5 UFC fighters who lost their fear factor
In the world of the UFC, intimidation is definitely a big deal. If a fighter has the fear factor, they can almost win a bout before it even begins.
However, the fear factor is often hard to hold onto in the UFC, and plenty of fighters have lost it over the years, usually after a defeat.
Often, these fighters never quite regain their aura, and their career suffers as a result.
Here are five UFC fighters who lost their fear factor.
#5. Petr Yan - former UFC bantamweight champion
This weekend will see former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan attempt to climb further back into title contention when he faces Deiveson Figueiredo.
The fight is a curious one, as it would've been a champion vs. champion dream match back in 2020, when Yan held the 135-pound title and Figueiredo ruled the 125-pound division.
Back then, 'No Mercy' was probably one of the most feared fighters on the entire roster. Unbeaten in the octagon at 7-0, the Russian had ripped through everyone put in front of him with his rapid-fire hands and nasty combinations.
The fear factor around Yan was so big, in fact, that even legends like Urijah Faber and Jose Aldo looked somewhat intimidated when they faced him.
2021 saw 'No Mercy' lose his title to Aljamain Sterling, but the defeat came via disqualification, and he'd been dominating the bout beforehand. When Yan then tore through Cory Sandhagen, many fans still saw the Russian as the world's best bantamweight.
However, his rematch to Sterling did not go in the same direction, and Yan was beaten after being exposed on the ground somewhat.
It wasn't a bad performance per say, but the loss absolutely wrecked the killer aura he had, and his subsequent defeats to Sean O'Malley and Merab Dvalishvili proved that. Neither man showed him any respect, and both were able to defeat him.
'No Mercy' may well climb back to the top of the division in the future, but he'll probably never regain that fear factor he had prior to his loss to Sterling.
#4. Houston Alexander - former UFC light heavyweight contender
Sometimes, the fear factor only hangs around a UFC fighter for a very short time before evaporating. This was definitely the case with former light-heavyweight contender Houston Alexander.
Nobody had really heard of 'The Assassin' when he was signed by the promotion in mid-2007 to take on Keith Jardine on relatively late notice.
At the time, Jardine was coming off a win over Forrest Griffin and had a fearsome reputation in his own right. Everyone expected 'The Dean of Mean' to roll right over the newcomer.
The exact opposite happened, though, as Alexander absolutely destroyed the TUF veteran with a salvo of brutal strikes, displaying insane power in the process.
When 'The Assassin' then blasted through Alessio Sakara in a minute, the hype around him went off the charts, as did the fear factor. Suddenly, Alexander was a man who nobody with a big name really wanted to face.
That didn't last long, however. Matched with unbeaten Brazilian Thiago Silva in his third fight, Alexander found himself grounded and then knocked out from mount in a single round.
Suddenly, the dangerous aura around 'The Assassin' was gone entirely, and he failed to win any of his further three bouts in the octagon before he departed for good in 2009.
#3. Rousimar Palhares - former UFC middleweight contender
Back in the early 2010's, it's arguable that the most feared fighter in the UFC's middleweight division wasn't the champion Anderson Silva, or even a dangerous contender like Vitor Belfort or Chael Sonnen.
Instead, that status belonged to hulking Brazilian Rousimar Palhares.
Sure, Silva would regularly knock his foes out in devastating fashion, but 'Toquinho' was renowned for catching his opponents in leglocks and ripping their knees to shreds.
Controversially, even tapping out often didn't save fighters from Palhares, as he also gained a nasty reputation for cranking on holds until the referee forcibly stopped him.
By 2012, 'Toquinho' was 7-2 in the octagon, with five of his wins coming via submission. It felt like he was on a direct path to a title shot. However, in a fight with Alan Belcher, not only was his win streak snapped, but his fear factor was also ruined, too.
Belcher not only fought off Palhares' deadly leglocks, but once he'd escaped, he got on top and smashed the Brazilian with elbows and punches until the referee had to rescue him.
The beating not only knocked Palhares out of competition, it ruined his reputation as the division's boogeyman. While he did go onto success elsewhere after being released by the UFC, he never really regained the fear factor he once had.
#2. Mirko Cro Cop - former UFC heavyweight contender
In the mid-2000's, it was widely considered that the world's best heavyweights did not fight in the UFC, and instead called Japan's PRIDE promotion their home.
When PRIDE began to crash due to scandal, though, most of their top fighters made their way stateside. The one who arrived with the most hype was probably Mirko Cro Cop.
Cro Cop was not considered the very best heavyweight in PRIDE - that accolade went to Fedor Emelianenko - but he was arguably the most intimidating.
A legend in K-1 kickboxing before he moved into MMA, Cro Cop's left head kick was the closest thing the sport had to a guaranteed finisher. Essentially, he epitomised the idea of the fear factor.
Indeed, when he made his octagon debut against Eddie Sanchez, the fight resembled a predator stalking its prey. Sanchez appeared terrified at points, and once Cro Cop closed him down, he quickly finished him off.
Things didn't go quite the same in his second fight, though. Pitted against Gabriel Gonzaga, most observers expected another easy win for the Croatian.
However, 'Napao' showed no fear whatsoever, and bullied him on the ground before nearly decapitating him with a head kick of his own.
The result was one of the UFC's all-time great upsets, but more than that, it absolutely shattered Cro Cop's fearsome reputation for good.
His career in tatters, he departed for Japan later that year, and despite making two returns to the promotion, never climbed back into contention again.
#1. Francis Ngannou - former UFC heavyweight champion
It's arguable that the only fighter in UFC history to lose his fear factor only to regain it later is former heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.
'The Predator' debuted in the octagon quietly, stopping Luis Henrique in late 2015 with a nasty uppercut. However, it didn't take him long to build a reputation for himself.
Stoppages of five more opponents, culminating in back-to-back knockouts of Andrei Arlovski and Alistair Overeem, elevated him to the top of the division.
Suddenly, when he was matched with reigning champion Stipe Miocic, everyone expected him to win easily. Put simply, the UFC had never seen such an intimidating force in the heavyweight division.
Unfortunately for Ngannou, the one man who wasn't intimidated was Miocic. After surviving a couple of early scares, he managed to ground 'The Predator', wore him out on the mat and basically beat him up.
With the loss, the scariest man in the sport was hugely diminished, and when he then lost to Derrick Lewis after barely throwing a strike, his reputation seemed wrecked for good.
Remarkably, though, Ngannou bounced back. A series of violent knockouts from the back end of 2018 through into 2020 not only restored his status in the division, but his fear factor, too.
And in 2021, with his scary aura returned, he avenged his loss to Miocic in devastating fashion, knocking him out cold in the second round. Although he no longer competes in the UFC, 'The Predator' has not lost in MMA since.