(Highlights via AXS TV. Full fight video is after the jump.)
Earlier this year, we marveled at the improbable career comeback of Leonard Garcia, who had gone from UFC washout with five-straight losses to a Legacy FC featherweight champion with three-straight victories. I mean, sure, he was beating Legacy FC-caliber competition, but he was finishing those guys; he didn’t have to rely on loud grunting and impressionable judges to make it happen.
Well, we must have cursed him, because the Bad Boy Era has ended as quickly as it began. Garcia was defeated in his first attempted title defense at Legacy FC 33 on Friday night, tapping out to an arm-triangle choke against 25-year-old Texas native Damon “The Leech” Jackson at the 1:32 mark of round 1. Jackson increases his undefeated record to 9-0, with all wins via stoppage within the first two rounds. So maybe we should keep an eye on this guy.
Garcia was originally supposed to defend his title at Legacy FC 29 in March against Shane Howell, but Howell dropped out of the fight on short notice due to illness. (“Garcia then proposed to his girlfriend in the cage to apparently salvage the trip.”)
2014 is now The Leech Era. Please spread awareness.
(Highlights via AXS TV. Full fight video is after the jump.)
Earlier this year, we marveled at the improbable career comeback of Leonard Garcia, who had gone from UFC washout with five-straight losses to a Legacy FC featherweight champion with three-straight victories. I mean, sure, he was beating Legacy FC-caliber competition, but he was finishing those guys; he didn’t have to rely on loud grunting and impressionable judges to make it happen.
Well, we must have cursed him, because the Bad Boy Era has ended as quickly as it began. Garcia was defeated in his first attempted title defense at Legacy FC 33 on Friday night, tapping out to an arm-triangle choke against 25-year-old Texas native Damon “The Leech” Jackson at the 1:32 mark of round 1. Jackson increases his undefeated record to 9-0, with all wins via stoppage within the first two rounds. So maybe we should keep an eye on this guy.
Garcia was originally supposed to defend his title at Legacy FC 29 in March against Shane Howell, but Howell dropped out of the fight on short notice due to illness. (“Garcia then proposed to his girlfriend in the cage to apparently salvage the trip.”)
2014 is now The Leech Era. Please spread awareness.
(Fight starts at the 7:56 mark.)
(Props: Hargravemartialarts via RedditMMA)
And here we have a guy in a ponytail who doesn’t quite understand how to throw leg kicks, winning an MMA fight via leg kicks anyway. Considering that the victorious fighter trains out of a Martial Arts Fail-worthy Kenpo/Jeet Kune Do school run by this guy, I have to wonder if this whole thing is a work. What do you think? Did the guy in the red shorts take a dive, or did we just witness the first Leg Tap Death Touch in sanctioned competition?
(Props: Hargravemartialarts via RedditMMA)
And here we have a guy in a ponytail who doesn’t quite understand how to throw leg kicks, winning an MMA fight via leg kicks anyway. Considering that the victorious fighter trains out of a Martial Arts Fail-worthy Kenpo/Jeet Kune Do school run by this guy, I have to wonder if this whole thing is a work. What do you think? Did the guy in the red shorts take a dive, or did we just witness the first Leg Tap Death Touch in sanctioned competition?
(Props: KCFightingAlliance via MiddleEasy)
I don’t know if this is a sexist statement to make or whatever, but the great thing about amateur women’s MMA is that the fighters never, ever block punches. Sometimes, that can be really sad. But when the fighters are both awful evenly matched, it can be magical.
On Saturday night, amateur MMA fighter Jade Chun (the girl in the pink top) competed at Kansas City Fighting Alliance 10 against Taeler Jackson, and what Jade lacked in basic understanding of the striking arts, she made up for in heart, determination, and straight-up balls. For the first 20 seconds, the fight just looks like any other slugfest between two rookies with nothing to lose. Then, Jade’s like, “Screw it, I’m just going to throw standing hammerfists for the rest of the fight and see what happens.” She also starts using what I can only describe as “the imaginary shield defense.” It is glorious.
Eventually, Chun gets her lip split wide open by the marginally more competent punches coming from Jackson. Chun spits her own blood — angry, like Bruce Lee — and applies more and more pressure, and fires uglier and uglier punch-like-thingys, until Jackson is KO’d in a heap against the fence. The fight is a true underdog story, played out in less than five minutes. It’s probably the worst thing you’ll see today, but in a weird way, it might be the most inspiring. We are all Jade Chun, just plugging away, trying our best to succeed despite our total lack of ability. Sometimes tough is enough.
(Props: KCFightingAlliance via MiddleEasy)
I don’t know if this is a sexist statement to make or whatever, but the great thing about amateur women’s MMA is that the fighters never, ever block punches. Sometimes, that can be really sad. But when the fighters are both awful evenly matched, it can be magical.
On Saturday night, amateur MMA fighter Jade Chun (the girl in the pink top) competed at Kansas City Fighting Alliance 10 against Taeler Jackson, and what Jade lacked in basic understanding of the striking arts, she made up for in heart, determination, and straight-up balls. For the first 20 seconds, the fight just looks like any other slugfest between two rookies with nothing to lose. Then, Jade’s like, “Screw it, I’m just going to throw standing hammerfists for the rest of the fight and see what happens.” She also starts using what I can only describe as “the imaginary shield defense.” It is glorious.
Eventually, Chun gets her lip split wide open by the marginally more competent punches coming from Jackson. Chun spits her own blood — angry, like Bruce Lee — and applies more and more pressure, and fires uglier and uglier punch-like-thingys, until Jackson is KO’d in a heap against the fence. The fight is a true underdog story, played out in less than five minutes. It’s probably the worst thing you’ll see today, but in a weird way, it might be the most inspiring. We are all Jade Chun, just plugging away, trying our best to succeed despite our total lack of ability. Sometimes tough is enough.
(Props: hirochan60 via MiddleEasy)
As I tweeted earlier, I wish I had a better-quality video of this, and I’m not sure what that says about me. Basically, Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa fought Swedish rookie Goran Jettingstad at Inoki Genome Fight 1 in Tokyo on Saturday, and may have possibly turned his leg completely backwards during a leg lock. I had to watch this crowd-shot footage three or four times to wrap my head around it, but yeah, that seems to be what happened.
Keep in mind that Minowa was competing in his 102nd professional fight that evening, while Jettingstad came into the match with a professional record of 0-0. (Good one, Japan!) Anyway, we’ll update this post if a better video appears. By the way, our old pal Brett Rogers also competed on the Inoki Genome Fight 1 card, where he KO’d Yusuke Kawaguchi in 28 seconds. Video of that knockout is after the jump…
(Props: hirochan60 via MiddleEasy)
As I tweeted earlier, I wish I had a better-quality video of this, and I’m not sure what that says about me. Basically, Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa fought Swedish rookie Goran Jettingstad at Inoki Genome Fight 1 in Tokyo on Saturday, and may have possibly turned his leg completely backwards during a leg lock. I had to watch this crowd-shot footage three or four times to wrap my head around it, but yeah, that seems to be what happened.
Keep in mind that Minowa was competing in his 102nd professional fight that evening, while Jettingstad came into the match with a professional record of 0-0. (Good one, Japan!) Anyway, we’ll update this post if a better video appears. By the way, our old pal Brett Rogers also competed on the Inoki Genome Fight 1 card, where he KO’d Yusuke Kawaguchi in 28 seconds. Video of that knockout is after the jump…
(Props: fightstreamcom)
We wish we could say that Drew Fickett turned his career around when he found sobriety — that he became a terror on the regional circuit, and will be returning to the UFC any day now. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Fickett suffered his fourth-straight loss at CES MMA 22 in Rhode Island on Friday night, eating a brutal head kick from local lightweight Luis Felix that dropped Fickett like a sack of doorknobs.
It was the kind of knockout that makes you think, okay, maybe now is the time for Drew to walk away. It’s not just that he’s already racked up a solid history of brain trauma. At this point, Fickett is only being used as a recognizable stepping-stone for regional talent, and the sole benefit for him being there is a modest paycheck. And if you watch the entire fight — where Fickett seems like he’s still trying to figure out the standup game, despite having over 60 pro fights to his credit — it’s clear that what Luis Felix did to him is just going to keep happening to Fickett if he keeps competing.
Anyway, kudos to this Luis Felix guy. But damn…anybody else get a case of the sads watching Fickett get dummied up like this?
(Props: fightstreamcom)
We wish we could say that Drew Fickett turned his career around when he found sobriety — that he became a terror on the regional circuit, and will be returning to the UFC any day now. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Fickett suffered his fourth-straight loss at CES MMA 22 in Rhode Island on Friday night, eating a brutal head kick from local lightweight Luis Felix that dropped Fickett like a sack of doorknobs.
It was the kind of knockout that makes you think, okay, maybe now is the time for Drew to walk away. It’s not just that he’s already racked up a solid history of brain trauma. At this point, Fickett is only being used as a recognizable stepping-stone for regional talent, and the sole benefit for him being there is a modest paycheck. And if you watch the entire fight — where Fickett seems like he’s still trying to figure out the standup game, despite having over 60 pro fights to his credit — it’s clear that what Luis Felix did to him is just going to keep happening to Fickett if he keeps competing.
Anyway, kudos to this Luis Felix guy. But damn…anybody else get a case of the sads watching Fickett get dummied up like this?
(Props: Ultimate Challenge MMA)
On Saturday night at WCMMA 14 in London, welterweight Mike Garret knocked out Sam Heron with a savage head kick immediately after the opening bell. Promoter Dave O’Donnell — who you may remember from the “Completely Insane British Guy Interviews Anderson Silva” video — called it a “new world record” at 1.7 seconds. In the longer video above, a timecode runs in the bottom-right-hand corner of the screen, stopping at 1.13 seconds, which would be incredible if it was an accurate reflection of when the fight ended. But it’s not, really.
That 1.13 number refers to the time between the first bell and the time when Garret’s foot makes contact with Heron’s face. Unfortunately, that’s not the official end of the match. An MMA fight ends at the moment when the referee waves it off or intervenes. So yes, Heron gets his lights turned out just a little over one second into the fight, and Garret walks away, signaling that the fight is over for him at least. The problem is, the referee takes a couple of additional seconds to walk over to Heron, assess his condition, and wave off the fight. Later in the video, O’Donnell rounds down and calls it a “one-second” knockout. Then he has a conversation with Garret, and honestly, I couldn’t understand most of it.
Personally, I’m seeing three seconds and change, which would put it in line with Clements vs. Tucas. (And this one still looks faster.) But if self-promotion is your goal, “one-second knockout” certainly sounds nicer.
(Props: Ultimate Challenge MMA)
On Saturday night at WCMMA 14 in London, welterweight Mike Garret knocked out Sam Heron with a savage head kick immediately after the opening bell. Promoter Dave O’Donnell — who you may remember from the “Completely Insane British Guy Interviews Anderson Silva” video — called it a “new world record” at 1.7 seconds. In the longer video above, a timecode runs in the bottom-right-hand corner of the screen, stopping at 1.13 seconds, which would be incredible if it was an accurate reflection of when the fight ended. But it’s not, really.
That 1.13 number refers to the time between the first bell and the time when Garret’s foot makes contact with Heron’s face. Unfortunately, that’s not the official end of the match. An MMA fight ends at the moment when the referee waves it off or intervenes. So yes, Heron gets his lights turned out just a little over one second into the fight, and Garret walks away, signaling that the fight is over for him at least. The problem is, the referee takes a couple of additional seconds to walk over to Heron, assess his condition, and wave off the fight. Later in the video, O’Donnell rounds down and calls it a “one-second” knockout. Then he has a conversation with Garret, and honestly, I couldn’t understand most of it.
Personally, I’m seeing three seconds and change, which would put it in line with Clements vs. Tucas. (And this one still looks faster.) But if self-promotion is your goal, “one-second knockout” certainly sounds nicer.