5 times UFC rematches didn't live up to the hype
The beauty of MMA is that the sport provides fighters with a platform to settle their differences and put an end to their rivalry. But, just like everything else in life, this isn’t guaranteed and on occasions, a fight inside the octagon only serves to exacerbate the bad blood between two fighters.
The good thing about this is that it gives mixed martial arts fans all around the world the opportunity to see two fighters recreate the magic of their first encounter. When Conor McGregor met Nate Diaz in their second encounter, the expectations were sky high and the fight delivered in a big way. Everyone went home happy that night.
Unfortunately, not all rematches quite have the same impact. In fact, there are a number of rematches that make us wish they had never happened as they have served to sour the memories of a great first encounter. A bad rematch not only destroys fond memories of the encounters before it, it also makes any future fights an impossibility.
So, without any further ado, here are 5 times a UFC rematch didn’t live up to the hype:
#5 Stephan Bonnar vs Forrest Griffin II
I kind of feel bad including this fight on the list because it was actually quite a decent encounter. The problem is that in the finale of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin had put on a fight that is in the discussion for Greatest Fight in the History of the UFC title
Unless both men brought an A++ game filled with superhuman effort, there was no way they were going to top the epic that was their first clash where Griffin picked up the victory after three rounds of intense back and forth action.
Griffin would be successful in this second fight as well but in a much more convincing fashion. A victim of its own success, there was no way Stephan Bonnar vs Forrest Griffin II was going to be able to match, let alone surpass the titanic encounter that was Stephan Bonnar vs Forrest Griffin I.