10 MMA Fighters Who Never Reached Their Full Potential

It's sad looking back on Kevin Randleman's career and seeing the talent that has gone to waste. When he broke onto the scene in 1999 to fight Maurice Smith, it was no comparison to the classic Standup Vs. Ground matchups we were used to seeing. Randleman showed he was light on his feet and incredibly powerful on the ground as he dominated Pat Smith. After beating Smith, Randleman was in a war with MMA legend Bas Rutten, losing a controversial decision. The fight did showcase the potential of Randleman though.

Randleman's bottom game was exposed by Couture as he was taken down, mounted and finished, looking like he had never trained to fight off of his back. He was then knocked out by the legendary Chuck Liddell. Randleman racked up some impressive wins in his career, against the likes of Renato Sobral, Pedro Rizzo and Mirko Cro Cop but also lost to a lot of fighters he should have beat. Randleman's problem was staying at the Hammer House training camp during his career and not moving on. He ended being a one dimensional wrestler with a big left hook but never fixed the huge holes in his Jiu Jitsu and never tightened up his stand up. This lead to losses against the likes of the smaller Sakuraba, the great Fedor Emelianenko and fantastic striker Cro Cop all by submission.

With improved stand up and an evolved Jiu Jitsu game, Randleman could and should have gone down as one of the best of all time.