Fight promotion has traditionally been one part legitimate sport, one part carnival hucksterism. Fans are consumers, and most of them need to be convinced to buy the product. Hype -- justified or not -- is a big part of that sales pitch, and we allow ourselves to be drawn in, sometimes against our better judgment. The resulting anticipation can come from an outstanding narrative, occasionally from the in-fight matchup and on other occasions might be driven by sheer charisma.
Hype is a constant, but so, too, is the failure to live up to expectations. This edition of Sherdog’s Top 10 series takes a look at some of the fights that did not live up to their billing. The staff panel discussed a wide variety of fights, and the ballots held a wide variety of different options; this is less a list in descending order of disappointment than 10 solid candidates for the crown:
Number 10 » It was not a bad fight by any stretch of the imagination; in fact, it was pretty good, with a fun back-and-forth flow, multiple exchanges and substantially greater technical skill for both fighters than they had displayed in their first bout.