MMA Mailbag: MMA’s Best Rivalries, Past and Present

Chael Sonnen (left) and Anderson Silva (center)Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Welcome back in to the B/R MMA Mailbag. Here’s where we answer your questions about all the various MMA issues of the day.

UFC 272 goes down March 5 and is topped by the culmination of one of the most fiery and widely dissected feuds in recent memory. Accomplished welterweights Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington both trained together at American Top Team before a falling-out made them bitter enemies. Both are known for their skills on the mic and in the media, both mainstream and social. And they’ll both have a chance at satisfaction when the main event begins in Las Vegas.

The whole thing got us to thinking. What are some of the sport’s best rivalries? It could be now, it could be in the past. We asked you, the reader, for your takes, and the responses ran the gamut.

We picked several responses and will grade them here. Submissions may be edited for length or clarity. Ready? Let’s get it on.

Chuck vs. Tito

@JeremyGordon

Play word association with any old MMA head and see how they respond to the word “rivalry.” I’d be willing to wager that most would bring up Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz as the grudge match of the 2000s and beyond. You can’t have this conversation without them. Even ESPN produced a 30 for 30 documentary devoted entirely to the beef between these two champions and Hall of Famers.

Liddell (left) and OrtizMarlene Karas/Associated Press

Both men were bruising light heavyweights. Liddell stalked down his opponents and finished them with kickboxing and that deadly overhand right, while Ortiz was a master of ground-and-pound, which back then was a fighting style unto itself.

Their personalities could not have been more different. Ortiz, heavily influenced by professional wrestling, was the loudmouth heel. Liddell leaned into his nickname, Iceman, his cool-headed demeanor belying a ferocious killer instinct underneath.

Drama followed the pair wherever they went. Ortiz, who held the light heavyweight title for three years, faced repeated accusations that he was ducking Liddell, taking the fight only after he lost the strap to Randy Couture. That allowed the rivalry to simmer for two years, with suspense building the entire time.

When they finally stepped in the Octagon together, Liddell won by second-round KO, but the result was marred by an eye poke in the fight’s closing sequence—a dirty tactic associated with Liddell throughout his career. 

The second contest, held at UFC 66 in 2006, ended with another Liddell knockout. It was Liddell’s fourth consecutive defense of the title he won from Couture in 2005.

There was a third fight, but I refuse to seriously acknowledge their pitiful 2018 money grab under Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, which saw a 43-year-old Ortiz knock out a 48-year-old corn husk doll that loosely approximated Liddell.

I could go on, but we’ll leave it there. This rivalry between two decorated champions stands out as one of the best, most action-packed, most controversial and most sustained rivalries the sport has ever produced.

Grade: A

Jon Jones-Daniel Cormier will always be the best. They genuinely hated each other and still do.

@blahblahblah9

The hate was indeed real between these two light heavyweights. Witness the anguished tears Cormier couldn’t stifle after his second loss to Jones.

The whole thing started as a bit of bravado gone awry and blossomed into full-on mutual hate. It wasn’t a shock from the swaggering Jones, but it was a bit jarring to see the affable Cormier spewing invective all over the MMA news cycle. If it was all an act, these two thespians are in the wrong line of work.

To call out just a couple of examples from the full timeline, these two brawled on stage during a media event in 2010 and repeatedly traded pointed and personal barbs on national television.

In the first bout at UFC 182, Jones dominated the action for five rounds, outlanding Cormier 92-58 in significant strikes, per UFC stats, thanks in large part to the massive 12-inch reach advantage then-champion Jones held over the challenger. With his cornermen sporting T-shirts that read “Break Bones,” Cormier simply could not get inside to work his wrestling game, eating clinch elbows and uppercuts for his troubles and landing only one of eight takedown attempts.

Jones (left) and CormierJohn Locher/Associated Press

Their second bout, at UFC 214 in 2017, didn’t go much better for Cormier. In fact, it was markedly worse, as he suffered a dizzying knockout in the third round.

But it wouldn’t be a Jon Jones fight without a dose of malfeasance. The fight was later overturned to a no-contest after Jones failed a drug test. So it goes.

This one stands out for the sheer enmity and prodigious talent on both sides.

But it loses points for its one-sidedness in the cage.

Still, Jones and Cormier arguably go one-two as the best light heavyweights ever, and their rivalry was a gift to fans.

Grade: A-

Silva vs. Sonnen

@Chico_suave

@vince_flamingo

A little context: In 2010, Anderson Silva was the baddest man on the planet, repeatedly and easily defending his middleweight title and even destroying a few light heavies on the side just for fun. So it was notable when Chael Sonnen, accomplished but still just a 4-3 record in the UFC, raised his hand and essentially talked himself into a title shot.

Did Sonnen’s trash talk cross the line at times, particularly his comments on Silva’s wife and, you know, the entire nation of Brazil? It arguably did.

But he backed up the talk at UFC 117 when he came within two minutes of shocking the world for Silva’s middleweight title. Instead, he famously tapped to a Hail Mary triangle choke that kept Silva from suffering a massive, legacy-altering upset. (Sonnen’s subsequent drug test failure and lack of contrition also added to the drama around the bout.)

Their second bout in 2012 ended in a second-round Silva knockout, after Sonnen badly whiffed on a spinning backfist and fell on his backside, after which point Silva made short work of him. 

So this one had momentum because of Sonnen’s talk and a relative balance of action in the cage. If not for some of Sonnen’s comments aging so poorly, this might be the best one ever.

Grade: A-

Cody vs. Sugar

@Speakez415

Time for a deep cut. The two fighters in question here are Cody Garbrandt, the former bantamweight champ and current flyweight glass cannon, and “Suga” Sean O’Malley, whose deceptively destructive striking has led to an 8-1 UFC record including a run of three consecutive bonus-winning knockouts.

The rivalry incubated on Twitter—nothing weird there.

Judges awarded the second bout to Nunes, though Shevchenko pushed back hard against the decision.

A stunned Shevchenko (right) after the decision is read for NunesEric Jamison/Associated Press

With the controversial scoring, a third bout may be possible despite the two Nunes wins. However, the blemish on Nunes’ record makes it harder to claim she’s the GOAT or even the current best, not with Shevchenko and Kayla Harrison floating around.

This would surely move units, but not at the level of some of these other rivalries.

Grade: C-

Let us now close up the B/R MMA mailbag. See you next week for riffs on a new topic.