When does a fighter stop being "underrated?" When everybody started considering Machida "underrated," some fans started classifying him as "overrated," and I became confused.
He's not considered a top 10 by any stretch, so I guess I can say he's underrated right?
18 wins, 14 by Sub, 4 by TKO 0 Decisions.
He's a whitebelt in BJJ (or a no-belt as he says on the UFC site) but sure fights like a brown belt as his grappling in his last match (although against a striker) looked outstanding.
I rank him behind Nate Diaz and Gray Maynard as far as TUF5 alumni goes, and he beat Jens Pulver!
_______________________________________ HW: Minotauro, Engineer, Cigano LHW: Dragon, Griffin, Rampage, Ace MW: Maia, Spider, Nate WW: Rush, Jon Fitch, Hitman LW: KenFlo, J Lau, The Bully, The Answer, T. Griffin, Jim Miller
I'll probably catch hell for this- but I'm going to throw Jamie Varner out there just based on the amount of hate we've seen posted on the internet lately. 16-2 MMA, All American ranked D1 wrestler, NCAA Boxing Champion.
I'd also like to add Josh Thomson and Steve Cantwell onto the list. I expect big things out of Cantwell in the future that his current record doesn't necessarily show.
_______________________________________ "It is a shame that in this society we've been taught to judge a man's worth by what he owns instead of who he is." - Evan Tanner
I'm not really sure how to guage "underrated". Just about every guy listed on this thread is a hell of a fighter. I'd say that guys like Mousasi arn't so much "underrated" as they are unknown. My guess is, if you are savy enough to actually know who Gregard Mousasi is, you're probably savy enough to understand what he's capable of. I think the exact same can be said for several other fighter mentioned in this thread.
_______________________________________ And as El Guapo always says- "God speed, and party on. Whoap!"
After reading through this list, I think Satoru Kitaoka is definately one of the top guys on this list. He's definately a top 10 lw imo, and most people dont even know who he is. He has submission wins over a lot of top competition, and seems like a very humble guy. Check him out!
