(McCorkle vs. Heden round 1; round 2 is after the jump. Props: PVTHansen16)
Notably stacked for a regional card, Worldwide Mixed Martial Arts‘ debut event went down Saturday night in El Paso, Texas, and was highlighted by an upset in the main event and a handful of UFC vets smashing their way into the win column.
At this point, when Sean McCorkle gets booked against a smaller, doughier opponent with a journeyman’s record, we just assume that “Big Sexy” will bully his way to a first-round stoppage without much difficulty. But WMMA 1′s super-heavyweight main event didn’t go down like that. Though McCorkle (who tipped the scales at 312 pounds) came very close to finishing the 287-pound Brian Heden near the end of the first round, he blew his cardio wad in the process. With McCorkle barely able to lift his arms in round two, Heden was able to reverse a takedown, trap McCorkle’s left arm, and slug his way to a TKO victory. According to Danga, the announcer referred to the win as “the upset of the century.” (Somewhere, Gus Johnson is masturbating.) In a follow-up post on the UG, McCorkle lamented the cardio problems that have plagued his entire athletic career, credited Heden for showing up in “decent shape”* and vowed to retire if his cardio ever contributed to another loss.
In the co-main event, Karo Parisyan snapped a three-fight losing streak when he scored a unanimous decision over veteran Thomas Denny. Even more impressive, Drew Fickett snapped a four-fight losing streak when he choked out WEC/Bellator vet Kevin Knabjian, despite reports that Fickett was pretty well sauced throughout fight week. (Obviously, it could have been worse.)
Further down the card, Lyle “Fancy Pants” Beerbohm rebounded from his two-fight skid in Strikeforce with a first-round guillotine choke against Cleburn Walker. Also, UFC veteran Rodney “Sho Nuff the Master” Wallace outpointed Derrick Mehmen, while TUF 10 punchline Darrill Schoonover scored the biggest win of his career with a unanimous decision against Paul Buentello. The full list of results from WMMA 1 — as well as the stunning conclusion of McCorkle vs. Heden — are below.
– Brian Heden def. Sean McCorkle via TKO in round two
– Karo Parisyan def. Thomas Denny via unanimous decision
– Lyle Beerbohm def. Cleburn Walker via submission (guillotine choke) in round one
– Drew Fickett def. Kevin Knabjian via submission (guillotine choke) in round one
– Willie Parks def. Jamaine Facey via unanimous decision
– Rodney Wallace def. Derrick Mehmen via unanimous decision
– Darrill Schoonover def. Paul Buentello via unanimous decision
– Chris Gruetzemacher def. Frank Gomez via TKO in round one
– Esteves Jones def. Deutsch Pu’u via TKO in round one
– Lionel Lanham def. Brad Peterson via TKO in round one
* I was going to make a lame joke about “round” being a shape, but Heden’s body-type is more “amorphous” than anything else.