Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) return to action with UFC 249 (links), UFC Jacksonville (recap) and UFC on ESPN 8 (results) all going down in the span of eight days, starting on Sat. May 9 and concluding on Sat. May 16 in Jacksonville, Fla.
It was a home run, according to UFC president Dana White, as only one fighter and two cornermen tested positive with COVID-19. That being said, Ronald Souza likely had the virus when he touched down in Jacksonville for fight week, as he admitted he was around a family member who was infected. As a result, his fight against Uriah Hall was scrapped.
Moving forward, the promotion won’t be back in action until May 30 for an event that still doesn’t have any match ups or location confirmed. Until then, the promotion doesn’t have any fights to promote, which means they’re simply dishing out random “Free Fight” videos to keep you fight-hungry fans entertained for the time being.
The latest offering is a Lightweight showdown between Marco Polo Reyes and Dong Hyun Ma (formerly known as Dong Hyun Kim), which went down at UFC 199 way back in 2016. Sure, you might be scratching your head as to why UFC is bringing this fight back to life when both men are no longer with the promotion after they each ended their runs with the organization on three-fight losing streaks.
But if you click on the video player embedded above, you will not be disappointed, as Reyes and Kim went to war, going toe-to-toe from the jump, with both men getting rocked early in the fight. After nearly 13 minutes of back-and forth bloody action, Reyes managed to end the fight in the third and final round after clipping Kim with two solid right hands that put him out for the count.
Still, Kim garnered some new fans and respect for his efforts after proving that he can take a punch and that will will take everything — including the kitchen sink — top stop him. The brawl earned each man $50,000 in “Fight of the Night” bonus money.