Biggest UFC fighters ever

[Riddick Bowie]

Who would you say are the cagefighters that have truly crossed over and become big names in the public consciousness?

The only two I can of are Conor McGregor and the short lived Ronda Rousey. Is that it?

[JamesPhilips]

Chuck Lidell? Tito Ortiz? No one comes close to mcgregor through. Also I see you have been posting for over 18 years but only 133 posts lol. Impressive statistics

[Riddick Bowie]

Chuck Lidell? Tito Ortiz? No one comes close to mcgregor through. Also I see you have been posting for over 18 years but only 133 posts lol. Impressive statistics

Quality over quantity my friend!

[JamesPhilips]

Chuck Lidell? Tito Ortiz? No one comes close to mcgregor through. Also I see you have been posting for over 18 years but only 133 posts lol. Impressive statistics

Quality over quantity my friend!

Lol

[Wee Tommy]

Who would you say are the cagefighters that have truly crossed over and become big names in the public consciousness?

The only two I can of are Conor McGregor and the short lived Ronda Rousey. Is that it?

Connor is the biggest, after him I’d say Randy Couture, George’s St Pierre and Khabib are all pretty well known. Khabib especially in the Muslim world.

[margaret thatcher]

ronda rousey was sickingly big a few years back. absolutely barf inducing levels of hype that ive never seen in combat sports. even getting called the greatest fighter ever male or female. you even had dudes eating up that she was naturally 10/10 beautiful, not just a bit of a sexy lady cuz she fights well, but a legit gorgeous stunner - dudes, she's like shannon courtney after a hard nite in terms of looks

[Baby Face Finster]

ronda rousey was sickingly big a few years back. absolutely barf inducing levels of hype that ive never seen in combat sports. even getting called the greatest fighter ever male or female. you even had dudes eating up that she was naturally 10/10 beautiful, not just a bit of a sexy lady cuz she fights well, but a legit gorgeous stunner - dudes, she's like shannon courtney after a hard nite in terms of looks

She looks like she could pass for the Grinch if you paint her green!

[Wee Tommy]

ronda rousey was sickingly big a few years back. absolutely barf inducing levels of hype that ive never seen in combat sports. even getting called the greatest fighter ever male or female. you even had dudes eating up that she was naturally 10/10 beautiful, not just a bit of a sexy lady cuz she fights well, but a legit gorgeous stunner - dudes, she's like shannon courtney after a hard nite in terms of looks

So true.

I’d pump her tho.

[Perseus]

A few others to add on.

Brock Lesnar............but he was famous long before stepping into the octagon.

Kimbo Slice was a household name too.
Absolute cringe worthy example but he had the fame.

Rampage maybe?

[Baby Face Finster]

No to Rampage. I’d put Chuck Liddell ahead of him in terms of fame or popularity.

[bobcatbox]

Uriah Faber was pretty popular there for a while.

Slice was famous before he tried out for the UFC.

McGregor is by far their biggest star ever.

[p4p1]

ronda rousey was sickingly big a few years back. absolutely barf inducing levels of hype that ive never seen in combat sports. even getting called the greatest fighter ever male or female. you even had dudes eating up that she was naturally 10/10 beautiful, not just a bit of a sexy lady cuz she fights well, but a legit gorgeous stunner - dudes, she's like shannon courtney after a hard nite in terms of looks

It's the worst mean mug I've ever seen tbh. Looks like a toddler that has been told no.

[margaret thatcher]

ya, but. omg she's so beautiful, an absolute stunner! so pretty even though you give her a haircut and you cant tell the difference between her and a dood.

wasnt our boi jcs in love with her too?

[Baby Face Finster]

ya, but. omg she's so beautiful, an absolute stunner! so pretty even though you give her a haircut and you cant tell the difference between her and a dood.

wasnt our boi jcs in love with her too?

Think of all baby grinch's you could have with her. Running around the house, screaming and giving you that grumpy grinch face!

[margaret thatcher]

oh gawd dude

[Baby Face Finster]

oh gawd dude

You're thinking about it aren't you?

[Tinnie]

Its easy to forget how insanely popular Bob Sapp was in Japan and Asia. He was a showman too, but more in the vein of a pro wrestler, and all they loved him, unlike Conor.

[margaret thatcher]

BOBBU

SAPPU!!!

[DrDuke]

If to list them starting with the most popular, it should go somehow like that: McCregor, Lesnar, Liddell, Couture, Diaz brothers, Rousey, Tito Ortiz, Anderson Silva, St-Pierre, Sonnen.

However, McGregor is significantly above everybody. I live in Russia. Here MMA has been pretty popular for quite a while because of Fedor, but it has never been something well-known to casuals. A casual guy would never know the mentioned above names. Random people would name along with Fedor only popular boxers, like Ali, Tyson, Roy Jones or Klitschko brothers. But when McGregor emerged, he joined casuals' lists of famous fighters. Plus the UFC brand was popularized with it being in every sports / Reebok store. Of course, Khabib is superpopular here. Everybody and everywhere were talking Conor-Khabib on the fight week.

[JamesPhilips]

Its easy to forget how insanely popular Bob Sapp was in Japan and Asia. He was a showman too, but more in the vein of a pro wrestler, and all they loved him, unlike Conor.

Sapp didn’t fight in UFC though. He’s too big for starters - I think the limit is 265 pounds

[Impractical Poster]

A few others to add on.

Brock Lesnar............but he was famous long before stepping into the octagon.

Kimbo Slice was a household name too.
Absolute cringe worthy example but he had the fame.

Rampage maybe?

Yeah, I was thinking Brock as well. He was big figuratively and literally.

[USMCer]

Tito Ortiz was the first true cross-over "Star" in MMA.

Chuck Liddell came next.

Ronda Rousey...

And finally Conor McGregor

[gilgamesh]

Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar

The next tier would be Anderson Silva, Randy Couture, and GSP I figure.

[JamesPhilips]

Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar

The next tier would be Anderson Silva, Randy Couture, and GSP I figure.

I think globally Khabib is pretty big, esp in Muslim world. He's well known in West too

[HomicideHenry]

Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, for all intents and purposes managed to take the UFC out of the taboo fringe into the cultural mainstream. Prior to that the sport, at least in the United States, was seen either as human cock fighting or the kumite of Bloodsport fame.

Matt Hughes, though, in my view was the first true mma guy in UFC history because he had multiple disciplines under his belt and defeated the legendary Royce Gracie easily--- showing the world that jiu-jitsu was simply not enough to really be the best fighter in the sport, and that you needed an all-around game.

Anderson Silva and Georges Saint Pierre took it to another level of legitimacy, and one can make the argument that those two are still the best that the UFC ever had with the exception of "Mighty Mouse".

To really penetrate the cultural mainstream, though, I don't think there has ever been a bigger name in the UFC or MMA in general than Rhonda Rousey--- she was bigger than Conor McGregor in virtually every respect.

Television shows, major Hollywood movies, Sports Illustrated covers, commercials, and even was on the cover of Ring Magazine. She was literally everywhere, and even after losing to Holly Holm & Amanda Nunez she was still able to become one of the top draws if not the biggest draw in professional wrestling at WWE. There is a lot of talk that she will rematch Becky Lynch, and that is gaining a lot of traction since she hasn't wrestled since WrestleMania 35 in 2019. So she definitely still sells tickets.

McGregor, on the other hand, hasn't been anywhere near as big as he once was before losing to Floyd Mayweather. And once he started losing in MMA, he's basically become something of a joke as the only time he gets any press is for his ridiculous and outrageous and dangerous outbursts in public.

Jon Jones had the potential to have really been a major crossover star, but getting busted for PED's truly hurt him and his legacy.

It should be kept in mind though that even bottom level UFC guys have more of a name than many champion boxers--- which goes to show you the outdated and incompetent tactics of boxing promoters.

Brock Lesnar was insanely popular when he was competing, but he already had an enormous fan following due to having been in the WWE. Even now he would still be a big name in the UFC as he had people going crazy when he showed up at the Miocic-Cormier fight.

There's been a couple of guys who were popular, or crossed over into popular culture, like Kimbo Slice but those type of people already had a huge following before coming into the UFC. Kimbo needed the Ultimate Fighter tv show, though, to rebuild his image after losing so horribly to Seth Petruzelli in EliteXC.