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UFC 200: Top 10 modern-day trash talkers


(Editor’s note: Yahoo Sports will be rolling out a new list of its favorite moments and figures each weekday in anticipation of UFC 200. First up was our Top 10 best fighters. Next: Top 10 trash talkers)

You don’t have to be a trash talker to be a great MMA fighter, but a great MMA fighter with exceptional trash talking abilities happens to go a long way in establishing crossover stars.

The vaunted gift of gab is a unique trait that few fighters have. And the ones that do have it, struggle to back it up. But then there are those unique fighters who have mastered the art of verbal jousting and, when coupled with winning ways, the combination of quick wits and flying fists equal an enhanced entertainment value.

No longer just a sideline story, trash talking is a selling point and helps drive home a narrative that engages fight fans. Honestly, there’s nothing like a little animosity between fighters and seeing it all culminate in a big fight. It’s the reason why we are so compelled with the UFC 200 main-event rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier.

Let’s take a look at the best lyrical snipers since UFC 100:

10. Joanna Jedrzejczyk

“Don’t worry, in couple days you will call me Joanna Champion.”

The UFC strawweight hasn’t been around long, but she sure has made an impact with her world-class trash talking abilities. Much like she has been in the Octagon, when Jedrzejczyk gets rolling, she’s absolutely relentless. She chastised the usually happy Carla Esparza before pummeling her to claim the title and then went on to verbally abuse Jessica Penne and Valerie Letourneau in title defenses. But her feud with Claudia Galdelha has reached nuclear levels on The Ultimate Fighter and has found the Polish fighter amongst the elite trash talkers in the game.

9. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson

“All I got to say, there’s gonna be some more black-on-black crime.”

Although he is no longer an elite fighter, Rampage Jackson will always be a top-notch trash talker. When he’s in the mood, Rampage’s propensity for insulting whoever he’s facing has proven to have a lot of value heading into a fight. When he’s in the mood, the jabs are a bit on the jovial side but once you get on Rampage’s bad side, it’s all violent endings and anger coming from the former UFC light heavyweight champion. Either way, it’s always a bit crass and perhaps inappropriate, but that’s exactly what sets Rampage apart from his peers.

And then there’s that epic staredown that Jackson engages in with his opponents right before the fight. That’s downright frightening.

8. Rashad Evans

“I wasn’t trying to talk trash, I was just trying to tell the truth”

The war of words between Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson during season 10 of “The Ultimate Fighter” was absolutely legendary and set that particular season apart from the rest of the series that has grown increasingly stale over the years. Evans is a little smoother with his trash talk as he opts for calculated strikes over volume. He got under Rampage’s skin so much that it caused his adversary to rip a door right off of its hinges. From Tito Ortiz to Jon Jones to Ryan Bader, “Suga” Rashad Evans appears to always enhance his bouts with a bit of pre-fight verbal sparring.

He went a step too far with his Penn State reference in the buildup to his fight with Phil Davis but, for the most part, Evans is as good as anyone when it comes to an exchange of insults.

7. Ronda Rousey

“I wonder how Floyd [Mayweather] feels being beat by a woman for once.”

Don’t piss off Ronda Rousey or she’s coming for your neck. Or your arm. The former UFC woman’s bantamweight champion oozed confidence like no other female fighter before her and ripped a page right out of the playbooks of all trash talkers before her as she rose through the MMA ranks. She tore down Miesha Tate and especially ripped apart Bethe Correia after an ill-advised quip about suicide set her off.

Her trash talk hasn’t been limited to female MMA fighters. She’s also hurled insults at Kim Kardashian, calling her a “glorified porn star,” and she dissed ring card girl Arianny Celeste. Perhaps her finest trash talking moment came at the expense of the best boxer in the world, Floyd Mayweather. When Rousey beat out Mayweather for the 2015 Best Fighter ESPY, Rousey fired the shot heard around the world, saying, “I wonder how Floyd [Mayweather] feels being beat by a woman for once.”

Ouch.

6. Dominick Cruz

“He ain’t touching the belt, he can’t even reach it.”

Dominick Cruz’s war of words with Team Alpha Male has been one of the most heated rivalries in all of MMA. But what works in Cruz’s favor is that he’s backed up every last one of his claims against what he calls “Team Alpha Fail.” It’s not witty like McGregor or well rehearsed like Sonnen, but it is a fireball of facts that the part-time analyst uses to verbally dismantle his opponents. He undressed Urijah Faber on two occasions and then backed it up in the cage. Even though he had an extended hiatus due to a multitude of injuries, all he did was sharpen his swords and come out swinging prior to reclaiming the UFC bantamweight title against TJ Dillashaw. It’s not flashy, but it sure is effective.

5. Nate Diaz

“Hit him with some good [expletive], don’t get hit, and come home with a pocket full of cash.”

Nate Diaz doesn’t come for people. But if you attempt to verbally joust with him, you can anticipate a mouthful of vitriolic insults headed your way. Like his brother, he’s far from eloquent when choosing his words but it’s the brutal honesty that he delivers them with that has connected with fans. His verbal feuds with Donald Cerrone, Michael Johnson and Conor McGregor have all led to Diaz getting into their minds, taking them out of their gameplans and ultimately winning the fight.

But it’s the brief but prophetic war of words with Conor McGregor that launched Diaz into superstar status. Diaz was nonchalant and dismissed McGregor because of his “lame” training partners. He baited McGregor into going for the knockout, waited for him to gas out and pulled off the shocking upset.

4. Nick Diaz

“Oh, we’re doing spinning [expletive] now?”

Nick Diaz may not be as prolific with his vocabulary as Conor McGregor, but the raw emotion and straightforwardness that he exudes when cutting down his opponents has made him one of the finest trash talkers in the business. The thing about it is that Diaz does none of this to sell a fight. He honestly couldn’t care less what anybody thinks about the words that spill from his mouth. Whenever he speaks, it’s about his intended target and it just so happens that he has an unintentionally hilarious way of going about lambasting his foes with words.

And his trash talk isn’t limited to pre-fight antics, Diaz will give you a verbal beating in the middle of your own fight. When Carlos Condit launched a failed spinning backfist at Diaz during their UFC 143 battle, Diaz quipped, “Oh, we’re throwing spinning [expletive] now?”

It doesn’t get much better than that.

3. Michael Bisping

“This is a press conference, Jorge [Rivera]. I know it’s your first time involved in something like this. Welcome to the big leagues. After this, you’ll be back to the undercard believe me.”

The product of Manchester has never been short on words when it comes to his opponents. The sheer volume of insults that Bisping can hurl at an opponent can be staggering. And although they aren’t all knockout blows, Bisping can certainly get under an opponent’s skin.

He needles at his opponents with jests that dig right into the heart of their character. It’s never a dull affair when Bisping opens his mouth and now that he’s the UFC middleweight champion, something tells us that the trash talk has yet to reach its high point.

2. Chael Sonnen

“I’m sore, tired, under the weather, over trained, under motivated and still tough enough to beat [Anderson Silva].”

The reinvention of Chael Sonnen from a middling talent to one of the more recognizable stars in the UFC came courtesy of a character change that found the mixed martial artist adopt the persona of a pro wrestler. Prior to pushing Anderson Silva to the limit at UFC 117, Sonnen turned a fight that nobody found to be particularly interesting into must-watch TV thanks to a blitzkrieg of verbal warfare that created the perfect foil to the then-invincible Silva. Add that to the fact that he almost backed up his lofty claims by nearly pulling off the massive upset.

His mouth certainly worked wonders for his career and put him in fights he arguably didn’t deserve to be in. Although he had proved nothing in the light heavyweight division, his braggadocio pushed him into a fight with Jon Jones at UFC 159.

There are obvious overtures to pro wrestling’s great talkers littered in his slanderous language, but it was a breath of life into a stagnant division and helped turn Sonnen into a star.

1. Conor McGregor

“There’s two things I really like to do and that’s whoop ass and look good. I’m doing one of them right now and on Saturday night, I’m doing the other.”

The brash Irishman with a tongue of gold is easily one of the best trash talkers in any sport. And although the comparisons to Muhammad Ali may seem like a stretch, when it comes to quick wits, a nimble vernacular and unflinching confidence, there are few that come close to him in modern-day sports.

The sheer amount of material that McGregor comes up with is impressive. For every verbal jab fired at him, McGregor expertly deflects and rifles a far more vicious retort.

For his opponents, the most infuriating part of all this is that he has backed up just about every claim that he has made since debuting in the UFC just over three years ago, with the only exception being the loss to Nate Diaz. From the boisterous introduction of “Red Panty Night” to his relentless verbal assault aimed at Jose Aldo prior to his stunning 13-second knockout, there are few that can match wits with the 27-year-old.

UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor talks with the media during a news conference. (Getty Images)
UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has never struggled with verbal warfare. (Getty Images)