Tag: james vick

The fight game is filled with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Former UFC fighter, James Vick has been on the receiving end of those career lows as of late, having lost 5 of his last fights, 4 of them unfortunately coming by brutal KO’s.

Facing off against future interim champ, Justin Gaethje in his first UFC main event in August 2018, the future looked bright for “The Texecutioner.” Going into the fight, Vick was 14-1 as a professional and talked a big game towards his opponent. Vick promised he would extend Gaethje’s losing streak and send him running to the B-leagues after their fight. What came after? A haymaker from ‘The Highlight’ which knocked out the towering Texan.

This only marked the second loss of his Vick’s career. However, it wouldn’t be his last.

After Gaethje landed his signature backflip, Vick would be matched up against the shark tank that is the UFC lightweight division. Paul Felder was the first to be matched up with Vick following his only loss in his last 5 fights. Although being close to a near finish of Felder in the last seconds of the fight, “The Irish Dragon” would edge out Vick by unanimous decision. The stint didn’t end there.

Next up on the murderer’s row was New Zealand’s Dan Hooker. “The Hangman” didn’t need much time to tie up the metaphorical noose, dispatching the 12-fight UFC veteran in under 3 minutes. Vick had endured 3 devastating losses in under 365 days.

The trio of defeats would leave Vick to pursue a new weight class, 170, in hopes that a rebirth of his career could take place. James Vick is incredibly tall for a lightweight at 6’3, so perhaps he thought the weight cut was affecting his performances and overall chin. However, welterweight would end being a dead end for the Fort Worth fighter.

Standing over the fan-favorite Niko Price, Vick would once again be knocked out, this time with a shocking up-kick from the downed Price. This was the last stop for Vick in his UFC career. He would later be released by the UFC following the streak of unlucky events.

Two years later, a promotion by the name of XMMA would make their debut in hosting MMA events. “The Texecutioner” would be brought in to headline the stacked card full of former UFC veterans among Marcelo Golm, Kyle Bochniak and others.

Come fight night, shades of the old, successful James Vick came to life in the first round against Andre Fialho. Vick had likely won his first round in 3 years, outpointing the PFL vet. His early success would come to a close with Fialho unloading a insane combination of strikes on Vick. One knockdown followed up in the second round with Vick quickly rising to have his opponent releasing another burst of punches.

After a minute of not effectively defending himself on the feet, the referee would step in to crown Fialho the winner of the bout. Vick had enough. After a 5-fight losing streak, he would hang up the gloves, publicly announcing his retirement on his Instagram feed.

“Idk where to start this.” Vick stated. “Few days ago I took the worst loss of my career. I went out on my shield like I always have like a warrior. I am very sorry to everyone who helped and believe in me so much this last year. The truth is I haven’t felt that passion/love for fighting the way I use to in a long time. But I have always been disciplined and trained hard no matter what. One of my main reasons for still fighting was to prove to my son that you can’t just give up when things get hard in life. But this is not the way to teach him that. This is not like failing a test or losing a basketball or football game. This is combat sports and this shit can be permanent.”

“One of the last punches he landed i knew something was seriously wrong. I’m glad the ref stepped in because lord knows I would have been to tough and dumb to do that. My orbital is broke on my right side, the fracture went all the way through to the other side causing a Bi lateral break plus my jaw is completely displaced so tomorrow they are finally doing surgery to fix it. It really was a perfectly placed shot. The Doctor said i could definitely fight again after this if I wanted to but this was my last fight.”

“I can’t keep putting my family through this. I have reached the top of where I was going to get in Combat sports in becoming a top 10 fighter in the UFC. Honestly that was probably a major over achievement considering I didn’t even start training until I was 20 yrs old, worked a full-time job for almost half of that and had several major surgeries after that. Trying to catch these guys that have trained their entire lives has seriously been the hardest thing I have ever done. The highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Thank you to anyone who has been there to support me, teach me or cheer me on along the way. I have made life long relationships in this martial arts journey I will always be so grateful for.”

“It bothers me that my 3 year old son has to see his daddy with his jaw wired shut for 4 to 6 weeks because of all this. He is so little and doesn’t understand. Time to move on and focus more on my family and raising my son to be a great man.Thank you everyone and thank this sport for the memories.”

Do you think James Vick has made the right move by retiring?

Former UFC lightweight title contender James Vick sensationally lost his first fight outside of MMA’s premier promotion last night.

Vick became a free agent in October 2019 after opting against re-signing with the UFC when his contract expired.

The 33-year-old ended his long spell on the side-lines last night at XMMA. Vick entered the bout on the back of a four-fight losing streak. The Texas native lost back-to-back fights by knockout when he fought Niko Price and Dan Hooker. Prior to that, he dropped a unanimous decision to Paul ‘The Irish Dragon’ Felder. The first loss of his current streak came against Justin Gaethje, who spectacularly knocked out Vick with one punch in August 2018.

Vick’s opponent at XMMA was another fighter on a long losing streak. Andre Fialho (10-4) had lost three straight coming into his fight with Vick. Most recently he fell to a unanimous decision loss against Antonio dos Santos Jr.

Unfortunately for Vick his fortunes did not change outside of the UFC. In the second round Fialho swarmed with a flurry of strikes. Vick was eating them but appeared to be out on his feet before the referee waved off the fight.

Check out footage from Vick’s defeat below…

Vick was once a serious contender in the UFC’s stacked 155lb division. He came to prominence through the Ultimate Fighter in 2012. Despite falling short against eventual TUF winner Michael Chiesa, Vick was signed by the UFC.

During his early years with the company Vick amassed an impressive had 13-1 record. He holds several high-profile wins over the likes of Ramsey Nijem, Jake Matthews, Abel Trujillo, Joe Duffy and Francisco Trinaldo. After putting together a four-fight win streak Vick began mixing it with the upper echelon fighter and since then things haven’t quite worked out.

Do you think James Vick should continue fighting after suffering five straight defeats?

James Vick is no longer contracted to the UFC.

That’s according to TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter who reported Wednesday that the former ranked lightweight has been released by the promotion after his contract had expired. He went on to add that Vick is currently in talks with other mixed martial arts promotions.

“Per sources, James Vick has been released from the UFC.

“Vick’s contract expired following his last bout and was not renewed. He is currently in talks with several other promotions.”

If confirmed, Vick departs the UFC on the back of a four-fight losing streak.

After starting his career with the promotion with a 9-1 run, “The Texecutioner” would suffer a knockout defeat to Justin Gaethje in August 2018. He would then get outpointed by Paul Felder before suffering more brutal knockout losses to Dan Hooker and most recently, Niko Price in his return to welterweight in October last year.

Despite his setbacks, Vick — currently boasting a 13-5 professional record — would still be a solid pickup for any other promotion and it doesn’t look like he will be a free agent for long.

What do you think of the UFC’s decision to release Vick? Where do you think he will go next?