Back in October 2005, Paul Buentello walked out to Toy Soldiers by Eminem at UFC 55 for a title shot. He had been on an impressive roll just in his debut year, having added a few good wins leading up to the fight. But all it took Interim Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski was a record 15 seconds to knock him out, and the Eminem curse stuck.

Over the years, people have wavered in their belief in the Eminem curse, but for a few fighters, it’s all too real. One among the bunch is No.9-ranked bantamweight Mario Bautista.

“For sure, you can’t play any Eminem songs,” the 32-year-old admitted when asked about the ‘weirdest superstition/ritual’ on the podcast with Tim Welch and Joe ‘Diesel’ Riggs. “It did happen to me. Yeah, and I didn’t pick the song either. It was one of my amateur fights, ‘Till I Collapse.’ I heard it playing, [ended up] losing that one.”

When asked whether he was thinking about it during the fight, Bautista admitted he wasn’t. “No, I didn’t think about it. I didn’t care. I didn’t know about that superstition till afterwards. And then I’m like, ‘Damn, I lost that fight.’”

While Bautista, who currently holds 16-3 record in UFC, doesn’t mention the specific fight, he went 6-1 in his amateur career, and that sole loss came against Josh San Diego in December 2012. 

Sure, if ‘one true UFC curse’ were put to vote, Frank Mir would probably take the cake. Numerous fighters have lost their next bout or fallen into misfortune after defeating Mir for that curse to be taken lightly. There’s also the Drake curse that’s going strong, where the fighters he has bet on, have ended up on the losing side, including Jose Aldo and Justin Gaethj. But the Eminem curse goes back decades.

Since the internet sleuths started keeping a record in 2005 to up until 2021, 106 fighters out of 203 cases have lost their bouts. 3 times it was a draw and 3 times no contest, while 91 of them came out as winners. Even Bautista’s opponent in UFC 292, Da’mon Blackshear, had lost after walking out to Drop the World by Lil Wayne ft. Eminem.

While the curse hasn’t been as prevalent of late, the UFC fighters know better than to ignore one.

Yes, Alex Pereira has been an expectational case, warding off eight different curses, including Game cover and haircut curse, others haven’t been as lucky. Jon Jones, for one, was stripped off his title after being on the UFC video game cover, while Ian Freeman was knocked out in 85 seconds in the aftermath of defeating Mir in UFC 38.

2005 or 20 years later, the fighters continue to proceed cautiously.

Pre-fight rituals from Mario Bautista and Joe Jones

Mario Bautista only recently dropped a unanimous decision loss to newly minted No. 1-ranked bantamweight Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 321 on October 25th in Abu Dhabi. Up until then, he was on an eight-game winning streak, being touted as a bantamweight title challenger. And through it all, he has had one ritual. 

While the 32-year-old doesn’t have any other superstitions, he does have a ritual of calming and reassuring himself before walking out. “Before you walk out… I tell myself, like, ‘Just go be free. You’re free,’ you know, kind of thing. ‘Whatever happens, happens.’ And I just kind of roll the dice kind of thing,” Bautista said during the podcast.

His only other losses have come against Trevin Jones and Cory Sandhagen. But Bautista isn’t the only one with rituals.

A while back Joe Rogan revealed what made Joe Jones the greatest fighter in the history of UFC. Speaking to a human behavior expert, Chase Hughes, he highlighted the mental preparation behind Jones’ dominance– being “meticulous about watching footage, understanding who he is fighting… and then visualizing success.” 

So, what does this mean? Maybe in the chaos of the superstitions, the fighters can find ways to defy beliefs.