Occasionally, I’ll see fighters who are known contenders, or who are about to hit the elite level, that then suddenly vanish from the scene. In this list, we’ll take a look at a few of those fighters. Maybe our readers can provide some more info.
Just a sidenote, I have excluded women from the rankings as they are much more likely to leave for family/pregnancy reasons.
Fighter – (Ranking Prior to Inactivity Decay – Quarterly Ranking Date)
Daniel Otero – (#3 Flyweight – July 2009)
Otero appeared as if he was going to be the true pioneer for a non-Asian Flyweight circuit, but last fought in July 2008. His only loss was via DQ to Masatoshi Abe, a then, top-ranked Shooto Flyweight. Last I heard, he suffered an ACL injury, but it has been over 3 years since his last fight. He was riding a 2-fight win streak, with those coming over respectable midwest US little men, Sam Thao, and Josh Rave.
Mizuto Hirota – (#11 Lightweight – October 2010)
Some would argue that this was a high ranking, but Hirota was on a pretty decent run in the Japanese scene prior to getting his arm snapped in half by Shinya Aoki. That’s probably the reason he’s been so inactive.
Ray Mercer – (#13 Heavyweight – April 2010)
Oh Ray, how the MMA world barely knew you. We loved you for knocking Tim Sylvia flat on his ass, but we hated you for being 48 years old and not having any previous MMA fights. Ray actually started out with a lower ranking, but rose due to attrition.
Ricardo Arona – (#18 Light Heavyweight- July 2010)
Am I the only one sick of seeing him on lists like these? Probably one of the very best in MMA history to never win a major championship.
Heath Herring – (#20 Heavyweight – October 2010)
It’s been three years now, and I’m still waiting for Heath to co-star in a Steven Seagal direct-to-DVD movie. Getting your ass kicked by a 1-1 guy straight from the WWE had to have an impact on Herring’s confidence, but Lesnar did go on quite a run after that. Still, at only 33, it is not too late for a comeback.
Phil “Billy” Harris – (#23 Flyweight – April 2011)
It’s rare enough to see a ranked Flyweight outside of Japan, but one from the UK? Unless you are in the UK, you have probably never seen his name unless you religiously look at our rankings. Harris fought most of his career at Featherweight and even had at least one fight at Welterweight. He actually just left the ranking last week, so it may be too soon for this list. Still, he added something unique to the Flyweight ranks.
Other fighters worth researching: Will Ribeiro, Josh Ferguson, Dokonjonosuke Mishima, Pat Runez
Rankings displayed are from the quarterly generated ranking sets, before the inactivity penalties started being assessed (when possible).