Dillon Danis: Banned for life following an explosive, cageside brawl involving opposing teams at Madison Square Garden.
Paul Daley: Banned for life from the promotion after a highly publicized incident at UFC 113where he threw a sucker punch at opponent Josh Koscheck after the bell.
Rousimar Palhares: Stripped of his roster spot and banned due to a recurring, dangerous history of holding onto submissions (such as heel hooks) for far too long after opponents had tapped out.
Jason High: Handed a lifetime ban for aggressively shoving a referee in the octagon after a controversial stoppage.
Igor Severino: Permanently cut and banned during his promotional debut after being disqualified for biting his opponent.
Renato “Babalu” Sobral: Released and banned after refusing to release a choke on his opponent, David Heath, after the fight was officially stopped.
I really liked watching Renato fight…shame but he was kind of at the end of his career if I remember right. - Corrected
Thiago Silva: Fired and permanently banned following a severe off-ring domestic violence and police standoff incident.
Another one of my favorites.
Ruslan Magomedov: Received an outright lifetime ban for multiple severe violations of the UFC’s Anti-Doping Policy.
Matt Riddle: For his pot smoking?
You forgot:
Conor McGregor: Banned for life for being criminally charged with assault and injuring two UFC fighters at the Barclay Centre by throwing a handcart through the window of a bus on a rampage, and also found liable in 2024 for assault by rape.
Shamrock I’ll give you with a caveat… If you have no experience fighting with a gi you don’t understand how it can be used as a weapon.
Gordeau!? A pure striker… Get the fuck outta here.
Beyond that I’ll say protected isn’t exactly the descriptor… The brackets were heavily stacked in Royce’s favor tho. His entire UFC run was, with the exception of Shamrock, completely against guy who didn’t understand submission, and most didn’t understand the ground at all. Even then, Kimo showed what a game brawler could do against him.
He was a threat in terms of being a legitimate striker who fought dirty and didn’t have any problems biting or eye gouging. Tyson was a pure striker too. But to say he wouldn’t have been a threat is insane. All he would have needed is a single punch.
You can’t compare UFC 329 fighters with UFC 1 fighters. There were no highly trained athletes with skilled expertise in boxing, muai thai, wrestling, and BJJ with training camps to study the opponents weaknesses. Alexander Volkanovski at 145 would have absolutely wrecked Royce on the feet or the ground. Different time, massively different skill sets.
But you have to weigh that in the context that the entire purpose of the early UFC’s was to show which styles were superior, not which fighters. No one knew if a karate guy could beat a judo guy or if Kung Fu really wasn’t the ultimate martial art.
When I say legitimate threat, I mean their expertise within their particular styles. Fred Ettish is an example of a fighter who wasn’t a threat in any capacity whatsoever.
Tom Erickson. He was just as good as Baumgartner, but could never beat him. He beat the hell out of Bustamante for 45 minutes before they called it a draw. He also snatched Randleman’s soul in a fight in Brazil, one of the ugliest looking MMA knockouts ever.
Shit like this scares me. As a martial artist I’m expected to use minimal force of subdue someone or defend myself. On the other end you might get a guy gouging eyes, ripping ears off, or attacking the groin.
U need to remember if Coleman entered ufc 1, he’d have very little knowledge of submissions .. he would be a pure wrestler that would only know minimal ground and pound. Knowing the type of fighter Mark was, I see him losing to Royce as he’d go out trying to punch Royce’s head into the mat and he’s had and tap tap
A guy like Couture would be a harder fight for Royce imo
