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Bobby Southworth

I've previously written about the curse of memorability: If what someone else does to you is cooler than anything you yourself did, you will be remembered only as the victim of that thing. Bobby Southworth is a victim of the lesser-known subrule: If something you do outside of your fighting is more interesting than anything you do within it, you will be remembered only for that thing. Bobby Southworth is a decade-plus veteran of the sport. He fought across SuperBrawl, Pride, the UFC and Strikeforce. He was a cast member on the first Ultimate Fighter. He was a world champion.

And the only thing anyone remembers him for is that time he called Chris Leben a fatherless bastard.

Dangit, Bobby.

B-South (his choice, not mine) started early--his first fight came on one of the Neutral Grounds cards back in 1999--and his first year and a half of combat sports was fruitful, leading to Pride calling on him to come make his big Japanese debut at Pride 13. At 3-1 and less than two years deep as a fighter, he was a young, raw prospect who displayed more technical skill than most at his level of experience, and would have been more than capable of dispatching any of the rookies Pride could throw at him.

This being Pride, of course, he was the one being thrown at Vitor Belfort. He lost, easily, and was never invited back.

That's the story of Southworth's life: He would fight his way to the spotlight and be continually denied it. He made it to Pride, but only as a sacrificial lamb. He was on The Ultimate Fighter 1, but lost a razor-close split decision to eventual finalist Stephan Bonnar. He fought on the massive mainstream breakout success that was the TUF 1 Finale, but only on the undcard, and he couldn't get past Sam Hoger. He left for Strikeforce and won their Light-Heavyweight championship in their barely-watched HDNet days, then lost it to Babalu Sobral on a between-round cut stoppage despite dominating the fight and was never granted a rematch--and the very next Strikeforce card was its Showtime debut.

There's a blunt reason for that: He was kind of boring. He was a very tough and undeniably skilled fighter, but a conservative one, more likely to circle and clinch than stop anyone. There's a little more tolerance for that nowadays, but during the MMA boom of the 2000s it was a death sentence, and the precise kind of thing that, say, makes Strikeforce not give you your title rematch. That is the legacy of Bobby Southworth: Forever opportunity-adjacent.

Except for the fatherless bastard thing. He took that opportunity as hard as he damn well could.

Moveset, stats, logic and four attires (TUF 1 finale vs Hoger / Pride 13 vs Belfort / Strikeforce: Triple Threat vs White / Superbrawl 12 vs Ostovich).