A lot of people (myself included) think of Rashad as a 'boring' fighter, because when he started his career he would sit back on his dominant wrestling and just grind out a win with very little excitement along the way.  Then when he decided to engage in stand up, all he did was counter-punch with very little (or no) explosiveness.

The guy obviously has loads of physical talent, and is consistently improving on previous performances to make himself a better fighter.  Actually, at this point in his career his striking label probably has to be closer to "Explosive" than "Boring," when you take into account his last two fights against top-flight competition. Pulling the KTFO card on Chuck Liddell is no mean feat, and knocking Forrest off hard enough that he couldn't defend himself for fifteen seconds or so is pretty impressive.

But my real question is this: Will Rashad's labels, earned in his early career stain his current and later career image?  Make no mistake, I will probably never be a Rashad fan, since I believe he's earned every negative label applied to him thus far (which have been pointed, but few).  But it seems to me that the guy *should* be celebrated more than he is.  Could it be that waiting until the apex of your career to become exciting is a recipe for a permanent villainous image?  Think of it this way...

Fighter A takes a career path that most of us are familiar with, which is to start fast and slow down as competition improves.  This guy establishes his dominance over inferior competition, hits a snag or three along the way in opponents who are tailor-made to take advantage of his weaknesses, but improves enough along the way to rocket himself all the way to becoming the division champion.  This guy is more than likely a huge fan favorite, because they've been there with him throughout the struggles, and he's provided excitement along the way.  The fact that his last couple of fights haven't had any finishes is accepted because he's had to adapt to higher level competition.  We all know he's got the power/submissions to finish fights if they go that direction, and nobody wants to mess with him there any more, so he fights long, tactical battles and wins decisions over (seemingly) superior opponents

Fighter B takes the opposite career path, and starts off slowly.  He racks up win afer win after win against good opponents, and finds himself undefeated after awhile.  But there's a catch...this guy doesn't make fights exciting.  He *never* drives the action, and while it's obvious he's got ridiculous talent, he continues to take the safe path to victory.  He experiences the odd bump along the way, but continues his undefeated string, even managing to avoid a loss to a legendary villain in the sport, instead pulling a draw.  This one moment could have changed his career forever, but for whatever reason, he couldn't even *win* the fight.  Eventually, he gets a shot at another legendary fighter, but this one is a fan favorite.  By now, his game is rounding into form and his physical tools are ready to translate into results inside the cage.  He takes the safe path to start his fight, but ends up absolutely destroying the fan favorite in perhaps the most brutal fashion ever witnessed.  He earns a title shot for this performance, but the fans are far from pleased.  He basically repeats this performance in his title fight (albeit with less fireworks), and wins the championship in decisive fashion.

Fighter A is going to recieve accolades throughout his career, because he first grabbed attention by being exciting.  We don't care about the record.  We care that every time we watch him, he delivers on our money and attention.  Fighter B is really only famous for being exceptionally un-exciting, all the way up to the point that our beloved heroes could finally put that first L on his record, and what does he do?  He decides *THAT* is the time to utterly destroy and humiliate our fan favorites.

Color me skeptical, but I'm seriously doubting Rashad ever receives the same type of love from the fans as guys like Forrest and Chuck, no matter what he does from here on out.