Author: Anton Tabuena

Whoops!

Luis Gonzalez somehow got a KO and also lost by decision in one MMA fight. How exactly did that happen? Well, unfortunately, it was the referee that he accidentally knocked out.

Rolling thunder KOs are pretty rare in mixed martial arts, and it’s easy to understand why. The kick can catch people off guard, but it is also very tough to aim properly. Both of those traits were evident during an amateur MMA bout in Isa Town, Bahrain.

As the opening round was coming to a close, Gonzalez looked for a Hail Mary shot at the bell, and threw a rolling thunder. It did land hard and flush to the chin… of the referee, who was trying to step in to signal the end of the round.

Watch the hilarious sequence below:

Fortunately, referee Scott Manhardt was able to recover in between rounds, and even decided to continue officiating the contest. In the end, the two fighters — and the referee — all made it to the final bell, with the ref perhaps deserving of some hazard pay or at least a bonus for being a trooper in there.

Gonzalez, who was representing Mexico, lost the semi-final bout by decision to Ireland’s Lewis Byrne. The contest was part of MMA Super Cup, an amateur tournament organized by Brave and IMMAF.

Paige VanZant goes from MMA to bare knuckle boxing to pro wrestling.

Paige VanZant is officially making her move to pro wrestling.

The former UFC star has had a few minor appearances in All Elite Wrestling shows for the past year, and now AEW President Tony Khan formally announced the signing on social media.

“It’s official!” Khan wrote on twitter. “Paige VanZant is ALL ELITE!”

Terms of the deal weren’t revealed, but VanZant also commented on the signing, saying that she just “wanted to give the world one more reason to hate on me.”

VanZant made an AEW appearance Wednesday night, coming out of the crowd to attack Tay Conti, before ceremoniously signing her new deal during the broadcast.

VanZant was with the UFC from 2014 to 2020, where she was heavily pushed and marketed from early on as a 20-year-old prospect. A stint as a finalist on Dancing With the Stars also raised her profile even further, with VanZant now having over 3 million followers on Instagram.

While VanZant ended her UFC stint with four losses to top contenders in her final six MMA bouts, she smartly parlayed that popularity and brand recognition into much more lucrative deals. She signed what was reported to be a massive deal with bare knuckle boxing promotion BKFC, while simultaneously running her far more lucrative fansite that features adult content.

VanZant dropped two decisions in her stint with BKFC, and there’s still no word about her status with the fight promotion now that she has signed with AEW.

The pro-wrestling move makes sense for the 27-year-old though. VanZant noted her fan site makes more than enough to support her full time, but this way, she still gets to grow her brand and maintain her status with the public eye, while ideally having more control and less brain trauma from fighting (and training) professionally.

GoFundMe has removed fundraisers for Cain Velasquez’s legal defense.

There has been some strong support for Cain Velasquez within the MMA community following his recent arrest. For those looking to offer the former UFC heavyweight champion financial backing, however, at least two fundraisers for his legal defense have now been shut down.

A pair of GoFundMe links shared by Velasquez’s longtime coach Javier Mendez on social media have recently been removed, with the company citing the posts as violations of their terms of service. For the moment, it appears there are still crowdfunding efforts on other sites, however, GoFundMe won’t be one of them.

“We can confirm that both fundraisers were removed, and all donors have been refunded,” a GoFundMe spokesperson told MMA Junkie. “GoFundMe prohibits raising money for the legal defense of a violent crime.”

The popular website’s terms and conditions specifically note that their platform cannot be used for causes involving: “the legal defense of alleged crimes associated with hate, violence, harassment, bullying, discrimination, terrorism, or intolerance of any kind relating to race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, serious disabilities or diseases, financial crimes or crimes of deception…”

The same policy has been also previously cited in several other high profile cases, including the removal of a legal defense fund for Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse.

Velasquez was arrested on February 28 and is facing 10 charges, including attempted murder. The former UFC and WWE talent was apparently targeting Harry Eugene Goularte in what was described as an “11-mile, high-speed chase,” where Velasquez allegedly rammed and fired multiple shots at a vehicle carrying Goularte, striking the man’s 63-year-old stepfather in the process—resulting in non-life-threatening injuries. Goularte reportedly escaped the incident unscathed.

Goularte was out on ‘supervised release’ at the time of the shooting, having recently been arrested on one felony count of a lewd and lascivious act with a child, at a daycare facility owned by his mother. He has been accused of repeatedly molesting a Velasquez family member.

As of writing, Velasquez remains in detention at the Santa Clara County Jail, having been denied bail on Monday, March 7th. The judge overseeing his case cited “a substantial likelihood that release would result in great bodily injury, not just to the named complaining witnesses in this case but to Santa Clara residents at large.” Velasquez is next set to appear in court on April 12th.

This is UFC 272 in a few short tweets!

UFC 272 is in the books, and it saw Colby Covington pick up another quality win in his grudge match against Jorge Masvidal. Was the entire build up filled with tired trash talk and petty tabloid accusations? Yes. Did they follow on their weird promises to kill each other? Well, no. Nothing big really happened and they went to a decision.

It was predictable and went just as many of us expected, but that being said, Covington’s trademark pace, pressure and wrestling game worked yet again. It’s not the prettiest style, but he forced Masvidal to stay within his game and got it done again.

As for the rest of the card, the co-main had regrettable officiating and cornering, Kevin Holland won big in a new division, and disgraced NFL vet Greg Hardy was easily knocked out by Sergey Spivak.

Below, we analyze the pros and cons of each of the key bouts, with a quick twitter thread that’s short and fitting for people’s social media era attention spans:

And that’s about it. For more social media musings, follow me on twitter over at @antontabuena, and of course you should do that for Bloody Elbow’s official twitter account as well.

Watch video from Colby Covington vs Jorge Masvidal.

Headlining UFC 272 was a grudge match between former good friends and teammates in Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington. After all the (cringeworthy) talk, mudslinging and gossip, they finally settled the score. It was pretty much a typical Covington match, with the wrestler just out grinding and out working Masvidal for 25 minutes.

Watch video and check out a snippet from our play-by-play of the contest below:

Colby Covington vs. Jorge Masvidal, Round 5

Covington with two big lefts and gets a takedown. The crowd is booing but it’s solid work. Masvidal gets to his butt, but Covington ties up his legs. Masvidal gets to his feet. Knees to the legs from Covington and he drags Masvidal back down. He’s dragging him back and forth on his back. Covington can’t sink hooks. He lands some punches underneath the armpit and to the side of the head. Masvidal valiantly tries to spin away, but Colby is just riding him. He steps over into pseudo-mount. More punches. He’s looking for a choke. Masvidal backed out and Colby is dropping elbows right to the horn. 10-8 and 50-44 Covington.

Colby Covington defeated Jorge Masvidal via unanimous decision (49-46, 50-44, 50-45)

Watch video from the UFC 272 co-main event.

Co-headlining UFC 272 was Rafael dos Anjos vs Renato Moicano, which is a late replacement after Rafael Fiziev had to pull out on late notice. Moicano valiantly stepped in just a few day’s notice to save the co-main event. He showed heart but was unnecessarily beat on for 25 minutes, with the doctor, referee and his cornermen irresponsibly allowing so much damage.

Watch highlights from the contest below, along with a snippet from our play-by-play of the event.

Rafael dos Anjos vs. Renato Moicano, Round 5

The doctor says he can see. Marc Goddard told Moicano he has 30 seconds to show something or he’ll stop it. Low kick from RDA. Moicano spins and misses. Double jab from RDA. Low kick from RDA. Three shots from RDA. Moicano fires back. Head kick from RDA. He slams Moicano to the mat. If he just lands a couple punches here it will get called, but he’s not so far. Moicano uses a helicopter sweep to get up! And he lands two big shots! And stuffs a takedown. Again. Halfway through the round. RDA jabbing. Low kick. Both land. Left hook lands for RDA. Uppercut from Moicano. Straight left from Dos Anjos. Moicano with a right. A left scores too. Uppercut and they both land big shots. Moicano with another uppercut. He’s throwing everything they have and he’s landing! RDA with a left. Wow. That round didn’t need to happen but Moicano arguably won it. Crazy. I’ll go 10-9 and 50-44 RDA. But what heart.