With the widely increasing influence and popularity of the UFC, professional fighting has become more widespread than ever. Aiming to replicate the success of the UFC, nowadays, numerous organizations promote Mixed Martial Arts (MMA for short) fights. One less well-known example of an MMA fight promotion company is the Invicta Fighting Championship. Unlike the UFC which features both male and female fights, the IFC only features female fights and since its establishment in 2012 has” been dedicated to providing female athletes with a major platform to hone their skills on a consistent basis”. However, just like the UFC, the IFC holds events that feature matches for title’s based on the fighter’s weight class. Invicta was brought to the mainstream thanks to a recent controversial match between Amy Montenegro and Celine Haga held in Invicta FC 21.

Just like every other sport, there are a lot of overrated and underrated fighters in MMA. Since there are so many weight classes in MMA, it can be hard to accurately asses the skills of every professional fighter. This leads to some fighters getting more respect than they deserve while other fighters never get the credit they have earned. These are the fighters that are in my opinion the most overrated and underrated in mixed martial arts right now.

Underrated

Khabib Nurmagomedov

It may be hard to imagine an undefeated fighter as underrated, but Khabib Nurmagomedov has been overlooked on a regular basis during his time in the UFC. Despite easily beating every top contender in the UFC’s lightweight division, Nurmagomedov has never been given a title shot. He has proven that he can beat any professional mixed martial artist, but Nurmagomedov is still only at number 12 on the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings. His spot in the rankings is continually too low because he does not own a title, but that has absolutely nothing to do with the fighting ability of Khabib Nurmagomedov. The disrespect he gets in the sport is on display every time he is forced to fight on the undercard of a major UFC pay-per-view despite being one of the best in the world.

Stephen Thompson

In addition to only being defeated one time in his first 15 professional MMA fights, Stephen Thompson has had no problem defeating some of the top contenders in the UFC’s welterweight division. Thompson finally got the title shot he deserved at UFC 205, and he ended up fighting to a draw with champion Tyron Woodley. The 8th best fighter in the UFC was unable to defeat Stephen Thompson, but he is still nowhere to be found on the company’s pound-for-pound rankings.