The 8 Best Fighter Nicknames In MMA

Fighter nicknames have been commonplace since the advent of professional boxing. On the whole, nicknames are a simple way to brand yourself, especially if you have a name which is difficult to memorize or pronounce by a western audience. People would much rather call fighters by a one word label rather than pronounce their entire name.

For the most part, nicknames of fighters in MMA are generally pretty terrible. They seem to be made to sound as aggressive and as violent as possible, with no real thought put in. This can be seen throughout MMA with many nicknames containing words such as war, beast and machine. Whilst these aren’t terrible on their own, it has become pretty cliche as people begin to run out of ideas.

Other nicknames are purely for fun such as Steve “The Creepy Weasel” Montgomery. However, these have not been included in this list since they are made for comedic effect rather than anything else.

Best Nicknames Of MMA Fighters

Wanderlei ‘The Axe Murderer’ Silva

Combat sports are the only kind of competition in the world where having the nickname “Axe murderer” would be considered a positive thing. There is nothing deep, comical or poignant about this nickname other than Wanderlei Silva looks like the kind of man that would be an axe murderer. Thankfully for him, he was an extremely successful fighter and not a runway model.

Chan Sung Jung – “Korean Zombie”

Although South Korea does have a number of well known zombie movies, this nickname does not come from any of these. Instead, Chan Sung Jung is known as the Korean Zombie due to his willingness to move forwards and keep attacking, a style that is synonymous with that of the Diaz brothers. Jung has openly stated that he loves the nickname Korean Zombie and people should refer to him as this when he fights. Whenever the Korean is in a UFC fight, the commentators will always refer to him as Korean Zombie rather than his real name.

‘Thug’ Rose Namajunas

Growing up, Rose Namajunas was the only white girl in her neighbourhood and also the smallest. It was for this reason that her friends gave her the nickname “thug” since despite this, she was also by far the toughest.

The nickname of Rose Namajunas didn’t really match with her appearance when she first joined the UFC. However, after sporting a buzz-cut for so many years, “Thug” Rose is now a very well known fighter and one of the most popular in all of women’s MMA.

Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell

The Iceman is a nickname given to Chuck Liddell by his trainer John Hackleman in reference to his relaxed and calm appearance before each fight. Knowing that he could be knocked out cold at any moment, Liddell still seemed very unphased when entering into the octagon, as if this was just a normal day job.

This is a nickname shared with the serial killer and mafia hitman Richard Kuklinkski who was convicted of 5 murders but has likely killed between 100 and 200 men. Kuklinski showed 100% emotional coldness when interviewed about his crimes and also viewed his line of work as a regular job.

Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza

It is a wonder that Jacare was not signed to an endorsement deal by Lacoste. His nickname directly translates as crocodile from Portuguese and Souza is able to walk like a crocodile around the octagon which he used as a celebration after winning a fight.

Souza got the nickname Jacare from his first BJJ team that he trained under. The logo of the gym ASLE was a crocodile. As Jacare pretty much lived and slept in the gym at this point in his life, others would simply refer to him as Jacare.

Mirko “CroCop” Filipovic

You can tell that a nickname has truly stuck when it becomes more widely used than a fighters real name. Of course, Mirko Filipovic is not an easy name for the average American to say, whereas CroCop is much easier.

The origin of the nickname is very simple, Filipovic is Croatian and formerly worked as a cop in a special forces counter-terrorism unit. It makes sense then that his name would be shortened to CroCop for both the Western and Japanese audiences that he fought in front of for so long.

Kazushi “The Gracie Hunter” Sakuraba

A rather unassuming looking fighter, Sakuraba is one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time. Nicknamed “the Gracie hunter”, Sakuraba got this nickname by defeating Ryan, Royler and Royce Gracie, whilst other members of the family such as Rickson avoided fighting him. It was difficult enough to beat one of these men during this period of MMA, so to beat 3 Gracies in their prime is nothing short of incredible.

The career highlight of Sakuraba was perhaps the match against Royce Gracie in particular which lasted 90 minutes, which Gracie retired from due to exhaustion.

Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko

Although Fedor has mentioned on several occasions that he hates this nickname, it still does fit him well. Given to him by the Japanese public in the era of PRIDE, they understood that there would never be another fighter quite like this. Even though his career tailed off, at one point the Russian was 31-1, dismantling some of the most dangerous men on the planet, in a heavyweight division where you can be knocked out in a split second for letting your guard down.

Therefore “The last emperor” is a very fitting nickname for someone who was almost god-like in the world of MMA.