10 Best Trash-Talkers In UFC History
Stirring the sh*t and selling tickets!
While clearly the world of the Ultimate Fighting Championship - and Mixed Martial Arts, period - is all about what goes on inside the octagon, the years since UFC's beginnings have seen what goes on outside the cage become just as entertaining and fascinating as what goes on inside the cage.
Respectful confrontations and simply wanting to prove that you're the best is one thing, but more and more we've seen how fighters love to talk trash in the build to a fight.
This is a skill and trick that's been utilised for decades in the worlds of boxing and professional wrestling, with the aim being to talk your audience into wanting to see a fight. After all, there's something so satisfying about seeing a smug prick finally get their comeuppance thanks to an elbow to the face.
Whether they really mean what they're saying or it's merely a marketing ploy, the UFC has had some fantastic sh*t talkers competing for them over the years - and it's those famed trash-talkers that we're going to focus on here as we look at ten of the very best ever when it comes to verbal beat downs.
10. Tito Ortiz
Ah, the famed Bad Boy of UFC.
It only seems apt to start this list off with one of the first UFC fighters to ever make trash-talking a key part of their game. Being a finite list of only ten names, there were so many badass sh*t-talkers who had to be left out - such as long-time Tito rival, Ken Shamrock - but there's no way that The Huntington Beach Bad Boy could realistically be excluded here.
Ortiz, as mentioned, was one of the first to incorporate trash-talking as part of his standard, fundamental M.O. Before Ortiz and a few of his peers, the fight game was always about respect or hatred. For Tito, though, it became about poking fun at your opponent and talking the talk in addition to then usually walking the walk as he went on to cement his spot as one of the greatest light heavyweight competitors in the history of UFC.