Top Five Greatest MMA Fighters (That Dana White has Never Heard Of!)
Thousands of fighters have passed through the doors of the UFC. Untold thousands more will never even dream of coming close to that mark, their level of skill falling tragically short. However, there have been many fighters good enough to make the UFC, but never got the call. Through circumstance and timing, they never managed to catch the eye of UFC president, Dana White in order to give them the call to join the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
5. Megumi Fujii - A Japanese wrestler from the early 2000s, Megumi’s storied career likely flew entirely under Dana’s radar. Why would he pay attention to a woman he couldn’t get financial leverage over in order to coerce a sexual relationship?
4. Joe Warren - This isn’t because Joe was a small guy or a wrestler, two of Dana’s most hated attributes in any fighter. He was a loud asshole, which is exactly what Dana looks for. No, it’s likely Dana specifically ignored Joe Warren as a weird spite-play against Bellator.
3. KID Yamamoto - The hard-punching Japanese bantamweight that competed at lightweight back when UFC didn’t go below 170 lbs didn’t have much of an opportunity during his heyday.
If KID ever did sign with the UFC, it would surely have been a Joe Silva-special, but that never came to pass, since KID traveled to another dimension to save the world there. A nice gentleman named Norifumi at the tail-end of his career did join the UFC, but that was not KID Yamamoto.
2. Bibiano Fernandes - Despite racking up a 14-fight win streak in DREAM and ONE that saw him win the 2011 DREAM Bantamweight Grand Prix, plus both the DREAM and ONE Bantamweight titles, plus seven defenses of his ONE title, Bibi trained with Demetrious Johnson, which give his entire career a thick smokescreen to Dana White.
Honorable Mentions: Cole Konrad - Cole was an undefeated wrestler without many finishes, so it’s possible he escaped Dana’s notice, even after becoming Bellator’s heavyweight champion. However, he did train with Brock Lesnar, so there’s a chance Dana knows him as Brock’s fat friend.
Joachim Hansen - Hansen was small, and European, fighting predominantly in Japan. However, he was a bald guy that knocked the hell out of people, and that’s something Dana thinks about being when he cranks it. He absolutely has a playlist of “Hellboy” highlights for just such occasions.
Reug Reug - Dana White knows Reug Reug. Everybody knows Reug Reug. Reug Reug has infiltrated all aspects of society and culture. We Are All Reug Reug.
1. Alexandre Pantoja - The UFC Flyweight champion has three rough strikes against him. He’s small, he doesn’t get a lot of knockouts, and he’s Brazilian after the UFC has already reached market saturation, so there’s no need to pay attention to the fighters there. It is very likely Dana could not pick Pantoja out of a lineup of two fighters. As far as Dana White is concerned, the UFC Flyweight champion is an intriguing, stoic, and intriguingly shapely Slavic fighter named “Russian Guyovitch”, who is just Valentina Shevchenko holding her hair across her lip for a fake mustache.