(Say what you will about Dashon’s qualifications, but there’s no denying that the dude packs an epic punch-face.)
Meet Dashon Johnson, a.k.a “Fly Boy” a.k.a the latest undefeated “prospect” to be signed by the UFC. A former professional boxer who amassed a by definition mediocre record of 15-15, Johnson has gone 9-0 as an MMA fighter and was recently booked to face TUF Nations washout Jake Matthews at Fight Night 43. I know, you’ve probably already marked this fight down on your calendars.
The combined record of Johnson’s opponents to date is 13-39, with 12 of those wins belonging to one fighter, Brady Harrison. Even worse, at the time Johnson faced each of the tomato cans his record has been padded with, these were their records (in chronological order):
(Say what you will about Dashon’s qualifications, but there’s no denying that the dude packs an epic punch-face.)
Meet Dashon Johnson, a.k.a “Fly Boy” a.k.a the latest undefeated “prospect” to be signed by the UFC. A former professional boxer who amassed a by definition mediocre record of 15-15, Johnson has gone 9-0 as an MMA fighter and was recently booked to face TUF Nations washout Jake Matthews at Fight Night 43. I know, you’ve probably already marked this fight down on your calendars.
The combined record of Johnson’s opponents to date is 13-39, with 12 of those wins belonging to one fighter, Brady Harrison. Even worse, at the time Johnson faced each of the tomato cans his record has been padded with, these were their records (in chronological order):
Tommy Franklin (0-0) Jordan Delano (0-4) Kenneth Johnson (0-0) Randall Adams (0-0) Phelan Fleming (0-1) Kenny Kilgore (1-3) Brady Harrison (11-10) Ray Carter (0-1) Jordan Delano (0-10, rematch of first fight)
With the exception of two fighters, Johnson has finished all of his opponents via TKO or submission inside the first two minutes. It might shock you to learn that the only man to go the distance with Johnson was Harrison.
As noted by both Alexander and Bratcher, all of Johnson’s fights have taken place under the Xplode Fight Series banner. Xplode Fight Series, for those of you who might not be familiar, is a California-based pro-am organization who holds the majority of their cards on Indian reservations. They also happen to have a management company, and just so happen to house the facility that Johnson trains out of, Team Xplode MMA.
Unfortunately, it would appear that Johnson is not the only Xplode MMA fighter who has received, let’s call it favorable treatment, while fighting for Xplode. You see, Xplode Fight Series is less in the MMA business than they are the squash match business — one look over the fighters in their stable reveals more padded records than I care to count and more tomato cans than an Andy Warhol painting. Essentially, Xplode MMA/Fight Series is setting up their “premiere” fighters against nobodies in the hopes that they will be signed by the UFC for a regional level show, which their management company will then presumably profit from. It takes “conflict of interest” to an entirely different level.
Here are just a few examples of the promotion’s shady matchmaking practices in recent years, per Alexander’s report:
Titan FC bantamweight Walel Watson previously spent 4 fights in the UFC before he was cut in late 2012. Watson fought twice in XFS after his release, winning both bouts in a combined 99 seconds. The current combined records of the opponents he defeated? A dismal 0-23.
Bellator and Strikeforce veteran Keith Berry (15-13) defeated 0-0 Josh Gibson in 2012 in what was listed as a middleweight championship fight. Berry later triumphed over Edward Darby, who came into the fight at 0-3 and is now 0-15. Following this win, Berry was signed by Bellator, where he’s lost his last 3 and missed weight for 1 of his only 2 wins.
Light heavyweight Patrick Cummins TKO’d Ricky Pulu (0-3) on an XFS show last year and was picked at the last minute to fight Daniel Cormier in February at UFC 170.
Last but not least, UFC flyweight Danny Martinez (16-5) had two appearances in XFS back in 2012, winning by 1st round TKO against Nick Boyd and Rich Bonafidini, both of whom also were 0-0 at the time, and Martinez was even allowed to wear wrestling shoes. Martinez was later selected for TUF 18 and later signed on late notice for UFC 169 and is scheduled to fight again on June 7th against Scott Jorgensen.
And it gets worse. So, so much worse.
Edward Darby, the 0-15 fighter who was TKO’d by Keith Barry, fought ten times in 2013, (six under the Xplode banner) and dropped all of his fights by first round TKO or submission. How Darby was cleared to compete in fights as close as two weeks apart despite getting TKO’d is anybody’s guess, but it’s clear that Xplode is in neither the competitive MMA business nor the safety-concerned MMA business. As I spoke of regarding the disastrous amatuer MMA scene in NY yesterday, the fault for accepting these fights lies at least partially on the fighters themselves, but still, it’s goddamn disheartening to see a promotion so willing to forgo the basic safety concerns of the guys they are profiting off.
Does this mean that Johnson is destined to washout of the UFC almost immediately? I won’t say that much, as Royston Wee has already proved me wrong in that regard. But as Alexander notes, the UFC willingness to sign guys like Johnson (while simultaneously turning down guys like Askren) “is real telling about who they’re willing to bring on board just to be $8k/$8k fodder on Fight Pass.”
It always comes back to Fight Pass. God damn you, Fight Pass.
Every great sport has been built on the backs of men who absolutely sucked at it — athletes whose hapless failures made the champions’ triumphs look even more outstanding by comparison. Baseball has its Mario Mendozas, its Bob Kammeyers, its Pete Rose Jrs. We have our Joe Sons, our Tiki Ghosns, our James Toneys. So in honor of the brave competitors who proved that MMA is even harder than it looks, we humbly present this “tribute” to the worst UFC fighters of all time.
A couple of notes to start: 1) We chose fighters solely based on their performances inside the Octagon. Some of these fighters achieved great things in other organizations, before or after their time in the UFC; for the purposes of this feature, we’re not really interested in that. 2) Instead of ranking one form of suckitude against another, we’ll group the 50 fighters into sections and arrange them chronologically. Use the links below to navigate, and if we omitted anybody notable, please let us know in the comments section.
Every great sport has been built on the backs of men who absolutely sucked at it — athletes whose hapless failures made the champions’ triumphs look even more outstanding by comparison. Baseball has its Mario Mendozas, its Bob Kammeyers, its Pete Rose Jrs. We have our Joe Sons, our Tiki Ghosns, our James Toneys. So in honor of the brave competitors who proved that MMA is even harder than it looks, we humbly present this “tribute” to the worst UFC fighters of all time.
A couple of notes to start: 1) We chose fighters solely based on their performances inside the Octagon. Some of these fighters achieved great things in other organizations, before or after their time in the UFC; for the purposes of this feature, we’re not really interested in that. 2) Instead of ranking one form of suckitude against another, we’ll group the 50 fighters into sections and arrange them chronologically. Use the links below to navigate, and if we omitted anybody notable, please let us know in the comments section.
When “Style vs. Style” usually meant “Talented vs. Untalented.”
1. Art Jimmerson (UFC record: 0-1) Sole appearance: UFC 1, 11/12/93
Even before we really understood what the UFC was, it was clear that Art Jimmerson didn’t belong there. What was a one-gloved boxer going to accomplish in a no-holds-barred fighting competition? In the end, the glove gimmick was completely beside the point. Jimmerson wasn’t able to land a single punch with either hand before he was taken down by early franchise star Royce Gracie, and tapped out before Gracie even got a chance to sink a submission hold. These days, Art is gainfully employed as the head boxing instructor at the UFC Gym in Rosemead, California, and spends his free time calling out Kimbo Slice. Legend.
2. Fred Ettish (0-1) Sole appearance: UFC 2, 3/11/94
A kenpo karate stylist who wanted to challenge himself beyond point-fighting tournaments, Ettish sent a letter to Art Davie asking for a spot on UFC 2, and was brought on as a stand-by alternate when Ken Shamrock broke his hand before the event. But instead of letting Ettish warm up and keep focused backstage, the UFC tried to kill two birds with one stone by having Ettish wrangle fighters at the arena, Burt Watson-style. When Frank Hamaker injured his hand during his round-of-16 victory over Thaddeus Luster, shit got very real, very fast:
“I’d just brought up [Minoki] Ichihara, the guy who fought Royce in the first round. I was going downstairs to find the next fighter at the same time Rorion Gracie was coming up the stairs. He grabbed me by the arm and asked, ‘Are you ready to fight?’…I had to go find my guys in the crowd, drag them backstage, get my gear, stretch and try to get myself prepared. This all happened in about a 10-minute window, and I was headed out to the Octagon…I wasn’t able to get my mind right. I checked out psychologically.”
Johnny Rhodes destroyed him. Ettish’s front-kicks were more of an annoyance to his opponent than anything else, and by the time Rhodes knocked him to the mat and began firing strikes from above, Ettish only had the “earthquake defense” to protect him. Rhodes eventually won by way of a choke-hold that he seemed to have invented on the spot. Luckily, Ettish didn’t get discouraged. He went on to open a Pat Miletich-affiliated MMA gym, and returned to competition in 2009, scoring a first-round TKO of a guy who was half his age. See? Nice guys don’t always finish last.
3. Emmanuel Yarborough (0-1) Sole appearance: UFC 3, 9/9/94
Manny Yarborough proved that a 416-pound weight advantage was no advantage at all, especially if you have zero practical combat training outside of shoving other fat guys, and you can’t get off the floor without assistance. As soon as his opponent Keith Hackney landed a Hail Mary palm strike, Yarborough tumbled to the mat and nearly swallowed Hackney up in his massive gravitational pull. After a re-start due to Octagon gate-failure, Hackney pot-shotted Yarborough until he was able to knock the big sumo down again, then smashed Manny with blows from above until Big John McCarthy was forced to intervene. Yarborough wasn’t invited back to the UFC, though he did pick up a win via smother-submission during a Shooto fight four years later.
4. Joe Son (0-1) Sole appearance: UFC 4, 12/16/94
Maybe we’re biased, considering he’s arguably the worst person who ever competed in the UFC. When Joe Son cut his creepy UFC 4 promo in which he threatened to show us “the spirit of the Lord of Jesus Christ tonight,” nobody knew that he had participated in the horrifying kidnapping and gang-rape of a woman on Christmas Eve 1990, a crime that wouldn’t catch up to him until 2008. Once again, Keith Hackney played the role of regulator, repeatedly slugging Joe Son in the balls during their fight — perfectly legal back then, mind you — before making the “Joe Son Do” practitioner tap due to a choke.
How did a guy who never lost in the UFC make it onto this list? Well, just watch the video of Jon Hess‘s UFC 5 fight against Andy Anderson, and it’ll start to make a lot of sense. A co-founder of SAFTA — that’s Scientific Aggressive Fighting Technology of America, noob — Hess decided to pursue MMA after watching UFC 4 and concluding that he could beat Royce Gracie “very easily.” But once he got in the Octagon and started flailing around like a spaz, it wasn’t clear that he’d ever studied a real martial art. And despite his size advantage against Anderson, Hess resorted to blatant eye-gouging twice in order to get out of trouble.
In short, Hess was completely unathletic, would have been destroyed by any fighter his own size, and was most likely a total asshole to begin with. The UFC reportedly fined him $2,000 for his fouls and never allowed him back. In his second (and final) MMA fight the following year, Hess was invited to face Vitor Belfort at a SuperBrawl event on four days’ notice, and by the power of Christ, Belfort set the karmic balance back in order.
6. John Matua (0-1) Sole appearance: UFC 6, 7/14/95
And now, the internal monologue of everybody who watched UFC 6 live: “Damn, John Matua looks like a beast. Did Michael Buffer just say he studies the ‘brutal Hawaiian art of bone-breaking?’ Yeesh…R.I.P., random biker guy. It’s kind of weird that I’ve been subscribing to Black Belt magazine for the last three years and yet I’ve never heard of Kuialua; I’ll have to ask my sensei about ways to defend against it. Okay, they’re fighting, and HOLY CRAP, TANK IS BEATING HIS ASS! BONE-BREAKING HAS BEEN EXPOSED AS USELESS IN A NO-HOLDS-BARRED SCENARIO! PIT-FIGHTING IS THE FUTURE! Oh man, is Matua dead? He’s definitely dead. Wow. Best $14.99 I’ve ever spent. [puts on Everclear CD]” See also:Thomas Ramirez
7. Paul Herrera (0-1) Sole appearance: UFC 8, 2/16/96
8. Moti Horenstein (0-2) First appearance: UFC 10, 7/12/96 Final appearance: UFC 14, 7/27/97
With a background in karate, kickboxing, and krav maga, Israeli striker Moti Horenstein wasn’t looking to roll around the mat with anybody. His game-plan in the cage was to unleash the kind of vicious kicks that would later score him a Guinness World Record in baseball-bat breaking. (Yes, there is such a thing.) Unfortunately, Moti’s luck in drawing opponents was cosmically, hilariously bad. Horenstein debuted in the quarterfinals of UFC 10′s open-weight tournament against former NCAA Division I wrestling champion Mark Coleman, who swiftly took him down and unleashed his trademark ground-and-pound until Horenstein tapped from strikes at the 2:43 mark.
Horenstein gave it another shot the following year, entering UFC 14′s four-man heavyweight tournament. And who was his opponent this time? None other than former NCAA Division I wrestling champion Mark Kerr, who was simply a larger, younger, and more savage version of Mark Colemon. Bleacher Report aptly described the match as ”the worst case of a Jew being led to slaughter since Jesus.” Horenstein got TKO’d in 2:22 and thankfully never showed up in the UFC again.
9. Reza Nasri (0-1) Sole appearance: UFC 11, 9/20/96
The UFC’s pre-Zuffa era featured two short-lived Iranian prospects — Tae Kwon Do stylist Saeed Hosseini, who competed at UFC 13, and Reza Nasri, who preceded him by three events. (Coincidentally, both fighters were matched up against juiced-up Americans wearing form-fitting Stars ‘n’ Stripes briefs, which made it clear who the fans were supposed to root for.) But while Hosseini put in a valiant effort before being TKO’d by Jack Nilsson, Nasri didn’t do anything for the budding reputation of Iranian MMA, getting beat down by Brian Johnston in under 30 seconds.
Nasri entered the Octagon with a Greco-Roman wrestling background, but it wasn’t clear if he’d done any striking training before joining the eight-man tournament at UFC 11, and he certainly hadn’t taken any jiu-jitsu lessons — you can tell that by the way he completely stopped fighting after Johnston put him on his back. Perhaps Nasri was waiting for the ref to award Johnston three points and stand them back up. Instead, Johnston unleashed a torrent of head-butts (still technically legal in those days) and punches that ended the Iranian’s UFC career as quickly as it began. Now, if Johnston had only come at Nasri with a knife in slow-motion, who knows what would have happened?
10. Tony Halme (0-1) Sole appearance: UFC 13, 5/30/97
Unlike the inept first-timers in this section, Tony Halme already had a proven history of failure in MMA by the time he made it to the UFC, racking up an 0-3 record for Japan’s RINGS promotion. A former professional wrestler who had competed in the WWF under the name Ludvig Borga, the hulking, tatted-up Finn certainly looked like your stereotypical cage-fighter/Aryan prison-gang leader. But against a top-shelf wrestler like Randy Couture, he was roadkill.
Halme met the Natural in the semi-finals of UFC 13′s four-man heavyweight tournament — which happened to be Couture’s MMA debut — and opened the bout by running directly into a double-leg takedown. Couture easily placed the 300-pounder on the mat, transitioned to Halme’s back, then finished him with a choke, all in just 56 seconds. It was the last attempt at MMA for Halme, who went on to win a seat in Finland’s parliament for the ultra-right-wing True Finns party, before spiraling into drug-and-alcohol-fueled insanity, and killing himself in January 2010. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.
11. Greg “Ranger” Stott (0-1) Sole appearance: UFC 15, 10/17/97
His entire MMA career lasted only 17 seconds, but it taught us so much. For one thing, being 240 pounds doesn’t necessarily make you a heavyweight — sometimes it just means you need to reduce your carb intake. Also, the Octagon is no place to test out new martial arts systems that you made up in your garage. So it went with Greg Stott, an Army Ranger who debuted his own Ranger Intensive Program (“RIP rules, and all other styles rest in peace“) at UFC 15 against the nightmare-inducing Mark Kerr, a true heavyweight in every sense of the word. After Stott tossed out a few awful-looking jabs to demonstrate how unqualified he was, Kerr clinched up and launched an Overeem-esque knee straight up the middle, putting Stott’s lights out. The Mississippi fans booed the quick stoppage, angry that Kerr didn’t literally beat Stott to death. Indeed, it was a crowd that desired bloodshed above all else.
12. Yoji Anjo (0-3) First appearance: UFC Ultimate Japan 1, 12/21/97 Final appearance: UFC 29, 12/16/00
The four-man heavyweight tournament at Ultimate Japan 1 featured two Japanese professional wrestlers, who entered as a publicity stunt for their Kingdom Pro Wrestling league. One of them was Kazushi Sakuraba, a last-minute injury replacement who managed to win the tournament and went on to become an MMA megastar in Japan. The other was Yoji Anjo, whose fight career couldn’t have turned out more differently. After losing a 15-minute decision to American fan-favorite Tank Abbott, Anjo was booked on two subsequent Japanese UFC cards, for no other reason than his nationality. In a pair of mismatches against middleweight up-and-comers, Anjo was choked out by Murilo Bustamante at UFC 25: Ultimate Japan 3 and TKO’d by Matt Lindland at UFC 29. Yoji Anjo retired from MMA competition with an overall record of 0-5-1. The fact that he was also responsible for the most epically failed dojo-storming attempt in martial arts history is a tale for another day. See also:Daiju Takase
13. Chris Condo (0-1) Sole appearance: UFC 20, 5/7/99
I’m going to be honest with you — I don’t know a damn thing about Chris Condo. I don’t know where he came from, and I don’t know what became of him after his brief stint in the UFC. Maybe he was simply a spectator who was asked to replace a fighter who had dropped out at the last minute. Your guess is as good as mine. What I see in the screen-cap above is a heavy-set “grappler” whose dopey, innocent expression is reminiscent of Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket. When Condo faced Ron Waterman at UFC 20, he was, to quote that movie, in a world of shit; Waterman TKO’d him in just 28 seconds. I remember watching the fight online a while back, and I remember that it was ugly, but the video has disappeared from the Internet. Chris Condo never fought again. His life remains a mystery.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Dan Lauzon; his last run in the UFC saw him get Toby-Imada’d by Cole Miller and outpointed in a snoozefest by TUF 8 winner Efrain Escudero. All of this came amidst a falling out with his older brother, UFC lightweight contender Joe Lauzon, who spoke out about Dan’s lack of motivation and desire to train. Well, it seems that Dan has finally begun to heed the advice of his big bro, because he’s rattled off four consecutive wins, all by stoppage, since being released by Zuffa over a year ago. Or, it could just be that he’s fighting people way, way below his level, as is the case in the above video.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Dan Lauzon; his last run in the UFC saw him get Toby-Imada’d by Cole Miller and outpointed in a snoozefest by TUF 8 winner Efrain Escudero. All of this came amidst a falling out with his older brother, UFC lightweight contender Joe Lauzon, who spoke out about Dan’s lack of motivation and desire to train. Well, it seems that Dan has finally begun to heed the advice of his big bro, because he’s rattled off four consecutive wins, all by stoppage, since being released by Zuffa over a year ago. Or, it could just be that he’s fighting people way, way below his level, as is the case in the above video.
And that sacrificial lamb was 4-5 fighter Anthony “Violence” Kaponis, whom you may remember as one of the more recent victims of CP certified badass Nick Newell. Living up to his extremely vague nickname, Kaponis was indeed involved in some violence, but I’m not sure if this is what he had in mind when he chose the moniker whilst listening to his favorite Nothingface record.
Anyway, let’s get to the fight, which went down last Saturday at Premiere FC 7. Though the video is a little shaky, it appears that a series of Lauzon right hooks are what does Kaponis in. But what’s really interesting (read: disturbing) is when the camera holds on Kaponis after he is knocked out. Aside from striking up a classic planking pose, Kaponis’ toes begin to twitch and spasm like his feet were on fire and each one was trying to run in a different direction. Gruesome stuff. Don’t worry, Kaponis did in fact recover and left the ring on his own power a few minutes later. Congrats to Lauzon for the win, but if he wants back in the UFC, it’s time to stop following the path that Jason Reinhardt took.
(You can pretty much guess why he had to shave his head.)
Look, we’ve busted Jason Reinhardt‘s balls a couple times because of his tendency to fight 0-0 opponents, his winless UFC record, and because he happens to look like Steve Carrel’s stunt-double in a movie about meth addiction. But of course records never tell the whole story. As a sub-155’er trying to make a living in the Midwest, Reinhardt had to take whatever opportunities were available to him, and was often paired up with much larger opponents on his journey to the big show. After news of his UFC release broke, Reinhardt went on the UG to respond to his critics and defend his strange career. I thought it was worth passing along. Read on…
(You can pretty much guess why he had to shave his head.)
Look, we’ve busted Jason Reinhardt‘s balls a couple times because of his tendency to fight 0-0 opponents, his winless UFC record, and because he happens to look like Steve Carrel’s stunt-double in a movie about meth addiction. But of course records never tell the whole story. As a sub-155′er trying to make a living in the Midwest, Reinhardt had to take whatever opportunities were available to him, and was often paired up with much larger opponents on his journey to the big show. After news of his UFC release broke, Reinhardt went on the UG to respond to his critics and defend his strange career. I thought it was worth passing along. Read on…
*****
i’m not gonna lie. i’m having a bad day today. I’m human. I have feelings. I train just as hard as anyone. many tell me i over train and to slow down. i know only one speed. i come from the work ethic of miletich fighting systems. i love pat miletich for that. can i vent for a second? each and every one of us fighters have our battles. our struggles. it’s called life. heck, each and everyone one of you have your own battles. you guys get up, go to work, support your familys, get up and do it all over again. even if your not an mma fighter, your, a “Warrior” in your own right! lifes rough. but the important thing is never to give up, no matter what. i make no excuses. i hate fucking excuses. i hate it when fighters make excuses for their losses. that drives me crazy. i guess i’m a little old school. some critics like to say, i’m a can crusher, or whatever the hell they call it. Don’t they understand when i was fighting there basically were no weight classes? there were no commissions. we all got paid yes, but i always faught whoever my manager told me too. my job was to train, and show up and fight. i did my job, and did it well. every single fight i ever faught the guys always out weighed me. (with the exception of one) (even for official title fights which were suppose to be 135lbs.)
Ray Duke for example, from Arizona was a 4x highschool state wrestling champion who outweighed me by 15 pounds and Dan Severn told me, “jason, he’s forfeited his right for the title” “the belts yours” “he didn’t make weight” “you don’t have to fight” I respond, “fuck that Dan, we are fighting. I have all my friends and family here. “Let’s fight” and fight we did. He dropped me in the first with a left, broke my nose and i got my ass up and finished him. Nobody told me he was a 2x Golden Gloves Champion. Did Ray fight anymore after that? once or twice. i was told his spirit was kinda broken when he didn’t take the belt back to Arizona.
Or, let’s talk about Sean Yoshida, the 2x national Judo champion i faught in my very first pro mma fight in the year 2000. Ya, i did Judo. i was a white belt and use to watch this stud throw people on their “domes” at all the judo tournaments. He was sponsored by “Sony” and i use to watch him and admire his skills. Guess what? a year later he was my first pro mma fight. The promoter comes to me, “jason, sorry, your original opponent from travis fultons school couldn’t make it and all we got is Sean Yoshida, and he’s too much for your first pro fight” My exact response, “fuck that Brian Madden,(god rest Brian’s soul) I will fight him.” Again, i had tons of tickets sold and people drove 3 hours to watch me fight. i don’t want to let one single fan down! EVER. I live for the mma fans! period. honestly, i thought i was gonna lose my first pro mma fight, until Jeremy Horn (who’s in my corner) looks me in the eyes, and says, “jason, this is fighting, it’s not judo” “i was scared, i’m man enough to admit it.” Well, guess what, the “can crusher” choked the Judo olympic hopefull out in 36 seconds. oh ya, i weighed in at 132. he weighed in like 147.
can i please mention the “experienced” Del “the phillipino Delight” Hawkins, who was my 5th pro fight, who also once again, out weighed me for the RSF title belt. They announced him something like 55 wins, 8 losses in Rage in the Cage out of Arizona. Jens “Little Evil” Pulver was in my corner for this one. Jen’s says, “Jason, he’s gonna high kick you, I watched him warming up” “When he throws that high kick, i want you keeping your hands high, and throwing a straight right counter down the middle. (thank you pat miletich for teaching us this counter) I did just that and Jeremy horn told me it was one of the nastiest cuts he’s ever seen at the time. this is where it went bad…I got too excited, tried spinning to Hawkins back from standing, (didn’t know what i was doing back then) Anyway, i end up on my back, spun for the arm lock, hit it, didn’t hook the leg, Hawkins picks me up, power bombs me. i hit my neck on the wood floor. (that story next) wood floor!! i wasn’t letting go of the armlock for shit. He picked me up again, power bombs me again, but this time the armlock got sunk even tighter. he taps. i win. my neck is broken. c5 c6, and cracked vertebre.
hawkins goes to the hospital, gets some stitches, and was back fighting in a couple months. Jason Reinhardt is out a year and a half, and was told he would never be able to train again. Ya right. ok, doc. Instead i make it to the UFC.
Wanna hear a story….The promoter Randy Greenman at the time, had guys like myself, sean sherk, karo parision, manny gamburian (sp)?, chris Lyttle, steve berger. all these world class athletes. Randy paid very well. however, randy, lust like we all sometimes do, had his own deamons. First of all, when they were putting the ring together (yes, ring, not cage) i noticed they weren’t placing the half inch or whatever it is padding over the plywood. i ask the guys, “what happened to the padding”? “It got wet last night in the rain” “i didn’t really give a shit, i was just curious. Heck, the way i looked at it, i faught many street fights on concrete, so whats the damn difference, right? Well, the shitty part is, Randy didn’t pay my medical bills, or have insurance. remember, no commissions!! it all came out of my pocket. It actually put me into bankruptcy, and was the start of my financial troubles.
Randy Greenman was found a couple years ago with his head cut off in the woods, shot execution style, with his innocent friend who happened to be getting just a ride home killed as well. look it up. st. louis post dispatch. you live by the sword, you sometimes die with it. Randy did. RIP Randy.
Let’s move on so the fucking can crusher can tell ya a little more…how about the tough ass Jorge Conger from Ohio who screwed his full ride ohio state wrestling scholarship up who was kicking the shit out of me at Legends of fighting championships in indianapolis indiana, only for me to come back and win. Ask Spencer “the king Fisher” all about that War! He was in my corner. Jorge was also bigger than me. No big deal. I will fight anyone. i wish jorge would have continued. He could have really gone far.
How about the young Jorge Santiago who i faught in King of the Cage at the Stampede Stadium in Calgary Canada. He was also kicking my ass and i won. That’s one of my only fights thats on you tube. I kept all the other off on purpose because the advice of other people telling me it gives my opponents an advantage. fuck that. it’s time to put some old school stuff up.
i could go on and on. did i ever fight some easy oppoenents? Well, i really don’t know what that truly means. Because every single time you step your two feet inside that cgae with 4 ounce gloves anything can happen. How about the guy they brought in to fight me last min. who weighed exactly 192 pounds, and i weighed 139lbs. Try fighting someone who outweighes you this much in front of your own hometown. Well, the can crusher knocked him out.
my point is guys. Yes, i do feel like i have to defend myself. finally!! i’ve kept quiet for so long regarding this subject, and all i want is acceptance from the fans. from you guys. i give my heart, my soul, and every ounce of being in my body to mma. this is my life. I am improving every single day. Heck, i’m even picking up my family and moving to Vegas to pursue my dream. i am no quitter. Can’t i get a little respect? I don’t fucking suck. i am a decent fighter, and i’m improving daily. please please don’t give up on me!! much respect to all…
oh, one more thing i forgot to mention for the “Can Crusher” i’m glad you mentioned statistics, because your right. Often times, many of the opponents on my official record books had more fights than shown and recorded, because there were basically no commissions requiring the promoters to report the results into the state or web sites. and this sucks. anyway, all good. i’m moving to vegas and continuing with my new team Wand fight Team and people are gonna see a lot of jason reinhardt. i ain’t going anywhere. fall down 7x, get up 8
(“I’m here to pick up your daughter. Or your son. Whoever’s free.”)
After a woefully shitty performance against Edwin Figueroa at UFC Live: Hardy vs. Lytle, Jason Reinhardt has officially been released by the UFC. It was Reinhardt’s third loss in the Octagon — in three different weight classes. At 41, he was the oldest active fighter in the UFC.
Reinhardt began his career as a wrecking ball in midwestern regional promotions, racking up an astounding 18-0 record with all wins by stoppage. (It should be noted that only five of his opponents had winning records, and about half were making their MMA debuts.) Though Reinhardt was originally signed to fight Roger Huerta at UFC 63 in 2006, a neck injury delayed his debut until the following year, where he was quickly choked out by Joe Lauzon at UFC 78.
Reinhardt returned to the midwest to beat up a couple more nobodies in local shows, and was inactive for a couple years nursing injuries. In February 2011, the UFC had Jason back as a featherweight, throwing him against Tiequan Zhang. Reinhardt lost by submission (again), this time in just 48 seconds. The UFC gave him one more chance earlier this month, this time at bantamweight against Edwin Figueroa. Reinhardt ran around the cage until Figueroa finally caught up to him and TKO’d him in the second round.
Also, he gave his parents crabs once. For real. That charming little story is after the jump, as told by Jason himself while wearing a coon-skin cap.
(“I’m here to pick up your daughter. Or your son. Whoever’s free.”)
After a woefully shitty performance against Edwin Figueroa at UFC Live: Hardy vs. Lytle, Jason Reinhardt has officially been released by the UFC. It was Reinhardt’s third loss in the Octagon — in three different weight classes. At 41, he was the oldest active fighter in the UFC.
Reinhardt began his career as a wrecking ball in midwestern regional promotions, racking up an astounding 18-0 record with all wins by stoppage. (It should be noted that only five of his opponents had winning records, and about half were making their MMA debuts.) Though Reinhardt was originally signed to fight Roger Huerta at UFC 63 in 2006, a neck injury delayed his debut until the following year, where he was quickly choked out by Joe Lauzon at UFC 78.
Reinhardt returned to the midwest to beat up a couple more nobodies in local shows, and was inactive for a couple years nursing injuries. In February 2011, the UFC had Jason back as a featherweight, throwing him against Tiequan Zhang. Reinhardt lost by submission (again), this time in just 48 seconds. The UFC gave him one more chance earlier this month, this time at bantamweight against Edwin Figueroa. Reinhardt ran around the cage until Figueroa finally caught up to him and TKO’d him in the second round.
Also, he gave his parents crabs once. For real. That charming little story is after the jump, as told by Jason himself while wearing a coon-skin cap.
Jason Reinhardt hoped to reinvigorate himself by dropping down to bantamweight for his last fight.
He may have done that, but his loss to Edwin Figueroa at UFC on Versus 5 10 days ago was enough for the promotion to hand him his walking papers. Sources close to Reinhardt told MMA Fighting on Tuesday that Reinhardt has been released by the UFC.
Reinhardt, who was the oldest active fighter in the UFC, was in his second stint with the promotion. All three of his career losses came in UFC fights.
Reinhardt (20-3, 0-3 UFC) first fought in the UFC at UFC 78 in November 2007. After starting his career 18-0 fighting mostly in his native Illinois, as well as Iowa and Indiana, Reinhardt was picked up by the UFC for a fight against Joe Lauzon. Lauzon submitted him just 1:14 into the first round.
After picking up two more wins on regional shows, Reinhardt again got the call from Zuffa, this time to fight Tiequan Zhang at WEC 51 in a lightweight fight on short notice. But he had to withdraw from the bout when he failed his eye exam.
Reinhardt got his shot at Zhang several months later at UFC 127 in February – with both he and Zhang dropping to featherweight for the fight. Zhang submitted him 48 seconds into the first round.
But despite another quick UFC loss, Reinhardt got another shot – and reportedly at the urging of matchmaker Joe Silva, dropped to bantamweight. Against Figueroa at UFC on Versus 5 earlier this month, Reinhardt heard the boo-birds when he circled around the outside of the cage for more than a minute without engaging, then taunted Figueroa to engage him and was seen telling him, “I can do this all night.” Once Figueroa caught him, Reinhardt needed to be saved by the bell in the first round. And in the second round, Figueroa ended things quickly with a TKO.
In Reinhardt’s three UFC fights, he competed in three weight classes for a total of just 7:52 in the Octagon. Reinhardt’s fight against Figueroa was just the third time in his career he had seen the second round. Eighteen of his 20 wins have been first-round stoppages, and he has 16 career submission wins. But his success outside the UFC – as what critics have called a can crusher – didn’t translate to success in the UFC.
Reinhardt recently began training in Las Vegas with Wanderlei Silva‘s Wand Fight Team, and he has said his plan is to move to Las Vegas permanently to continue training.
On his Facebook page, Reinhardt said he plans on getting back to the UFC: “I’m staying positive, recovering, and I will have my (butt) back in the gym ASAP,” Reinhardt said. “I love the UFC and how they treated me … All I have to do is win a couple fights in another organization and I will be back.”
