Previously, Todd Duffee held the distinction for his :07 routing of Tim Hague at UFC 102 back in 2009 and it was believed that Chan-Sung Jung mirrored The Duffman’s time earlier this month when he knocked out Mark Hominick at UFC 140.
On closer inspection it seems that neither fighter really holds the record as it really belongs to Ludwig, whose 2006 knockout over Jonathan Goulet at UFN 3 was previously in the books at :11.
(Why does Keith have to be such a mean old Grinch? Pic props Getty Images)
Previously, Todd Duffee held the distinction for his :07 routing of Tim Hague at UFC 102 back in 2009 and it was believed that Chan-Sung Jung mirrored The Duffman’s time earlier this month when he knocked out Mark Hominick at UFC 140.
On closer inspection it seems that neither fighter really holds the record as it really belongs to Ludwig, whose 2006 knockout over Jonathan Goulet at UFN 3 was previously in the books at :11.
(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)
As White points out, from the time Mario Yamasaki claps his hands to start the bout to when he touches “Bang” to indicate the fight is over is 6.06 seconds. Duffee’s actual finishing time was 7.56 seconds and “The Korean Zombie’s” was 6.26 seconds.
Translation: The top three fastest KOs in UFC history were Ludwig over Goulet (6.06 seconds), Jung over Hominick (6.26 seconds) and Duffee over Hague (7.56 seconds).
Unfortunately, the Nevada State Athletic Commission doesn’t believe that its employee made a mistake and as such it is refusing to accept the record change, even if the UFC has.
“The ruling is that it stays at 11. There’s no legal avenue to overturn it. I timed it myself with a stopwatch. It was eight seconds. Officially, it’s got to stay at 11 seconds, but unofficially, it could be at eight,” NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer told MMAjunkie on Monday. “If you use a stopwatch, from the time the fight starts to the time that Mario grabs Duane, it’s about 7.9 seconds. Why the official timekeeper had it at 11, I don’t know. But it wasn’t 11, and it wasn’t four, either.”
Although the World Boxing Council’s records list Duffee as the holder as the fastest KO in UFC history and Jung as the only person to tie the feat, Zuffa isn’t recognizing their erroneous records.
“They can say whatever they want,” Kizer said. “Sounds like they want to be the WBC for some reason.”
(The fact that Duane didn’t ass-punch Goulet at full strength proves what a classy guy he is.)
I’m sure you know the story by now: In January 2006, Duane “Bang” Ludwig met Jonathan Goulet at UFC Fight Night 3 and first-punch KO’d him in just four seconds. But due to a timekeeper’s error, the stoppage time was officially recorded as 11 seconds. It didn’t really bother Ludwig until he saw all the media attention that Todd Duffee got for knocking out Tim Hague in a “record breaking” seven seconds. This was clearly some bullshit.
“@DUANEBANGCOM @ufc and for x mas you have the fastest KO in UFC history and it will be changed ASAP”
And now, here’s the NSAC’s Keith Kizer to play the Grinch/Scrooge role in this holiday miracle…
(The fact that Duane didn’t ass-punch Goulet at full strength proves what a classy guy he is.)
I’m sure you know the story by now: In January 2006, Duane “Bang” Ludwig met Jonathan Goulet at UFC Fight Night 3 and first-punch KO’d him in just four seconds. But due to a timekeeper’s error, the stoppage time was officially recorded as 11 seconds. It didn’t really bother Ludwig until he saw all the media attention that Todd Duffee got for knocking out Tim Hague in a “record breaking” seven seconds. This was clearly some bullshit.
“The ruling is that it stays at 11. There’s no legal avenue to overturn it…I did tell [Ludwig’s] people. I timed it myself with a stopwatch. It was eight seconds. Officially, it’s got to stay at 11 seconds, but unofficially, it could be at eight.”
Although it appears just four seconds elapsed from when the time clock started and referee Mario Yamasaki intervened, Kizer said the official start of the fight was earlier.
“If you use a stopwatch, from the time the fight starts to the time that Mario grabs Duane, it’s about 7.9 seconds. Why the official timekeeper had it at 11, I don’t know. But it wasn’t 11, and it wasn’t four, either.”
Dana White responded with his trademark disgust: “Sounds like them. We reviewed it, and it’s correct. ‘Bang’ has the fastest knockout. It’s funny. The state athletic commissions are in place to look out for the fighters, but it seems like I’m always the one making sure they don’t get [expletive].”
For his part, Ludwig is just happy to be recognized in the UFC’s official history books, even if the NSAC isn’t on the same page yet. Via BleacherReport:
“The record is very cool to have, because it separates me from every other human being past, present and very possibly future,” said Ludwig, who will someday explain the importance of his record to his children with pride. “That’s some pretty cool stuff. Each athlete wants to stand out and this is a very big way to do so.”
Ludwig has won decisions in his last two UFC fights against Amir Sadollah and Nick Osipczak, and returns against Josh Neer at UFC on FX 1 next month. Jonathan Goulet retired from the sport last November.
Duane Ludwig was at the post office when he found out that he was now a UFC record-holder.
“It was kind of funny, the timing of it,” he said. The UFC lightweight was right in the middle of mailing off one of his signature ‘Bang’ jerseys as a Christmas gift for UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, when he got word that the UFC was officially recognizing his 2006 knockout of Jonathan Goulet as the fastest in the organization’s history.
“We all know Joe’s kind of shorter in stature, but I was so excited about what was going on that I almost sent him a double extra-large jersey,” Ludwig said. “It just showed my mind wasn’t on the task at hand.”
For Ludwig, it meant a successful end to a campaign to get his eleven-second win over Goulet officially changed to a four-second stoppage, which would make his knockout the fastest in UFC history — faster than heavyweight Todd Duffee’s seven-second KO of Tim Hague in 2009 or Chan Sung Jung’s seven-second finish of Mark Hominick earlier this month.
But then, a lot depends on how you define the term ‘officially,’ and who you look to to make that distinction.
It’s a discussion we probably wouldn’t be having right now if not for one suspect time-keeper’s call in January of 2006. At a UFC Fight Night event at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, Ludwig fired off a single right hand that sent Goulet crashing head-first to the mat almost as soon as the fight began. When referee Mario Yamasaki rushed in to stop it, the clock showed four minutes and 56 seconds left in the first round. But somehow, when it was entered into the official record, Ludwig’s win went down as an eleven-second finish rather than a four-second one.
To Ludwig, the difference seemed insignificant at first. He might not have even known about the discrepancy had UFC color commentator Joe Rogan not alerted him to it, he said.
“Joe Rogan actually MySpaced me — this was back when we were all using MySpace — and he told me, hey, you got screwed on the timing. I didn’t really care at the time. I said, you know, thanks and I appreciate it, but I didn’t really understand marketing back then.”
It wasn’t until three years later, when Duffee made headlines with a seven-second knockout that was immediately declared the fastest in UFC history, that Ludwig began to realize that there was real value in the distinction.
“When Todd Duffee got all that recognition for getting the fastest knockout record in seven seconds, I thought, well, that’s actually mine, and in four seconds,” said Ludwig. “Back when it actually happened, I didn’t care about the publicity or anything, but now that I’m getting older and, I guess, wiser, I understand marketing a little bit and I know that can help me and help me help others.”
“Ariel Helwani, he helped a lot because he was the first guy to publicly put Dana White on the spot about it. It wouldn’t have happened any other way, so that was really cool of him.”
On December 24, White sent out a tweet to Ludwig telling the fighter “for x mas you have the fastest KO in UFC history and it will be changed ASAP.” The news made Ludwig “happy as a clam,” he said.
But the question is, which records will reflect the change? The UFC has no control over the official time, which is kept in this case by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. That governing body has thus far shown very little eagerness to admit a nearly six-year-old mistake and make the requisite changes. The NSAC offices were closed due to the holidays on Monday, and requests for comment on the matter went unreturned, but UFC officials indicated that the change could be entirely internal, with the UFC altering the records on its website and recognizing Ludwig as the holder of the organization’s fastest knockout regardless of whether the NSAC is willing to do the same.
And according to Ludwig, that would be just fine with him.
“A lot of people still don’t even know that the UFC has these athletic commissions, that they’re governed by a third party,” he said. “And of course, we know that the commissions sometimes make questionable calls, so I think the more credible source is the UFC anyway. I’m a hundred percent fine with the UFC being the one to make it official. I’d prefer that, actually.”
The way Ludwig sees it, it’s not so much about re-writing history as it is about getting the recognition he feels he’s already earned. As long as the UFC and MMA fans acknowledge what he did and allow him to honestly lay claim to the record, he said, he’s unconcerned with what the athletic commission decides to do.
“Every athlete is always looking for a way to separate himself from the pack. This is a record that will probably never be [broken]. It never happened before, and it’ll probably never happen again. It’s definitely a cool thing to have next to your name,” he said, adding, “It’s also a good story to tell the kids. When I’m old and telling that story I can joke with them and go, you better go to bed because I can knock you out in four seconds.”
(Clements v. Travis Briere, end comes at the 2:44 mark.)
Aside from The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale, December 3rd also features an interesting welterweight battle between UFC veteran Rich Clementi and up and coming KO artist Chris Clements under the Score Fighting Series promotion. And after doing a quick check-up on Clements, we thought he was a guy that was worth talking about, so let’s, shall we?
“The Menace” is a 9-4 product fighting out of Ontario, Canada who has collected all 9 of those wins by way of KO or TKO inside the first two rounds. He often trains with the likes of Mark Hominick and Sam Stout, because there can only be so many MMA gyms in that tundra known as Canada, am I right or am I right? *High fives self*
A little known fact about Clements: he is the man responsible for retiring UFC vet Jonathan Goulet back at Rinside MMA-Payback in November of 2010, the video of which is after the jump.
(Clements v. Travis Briere, end comes at the 2:44 mark.)
Aside from The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale, December 3rd also features an interesting welterweight battle between UFC veteran Rich Clementi and up and coming KO artist Chris Clements under the Score Fighting Series promotion. And after doing a quick check-up on Clements, we thought he was a guy that was worth talking about, so let’s, shall we?
“The Menace” is a 9-4 product fighting out of Ontario, Canada who has collected all 9 of those wins by way of KO or TKO inside the first two rounds. He often trains with the likes of Mark Hominick and Sam Stout, because there can only be so many MMA gyms in that tundra known as Canada, am I right or am I right? *High fives self*
A little known fact about Clements: he is the man responsible for retiring UFC vet Jonathan Goulet back at Rinside MMA-Payback in November of 2010, the video of which is below.
Anyway, back to Clements. Three of his four losses have come against notable opponents like John Alessio, Jesse Bongfeldt, and Rory Markham, so he will definitely be out to prove something against Clementi, who has been struggling a bit as of late. Despite holding 25 of his 42 wins by submission, we last saw “No Love” get absolutely dominated on the ground by Shinya Aoki at Dream 17 “Fight for Japan” and somehow manage to talk shit to Aoki whilst doing so.
That being said, three of Clements’ aforementioned losses have come via submission to opponents with arguably lower level grappling credentials than Clementi (not sure about Alessio), so it will be intriguing to see if Clements is able to keep the fight standing, where, as far as we can tell, he holds a combination of technique and power that would give Clementi all kinds of trouble. Just check out that spinning back kick in the top video, fricken’ beautiful.
Former UFC welterweight Jonathan Goulet is contemplating retirement after suffering his 12th pro loss this past weekend in Montreal.
“The Road Warrior” lost via 2nd round knockout to Chris Clements (7-4) at Ringisde MMA 9, and following the loss he took to Twitter to announce that he was leaning towards ending his nine-year MMA career.
Former UFC welterweight