The UFC, which is currently in the middle of a class-action lawsuit, won’t get any sympathy from former UFC fighter Cody McKenzie, who claims he was ripped off and taken advantage of during his three-year tenure with the ZUFFA LLC-owned promotion…
The UFC, which is currently in the middle of a class-action lawsuit, won’t get any sympathy from former UFC fighter Cody McKenzie, who claims he was ripped off and taken advantage of during his three-year tenure with the ZUFFA LLC-owned promotion.
A storm of past and present has opened the floodgates on the UFC, following Tuesday’s revelation of a major civil suit.
Along with current UFC star Cung Le, former UFC veterans Jon Fitch and Nate Quarry have officially filed a lawsuit against the UFC for being in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The alleged offense basically accuses the UFC for perpetual ownership of names and likeness of fighters, sponsorship restrictions, underpaying fighters and purposely scheming to create a noncompetitive marketplace by killing off other promotions.
McKenzie, who came into the UFC through The Ultimate Fighter, was released from the promotion in 2013 after wearing basketball shorts in his loss to Sam Stout. During an interview with GroundandPound (which contains NSFW language), the disgruntled MMA star had plenty to say about his former employer:
I fought for the UFC for five years or whatever and fought a bunch of times for free for them and all this other bulls–t. The UFC’s a joke, they rip guys off and they treat them like s–t. I mean they have a few guys that they treat good, but I wasn’t one of them. …I hope the lawsuit goes through, and I hope they get sued for millions. F–k the UFC.
The fighters currently involved in the lawsuit have enlisted the help of lawyers from major antitrust law firms Cohen Milstein, Joseph Saveri Law Firm and Berger & Montague. The UFC has promised to defend itself “vigorously” against the lawsuit in an official statement released on UFC.com on Tuesday.
So why was Cody McKenzie, of all people, booked for a fight in Russia in the first place? Who knows. If we had to guess, we’d say that his salmon-fishing bout took a wrong turn at the Bering Strait. Cody now returns to the U.S., where he’ll prepare to be the star witness in the class-action lawsuit against the UFC.
(Do witnesses even give testimony in class-action lawsuits? I have no idea how this works. But it is, indeed, a funny image.)
So why was Cody McKenzie, of all people, booked for a fight in Russia in the first place? Who knows. If we had to guess, we’d say that his salmon-fishing bout took a wrong turn at the Bering Strait. Cody now returns to the U.S., where he’ll prepare to be the star witness in the class-action lawsuit against the UFC.
(Do witnesses even give testimony in class-action lawsuits? I have no idea how this works. But it is, indeed, a funny image.)
(Imagine this but 30 pounds heavier / Photo via Getty)
Chael Sonnen. Jim Ross. One night tournament. Holy shit. Are you ready for this?
We certainly weren’t (and judging by the sparse attendance, nobody else was either) The event was probably one of the most “freakshow-ish” events of the entire year, and we loved every second of it. Here’s a brief recap of the festivities!
The tournament, which was in the welterweight division, started off with Trey Houston vs. Jesse Taylor. Taylor took Houston down early and after a period of inactivity on the ground Houston managed to grab Taylor’s arm and lock in an armbar. Check out the GIF (this and others via Zombie Prophet/Fansided):
(Imagine this but 30 pounds heavier / Photo via Getty)
Chael Sonnen. Jim Ross. One night tournament. Holy shit. Are you ready for this?
We certainly weren’t (and judging by the sparse attendance, nobody else was either) The event was probably one of the most “freakshow-ish” events of the entire year, and we loved every second of it. Here’s a brief recap of the festivities!
The tournament, which was in the welterweight division, started off with Trey Houston vs. Jesse Taylor. Taylor took Houston down early and after a period of inactivity on the ground Houston managed to grab Taylor’s arm and lock in an armbar. Check out the GIF (this and others via Zombie Prophet/Fansided):
In the next quarterfinal bout, Roan Carneiro took on Randall Wallace. Carneiro took Wallace down immediately and out-classed him on the mat. He mounted Wallace, then took his back, and then scored a brutal armbar, the second of the night.
In the fight CagePotato viewed as the main event, Cody McKenzie fought Brock Larson. McKenzie looked awful physically. He sported a sizeable beer guy, channeling his inner Chuck Liddell. Despite his physique, he nearly managed to sink a guillotine in toward the end of the first round. But in the second, Larson’s strength prevailed. Overpowered McKenzie on the ground, passed his guard, and submitted him with an arm triangle choke.
The last quarterfinal took place between Joe Ray and Luigi Fioravanti. Fioravanti started the fight by pressing Ray up against the fence. This ended up working to Fioravanti’s disadvantage as Ray landed a knee in the clinch that hurt Fioravanti. Then Ray landed an additional pair of knees which floored Fioravanti, who turtled up.
After the semifinals, there was an interlude. A dude who as 16-23 took on a guy who was making his pro debut. Ugh. The 0-0 guy won. Moving on…
Two young featherweight fighters in Zac Church and Ryan Hayes met one another in a great scrap. The first round had some surprisingly technical scrambles between the two relatively inexperienced fighters and some decent striking exchanges as well. Unfortunately, this torrid pace didn’t continue and the fight slowed down by the end. Zac Church was awarded with a unanimous decision victory.
In semifinal one, Trey Houston met Roan Carneiro. Carneiro controlled the first, taking Houston down and mounting him. He wasn’t able to get the finish though. Carneiro landed a HUGE hook in the second that made Houston limp. Carneiro took Houston down off the punch and ultimately scored a TKO finish via ground and pound.
The next semifinal pit Joe Ray and Brock Larson against one another. Larson controlled the first, taking Ray down and cutting his nose open with an ‘accidental’ headbutt. Ray reversed his fortunes in the second. He managed to take Larson, the wrestler, down and stay on top of him in side control. Ray attempted a D’Arce choke that appeared to be sunk in but he couldn’t finish it. Larson controlled the last round with some serious lay and pray up until a fruitless flurry in the last few seconds. Larson won a unanimous decision. There weren’t any highlights from this to GIF, really.
So the finals were between Roan Carneiro and Brock Larson.
An interlude bout saw bantamweights Tyler Shinn fight Chris Gutierrez. This bout was pretty forgettable and wasn’t that great, in all honesty. Gutierrez was awarded with a split decision win.
Finally, the FINALS of the tournament. Roan Carneiro controlled the first round by pressing Larson against the fence, something we expected Larson to be doing to be honest. The second round saw much of the same and was pretty lackluster, to be honest. No fighter had any real offense, which was understandable as they were depleting from fighting twice already. Carneiro nearly finished the job in the start of the third round. He dragged Larson to the mat immediately, took his back, and started landing ground and pound. Larson, fighting off instinct, managed to regain half guard and then later full guard. Carneiro coasted on top for the rest of the round to win the fight via decision, as well as the entire tournament.
Overall:
We give this event a B-. I was certainly fun but it was plagued with pacing issues later on. The problem was that each tournament fighter had to have a 30-minute rest period after their tournament bouts. That killed the pacing in the last half of the card and made it run to an inconvenient time to those on the east coast. An earlier start date would work wonders. The tournament overall was intriguing, fun, and a refreshing change. It was a bit of a bummer that the final wasn’t terribly exciting.
And, of course, there was Chael Sonnen and Jim Ross on commentary. They started off pretty shaky but managed to pull it together and did a wonderful job. Chael was composed and very informative. JR did great as well, and had some great zingers too.
To us, the event was worth the $20. Let’s hope Battlegrounds survives to do a second event.
(Cody’s the guy in the middle who looks like Fat Mac from ‘It’s Always Sunny.’ / Photo via facebook.com/gobgmma)
Good Lord, where do we start with this one. Cody McKenzie needs little introduction: He’s the grubby-looking guy from Alaska with the good guillotine who went 3-4 in the UFC at lightweight and featherweight, and wore a pair of basketball shorts with the tag still attached during his last UFC fight against Sam Stout, because he left his real shorts at his hotel and was hoping to return the shorts to Foot Locker after the fight, I guess?
Following his UFC dismissal, Cody McKenzie — because he’s insane — took a 180-pound catchweight fight against a dude named Mark Dobie up in British Columbia, and won by first-round submission. Tomorrow, he’ll be competing in that Battlegrounds MMA eight-man welterweight tournament called by Chael Sonnen and JR. Today, McKenzie came in at 172.4 pounds on his first weigh-in attempt, so he went backstage, HAD A PINT OF GODDAMNED BLOOD SUCKED OUT OF HIM EW EW EW and made the 171-pound limit on his second attempt. McKenzie will be facing Brock Larson in the tournament’s quarterfinals.
I have no idea how this was allowed to happen. “Battlegrounds MMA One” is going down in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a state that has an actual athletic commission, which was supposed to be taking extra precautions to ensure the safety of the fighters in this potentially grueling single-elimination tournament. Were any commission members around while Cody was doing this? And for God’s sake, what did they do with the blood? Please tell me they didn’t just pour it down the toilet, where it could potentially affect the Tulsa water supply.
Cody McKenzie has never been the picture of health, but I have a feeling he might look especially bad tomorrow night. Stay tuned…
(Cody’s the guy in the middle who looks like Fat Mac from ‘It’s Always Sunny.’ / Photo via facebook.com/gobgmma)
Good Lord, where do we start with this one. Cody McKenzie needs little introduction: He’s the grubby-looking guy from Alaska with the good guillotine who went 3-4 in the UFC at lightweight and featherweight, and wore a pair of basketball shorts with the tag still attached during his last UFC fight against Sam Stout, because he left his real shorts at his hotel and was hoping to return the shorts to Foot Locker after the fight, I guess?
Following his UFC dismissal, Cody McKenzie — because he’s insane — took a 180-pound catchweight fight against a dude named Mark Dobie up in British Columbia, and won by first-round submission. Tomorrow, he’ll be competing in that Battlegrounds MMA eight-man welterweight tournament called by Chael Sonnen and JR. Today, McKenzie came in at 172.4 pounds on his first weigh-in attempt, so he went backstage, HAD A PINT OF GODDAMNED BLOOD SUCKED OUT OF HIM EW EW EW and made the 171-pound limit on his second attempt. McKenzie will be facing Brock Larson in the tournament’s quarterfinals.
I have no idea how this was allowed to happen. “Battlegrounds MMA One” is going down in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a state that has an actual athletic commission, which was supposed to be taking extra precautions to ensure the safety of the fighters in this potentially grueling single-elimination tournament. Were any commission members around while Cody was doing this? And for God’s sake, what did they do with the blood? Please tell me they didn’t just pour it down the toilet, where it could potentially affect the Tulsa water supply.
Cody McKenzie has never been the picture of health, but I have a feeling he might look especially bad tomorrow night. Stay tuned…
(Stout, seen here fighting off a beach bum who snuck his way past securi-what’s that? The man in basketball shorts *is* Cody McKenzie? My sincerest apologies. Photo via Getty.)
Aside from being one of the most unique people to ever pass through the TUF house, Cody McKenzie might be the least intimidating-looking guy to *ever* fight in the UFC, Fred Ettish excluded (all due respect to both men). With his mangy appearance and general “No fucks to give” attitude, McKenzie was a fighter who made his name as one of the most prolific one-trick ponies in the game, scoring 11 out of his 14 career wins by way of his patented McKenzietine choke.
Unfortunately, McKenzie was on borrowed time from the very moment he made the transition to the big leagues, and today brings word that he has been released by the UFC following his disastrous performance against Sam Stout at UFC on FOX 9. The announcement was made by none other than McKenzie himself via Twitter, and immediately followed up by a request to fight Shinya Aoki. Additionally, McKenzie informed us that he already has two fights lined up — one at 180 lbs and one at 170 — and would like to fight for the WSOF in the near future. Personally, I’m all for the idea of seeing McKenzie vs. Palhares with the stipulation that both men can attempt their signature submissions and nothing else for the entirety of the contest. Any takers?
Despite being shut down in the TUF 12 quarterfinals by Nam Phan, there’s no denying the resounding impact McKenzie had on the show, mainly thanks to his pair of McKenzietine wins over Amir Khillah and Marc Stevens and constant needling of Josh Koscheck. That’s what won him over in my eyes, at least.
(Stout, seen here fighting off a beach bum who snuck his way past securi-what’s that? The man in basketball shorts *is* Cody McKenzie? My sincerest apologies. Photo via Getty.)
Aside from being one of the most unique people to ever pass through the TUF house, Cody McKenzie might be the least intimidating-looking guy to *ever* fight in the UFC, Fred Ettish excluded (all due respect to both men). With his mangy appearance and general “No fucks to give” attitude, McKenzie was a fighter who made his name as one of the most prolific one-trick ponies in the game, scoring 11 out of his 14 career wins by way of his patented McKenzietine choke.
Unfortunately, McKenzie was on borrowed time from the very moment he made the transition to the big leagues, and today brings word that he has been released by the UFC following his disastrous performance against Sam Stout at UFC on FOX 9. The announcement was made by none other than McKenzie himself via Twitter, and immediately followed up by a request to fight Shinya Aoki. Additionally, McKenzie informed us that he already has two fights lined up — one at 180 lbs and one at 170 — and would like to fight for the WSOF in the near future. Personally, I’m all for the idea of seeing McKenzie vs. Palhares with the stipulation that both men can attempt their signature submissions and nothing else for the entirety of the contest. Any takers?
Despite being shut down in the TUF 12 quarterfinals by Nam Phan, there’s no denying the resounding impact McKenzie had on the show, mainly thanks to his pair of McKenzietine wins over Amir Khillah and Marc Stevens and constant needling of Josh Koscheck. That’s what won him over in my eyes, at least. After making the leap to the UFC and scoring a debut win over fellow TUF 12 castmate Aaron Wilkinson, McKenzie would drop a pair of submission losses to Yves Edwards and Wagner Rocha, leading many to believe that he would receive his walking papers right then and there.
Luckily, McKenzie was given another shot against four-time NCAA Division III championship wrestler Marcus LeVesseur at UFC on FUEL (remember those?) 3: Korean Zombie vs. Poirier. Clearly at a strength disadvantage, the “AK Kid” was outmuscled and outgunned by Levesseur in the early going, but only needed the smallest of windows to latch onto his signature guillotine and force the tap at just over 3 minutes into the first round.
McKenzie would make the drop to featherweight for his next fight. In what would become known as one of the most cruel matchmaking decisions in UFC History, McKenzie would be paired off against Chad Mendes, who had just challenged Jose Aldo for the featherweight title in his previous contest, at UFC 148. The fight lasted 31 seconds and saw McKenzie defeated via a brutal body shot TKO. Years later, matchmaker Sean Shelby would attempt to explain the circumstances that led to the booking of that slaughter, but has yet to outright apologize for it. A decision win over Leonard Garcia at UFC 159 would follow; the last of McKenzie’s UFC career.
Perhaps it’s appropriate that McKenzie’s final UFC fight would become memorable for all the wrong (also, bizarre) reasons — he was after all, one of the most peculiar, least “fightery” guys to ever step foot in the octagon. And although McKenzie may never rise to the level of a UFC or even a WSOF contender, he always came off as a friendly, heartfelt, and truly genuine guy at his core. And like we said, it’s hard to hate someone who never backed down from a fight, especially when that fight was with a loofah-haired, angry lip balm-applying, dickhead coach of a reality show competition.
We would like to wish Cody the best of luck wherever the road takes him, and to honor his equally memorable and improbable run in the UFC, we will pay tribute the only way we know how: With a grainy TV-recording of his TUF 12 fight against Team Koscheck’s #1 pick, Marc Stevens. We don’t think he’d want it any other way.
Before we get into the endless promotion for the year-ending and stacked UFC 168: Weidman vs. Silva 2, let’s take one last, clear-eyed look at what went down at WECUFC on Fox 9. The injury-cursed event seemed destined to be a disappointment to many fans who consider the lighter fighters boring, especially considering it was the lightest fight card in UFC history, with an average weight of just over 145 pounds. The fact that the fights were taking place at the Sleep Train Arena seemed like a bad omen, foretelling the coma-inducing boredom that might have resulted from a night of decisions. Nevertheless, despite the haters, the smaller guys provided a card of highly entertaining fights and they showcased why many MMA purists consider them the most exciting fighters in the sport.
The Good
• Too often, referees only get noticed when they screw up. However, the officials for this card should be praised for a solid night of work in which they did their jobs properly and kept the focus where it belongs: the fighters. Props to John McCarthy, Herb Dean, and Mike Beltran for getting through the 11-fight card with no critical errors. Even Dana White, who has been openly critical of MMA officiating in the past, praised both Big John and Herb Dean, saying, “These are the best guys” and complimented his one-time nemesis, McCarthy, saying, “When John is in that Octagon, he is in absolute and total control.”
• Much has been written lately about the success of Team Alpha Male under head trainer, Daune “Bang” Ludwig. Saturday night gave the camp an opportunity to showcase how deserving they were of that praise, with four fighters from the Sacramento-based crew competing. As a whole, the team didn’t perform flawlessly, but they did manage to win two of their four fights. It was a great night for Urijah Faber, as the hometown hero steamrolled Michael McDonald and established himself — again — as the top contender in the Bantamweight division. Chad Mendes also did what he needed to, beating Nik Lentz by unanimous decision. On the losing side, Danny Castillo dropped a close decision to Edson Barboza that many thought should have been a draw, and Joseph Benavidez got knocked out cold by Demetrious Johnson. Other than Benavidez, Team Alpha looked good, and judging from their backstage reaction to Urijah Faber’s win, they truly are a tightknit group that will continue their upward trajectory.
(Uh…guys? I’m pretty sure that’s Herb Dean. / Screencap via r/MMA)
Before we get into the endless promotion for the year-ending and stacked UFC 168: Weidman vs. Silva 2, let’s take one last, clear-eyed look at what went down at WECUFC on Fox 9. The injury-cursed event seemed destined to be a disappointment to many fans who consider the lighter fighters boring, especially considering it was the lightest fight card in UFC history, with an average weight of just over 145 pounds. The fact that the fights were taking place at the Sleep Train Arena seemed like a bad omen, foretelling the coma-inducing boredom that might have resulted from a night of decisions. Nevertheless, despite the haters, the smaller guys provided a card of highly entertaining fights and they showcased why many MMA purists consider them the most exciting fighters in the sport.
The Good
• Too often, referees only get noticed when they screw up. However, the officials for this card should be praised for a solid night of work in which they did their jobs properly and kept the focus where it belongs: the fighters. Props to John McCarthy, Herb Dean, and Mike Beltran for getting through the 11-fight card with no critical errors. Even Dana White, who has been openly critical of MMA officiating in the past, praised both Big John and Herb Dean, saying, “These are the best guys” and complimented his one-time nemesis, McCarthy, saying, “When John is in that Octagon, he is in absolute and total control.”
• Much has been written lately about the success of Team Alpha Male under head trainer, Daune “Bang” Ludwig. Saturday night gave the camp an opportunity to showcase how deserving they were of that praise, with four fighters from the Sacramento-based crew competing. As a whole, the team didn’t perform flawlessly, but they did manage to win two of their four fights. It was a great night for Urijah Faber, as the hometown hero steamrolled Michael McDonald and established himself — again — as the top contender in the Bantamweight division. Chad Mendes also did what he needed to, beating Nik Lentz by unanimous decision. On the losing side, Danny Castillo dropped a close decision to Edson Barboza that many thought should have been a draw, and Joseph Benavidez got knocked out cold by Demetrious Johnson. Other than Benavidez, Team Alpha looked good, and judging from their backstage reaction to Urijah Faber’s win, they truly are a tightknit group that will continue their upward trajectory.
• Demetrious Johnson looked incredible. Once known only for his wrestling and cardio/pace, “Mighty Mouse” showed that he is a well-rounded mixed martial artist, dangerous in grappling and striking. I’m not sure who he should replace in the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings, but he definitely made the case that he should be near the top of that list. His post-fight celebration was almost as entertaining as the fight itself, with Johnson performing flips and other acrobatics before his trainer, Matt Hume, seemed to tell him to calm down and “go get some fans.” Mighty Mouse had the best night of anybody, putting a definitive end to his rivalry with Benavidez and earning a $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus.
• Having a card full of lighter weight fighters may not have been a ratings success, but it was a good format that I hope the UFC continues to employ. It reminded me of the all-heavyweight main card of UFC 146. The good thing about limiting a card to certain weight classes is that it really clears up the rankings for the featured divisions and gives the card tournament-like significance. The UFC is struggling ratings-wise. Part of that is due to the confusion amongst fans about who the top contenders are. Cards like this weekend’s help to sort out those issues in one sitting. This “light” card was a good step in the right direction towards putting an end to myth that the lighter weights can’t finish fights.
The Bad
• In between rounds 1 and 2 of the Castillo-Barboza fight, the Fox cameras had an extended focus on Barbosa’s corner, with no translation provided. It seemed unprepared and unprofessional. It would have been great to hear what advice his corner was giving Barboza, especially considering the onslaught he survived in the first round and the comeback he had in round 2. It’s a minor complaint, but for a station struggling to keep the attention of North American UFC fans, Fox should have planned ahead and provided a Portuguese-English translation.
• Another broadcasting mistake saw Fox wrongly identify referee Mike Beltran as John McCarthy in the lead-up to the Castillo-Barboza fight. It was an honest mistake but one that shouldn’t happen, especially considering Beltran is hard to misidentify with a beard that makes him look like a character straight out of Middle-earth.
• Joe Rogan gets a lot of flak for the bias he demonstrates in his commentary. He did a great job remaining neutral for most of the fights on Saturday night but it was a bit of a turnoff to hear him criticize the performance of Chad “Money” Mendes in his win over Nik Lentz. Sure, Mendes didn’t win in particularly exciting fashion but it was a solid performance over a quality opponent who was undefeated at Featherweight. After the fight, Mendes told matchmaker Joe Silva that he was sick and “felt like shit tonight” which might have explained why he seemed to gas a bit after the first round. Regardless, Rogan’s criticism seemed to undermine Mendes’s win, Lentz’s skill level, and an otherwise solid night of commentating from Rogan.
• It has become somewhat of a tradition to lambaste the decisions made by MMA judges lately, and usually for good reason. A couple of the decisions on Saturday night were bad, but not completely ugly. First, Bobby Green defeated Pat Healy by unanimous decision in a fight where Healy seemed to outwork and out-grind Green for the final two rounds. The crowd showed their displeasure, and although it wasn’t a horrible decision there is certainly no way it should have been scored 30-27 for Green, as one judge apparently saw it. 29-28 for Green is reasonable. Giving all of the rounds to Green is not. Second, Edson Baboza defeated Danny Castillo by majority decision. Only the one judge who scored the fight a draw at 28-28 got the decision right. How the other two judges didn’t score the first round 10-8 for Castillo is beyond me. A 10-8 round seemed obvious and even 10-7 would have been justifiable. If that wasn’t a 10-8 round, I don’t know what is. It was an unfortunate decision that overshadowed what was a barnburner of a fight that saw both fighters survive near finishes and earn “Fight of the Night” bonuses.
The Ugly
• Joseph Benavidez had never been stopped before in his MMA career. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t show much caution in the striking exchanges from the start against Johnson. Benavidez even had his eyes closed while he was swinging during the final exchange, so he probably didn’t even see the final right hand that ended his night early. Benavidez clearly didn’t respect the striking of Johnson. Granted, Johnson hadn’t shown KO power in the big leagues before, but this is MMA where anything can and often does happen. The result of the technical lapse was the fastest KO in flyweight history, forcing Benavidez back to the drawing board to try and climb back up the rankings.
• Cody McKenzie had a rough night. He looked gassed and unimpressive while getting soundly beaten by Sam Stout in a unanimous decision loss. However, the loss may not have even been the most embarrassing part of his night. McKenzie fought in what looked like basketball shorts with the tag still on them after he apparently showed up at the arena without a mouthpiece or shorts. Someone had to actually run out and buy some shorts for him at a nearby store. What exactly did he think he was doing in Sacramento? McKenzie probably lost any sponsorship money that he was supposed to get from the real estate on his shorts and afterwards he was reported to have drowned his sorrows with a couple of shots and beers, before allegedly getting into a brawl in a hotel lobby. Needless to say, it was an ugly night that McKenzie would likely soon forget and one that may earn him his walking papers in short order.
• Speaking of ugly, Mac Danzig’s face was pretty busted up after going through the meat grinder with Joe Lauzon. Danzig, the TUF season 6 winner, is experienced and usually durable, but the truth is he is just not on the same level as “J-Lau”. In fact, the fight was likely booked with this in mind — to get company-man Lauzon back into the win column. Lauzon didn’t get any of the “Of the Night” bonuses he has grown accustomed to but he did look impressive and is back on track. Danzig, on the other hand, is at risk of being dropped from the UFC and is probably still licking his wounds from the nasty elbows thrown by Lauzon.
