[Plissken]

Well, a few points.

1. He was the ADCC champion and one of the best grapplers of his era.
2. Despite that he won most of his early mma fights by knockout and showed fast powerful hands and good boxing skills.
3. People know thta he has a lot of potential based on this, but also that he does not have a stable mind and will, and both can be broken by mindgames, his own doubt, etc. - even before the fight starts. The ordeal with his missing sister also really hurt him for a great deal of time (as it would most anyone), and that's often used as an example of why he performs under expectations.

Basically he has so much potential, but hasn't lived up to it for the most part. People still want to believe he can live up to it. I think a lot of Vitor fans have taken to Swick and Terrell because they are also Very good grapplers that have very good hands too.