Redeemed Varner now MMA fan favorite

Jamie Varner remembers a time not long ago when the boos far outnumbered the cheers when he fought on mixed martial arts cards.

The remnants of the vitriol aimed at Varner still can be found with a Google search.

A variety of articles and message board discussion threads focusing on reasons to dislike the Arizona native still live on in cyberspace.

But most of those threads have not been updated in quite some time.

Varner has mostly turned public sentiment back in his favor with a series of entertaining fights since he returned to the Ultimate Fighting Championship two years ago. He probably will hear plenty of cheers when he walks to the cage to fight James Krause to open the UFC 173 main card Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden.

That will be a far different sound than Varner heard when he fought Benson Henderson in a World Extreme Cagefighting title defense in January 2010. Varner was booed loudly before and after the fight, mostly for the fans’ perception of what had transpired in his previous fight.

Varner, the champion, seemed to be in control through four rounds of a January 2009 fight against Donald Cerrone. The challenger had started to find a rhythm in the fifth round when Cerrone landed an illegal knee to a downed Varner. After taking the allotted five minutes to recover, Varner couldn’t continue and was awarded the fight on the scorecards.

The fans weren’t having it.

“They forget about the first four rounds where I just beat the hell out of that guy,” Varner said Wednesday. “The fifth round, typical Donald fashion, he comes out like the Terminator. Moves forward throwing punches and kicks, had me on the ground and he kneed me right in the eye. I got a lesion in my right eye. It was a grazing knee, but it was a hard (expletive) knee, dude.

“The doctor stopped the fight. The fans acted like I didn’t want to fight. As a fighter, you don’t have that choice.”

Overnight, Varner became a target of fans’ derision. If he lost his mouthpiece in a fight, it was because he spit it out as a stall tactic. Anything he said during an interview was construed as whining or an excuse.

While he was once seen as confident and brash, he all of a sudden was cocky and disrespectful.

“The fans, after that fight, definitely flipped on me,” he said. “It was tough, because they had forgotten about all the exciting fights, all the knockouts, everything up until then. Just that one thing and they switch on me.”

Varner thought he could do no right.

“That was really, really hard for me,” he said. “I’m not a good villain. I don’t embrace it. I feed off positive energy, man. I always have. Having that kind of negativity in my life was tough on me. I surround myself with positive people, positive coaches, and I feed off that.”

Whether it was the negative energy, constant issues with injuries or the elite level of competition in the WEC, Varner lost the belt to Henderson to start an 0-3-1 stretch that led to his release from the organization. He went 3-1 on the regional circuit before getting a call to be a late replacement against rising star Edson Barboza at UFC 146 in May 2012.

Varner scored a shocking knockout, proving he was ready to return to the sport’s top level. It also served as a reminder to fans how exciting Varner could be in the cage.

He said he could immediately feel the fans swinging back in his favor.

“They were all screaming for Barboza. I was like a 4-1 underdog and everybody expected me to get throttled,” he said. “Once I went out there and fought the way I did and I was just happy to be there, it’s hard to dislike someone that.”

Varner, 29, credits the time he spent in organizations such as Xtreme Fighting Championships and Titan for helping gain a renewed perspective for competing in the UFC. He said as a 22-year-old WEC champion, he probably took his status for granted.

That’s not the case anymore. While he’s 2-3 in his return to the UFC, he has won two fight of the night awards and taken several fights on short notice. He even referred to himself as a “company man.” Varner thinks it has all added up to earning the fans’ respect.

“I feel I’ve kind of won them over,” he said. “They see the growth as a fighter. They see the growth as a man. I feel a lot more appreciated, and I’m glad I could win them back, and I don’t want to lose them ever again.

“It’s tough, dude. It’s tough to go out there and fight when they don’t like you. I’m just grateful I’m back and they’re on my side again.”

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.