The 7 Worst MMA fighters of all time

In MMA, it’s very rare that you’ll retire with a perfect record. In fact, even greats such as Anderson Silva have retired with a number of losses and long-losing streaks on their record. Some people even claim that losing is part of the game as an MMA fighter and adds character and mental toughness.

At the same time, there are some fighters that have taken losing to the extreme. Although CM Punk is often touted as the poster boy of bad MMA fighters, sadly there are a lot of other fighters out there who have far worse records. From thrown fights to hundreds of losses, this is an unfortunate list that highlights the worst MMA fighters to ever grace the cage.

Jay Ellis 16-105

When you’ve lost over 100 fights and have barely fought over 120 times then you know MMA was never the career for you. However, there may be another reason why Ellis hasn’t quit MMA just yet. The reason is purely financial and for some, they’ll happily turn up, take a beating, get paid, and then go home. Is this the best career path? No. But it pays the bills and lots of smaller promotions will use guys like Ellis to build stars and keep things in order.

As seen, Ellis has beaten 16 other fighters which says he’s not completely useless and a few of these wins have been done by submission. In other words, his record is terrible and no one wants over 100 losses. Still, it’s quite strange to think that Ellis has beaten a few other fighters which makes you question their own qualities in the cage.

CM Punk 0-1

When CM Punk decided to enter the world of MMA back in 2016, his decision was genuinely taken seriously at the time by Dana White and others. Joining the UFC, his first fight was against Mickey Gall which showed the respect given to CM Punk. In short, Gall was a legitimate fighter who was a very good grappler. Perhaps Dana White’s line of thought was that he could unearth a similar athlete to Brock Lesnar who was a successful fighter in the UFC years earlier.

Unlike his fellow WWE-wrestler, this wasn’t to be for Punk. It took Gall just over 2 minutes to choke out Punk but within those two minutes we saw more than enough. Although Punk had trained for years, it was clear he wasn’t a fighter. Bizarrely, he seemed to lack the basic athleticism expected for a fighter too.

Two years later, he would get another shot. It was a similar story where he’d been training and surprisingly the UFC kept him on. This time he would fight Mike Jackson who wasn’t anywhere near as known as Gall was. Jackson toyed with CM Punk and it made for tough viewing.

Realistically, Jackson could have won in the first round but decided to play with Punk, much to the dislike of Dana White. At one point, he let Punk try to guillotine him to prove Punk’s lack of technique. In a bizarre twist, Jackson’s victory was overturned years later after testing positive for marijuana in his system. Punk would retire from MMA with a 0-1 record and a tainted legacy.

Shaun Lomas 24-82

Compared to other fighters on the list, Lomas’s record isn’t actually as bad. Still, the fact remains that he loses a substantial amount of his fights. What’s worse is that his nickname is ‘The Legend’ which is not even meant to be ironic. Lomas is actually quite respected in England for being professional and turning up, despite losing the bulk of his fights.

In fairness to Lomas, he’s fought some pretty talented guys in his time and isn’t a complete punching bag either. For instance, some of his losses include the likes of Jimmy Wallhead and Jimi Manuwa of UFC fame. With this in mind, it’s unfair to judge Lomas too harshly as he’s not fighting complete bums – but still, the record of 24-82 cannot be ignored and this means if you’re fighting him then statistically speaking, there’s a very high chance of victory.

Joe Son 0-4

Joe Son made his MMA debut in 1994 at UFC 4. Unfortunately for Son, he got choked out in minutes. He would have three other MMA fights which ended in a similar fashion and resulted in his retirement from the cage.

Just looking at Son, you could tell he wasn’t much of a fighter due to his obese physique which was made worse by donning red speedo pants. To make matters worse, Son’s style was dubbed as Joe Son Do which is often the hallmark of a fighter with questionable skills.

Don’t feel too sorry for Son though. He was later jailed for his involvement in a gang rape during the 1990s where he committed torture on the victim. In short, it turns out that wasn’t just a bad fighter, he was also a terrible human being.

Dawid Haras 0-19

If you thought that the likes of CM Punk were bad, then you probably don’t know about Dawid Haras. During his 20s, Haras would embark on an MMA career where he fought 19 times and lost them all. Here, he fought in Polish promotions in his home country (Poland) which is known for producing some pretty good fighters. With this in mind, you can imagine that they didn’t go easy on him and his record proves this.

Sadly, it gets worse. Literally, all of his fights ended in the first round and one was even recorded as a zero second knockout. It looks as though Haras genuinely didn’t know how to fight, yet was billed as a pro-fighter anyway. This isn’t too surprising given the history of Polish MMA, where fans often love a freak show. Overall, Haras is a good example of someone who is a ‘professional fighter’ without that title actually meaning much.

Nobuhiko Takada 2-6

At first glance, a 2-6 record isn’t completely terrible, especially when you factor in wins against Mark Coleman on there. However, all isn’t what it seems. Basically, Takada was a professional wrestler – just like HHH and Hulk Hogan. He was massive in Japan and had a huge buzz around him which eventually led to his debut fight coming against Rickson Gracie in PRIDE.

Sadly, there’s a lot of speculation that his MMA fights weren’t realistic and his two wins were marks. He even alluded to this in his book, whilst Mark Coleman would later claim, “It was what it was. I needed to support my family. They guaranteed me another fight after that and I needed that security. It was what it was. I’m going to leave it at that.”

To be honest, it doesn’t get much more obvious than that. These days it’s hard to imagine fake MMA fights but this is part of the culture that birthed the likes of PRIDE in Japan. In some ways, you could claim that Takada would be like CM Punk going into MMA and being given a few free wins to add to his credibility.

Kenneth Allen 1-42

When you look at Kenneth Allen’s record, the best thing you can say is that at least he got one victory. This happened on his thirteenth fight which at least shows that he’s got heart. Anyway, Allen’s record spans from 2005-2020 and he fought in local MMA promotions rather than anything of note. In other words, you could call Kenneth Allen the king of the cans. If you’re a fighter who needs to pad their record, then he’s the man to fight.

Interestingly, it wasn’t always like this for Allen. As an amateur fighter, his record was much more respectable, and he retired from the amateur division with a 5-5 career run. This shows that sometimes, the jump between pro and amateur is simply too much.

The likelihood is that Allen would use MMA as a quick earner for the next 15 years, fighting a couple of times per year on average. Practically all of his fights would be lost in the first round and sadly, there are a few fighters with similar careers scattered around the lower ebbs of the MMA world.