Sometimes in the sport of mixed martial arts the toughest fights aren’t fought in the Octagon, but rather behind closed doors in the days leading up to the event as fighters do whatever it takes to make weight for the bout. It’s a dangerous practice that pushes fighters to the limit, both mentally and physically, […]
Sometimes in the sport of mixed martial arts the toughest fights aren’t fought in the Octagon, but rather behind closed doors in the days leading up to the event as fighters do whatever it takes to make weight for the bout.
It’s a dangerous practice that pushes fighters to the limit, both mentally and physically, and in the most extreme instances it’s actually been known to cause death.
For instance, back in December of 2015, ONE FC flyweight fighter Yang Jian Bing passed away at just 21 years od age after a horrendous weight cut led to him suffering a heart attack.
Thankfully, there’s never been a fatality in the UFC, but there have been many horror stories of weight cuts going horribly wrong over the years.
in this article we’ll look at 10 of the most brutal weight cuts in the promotion’s history, including instances where stars have passed out, been rushed to hospital, and in some cases stared death in the face after dehydrating their bodies to extent that they had nothing left to give.
Filed under: Fighting, FanHouse ExclusiveA lingering neck injury has placed UFC veteran and The Ultimate Fighter 4 middleweight winner Travis Lutter’s competitive future in jeopardy. Unable to compete, Lutter is branching out from operating his two MMA…
A lingering neck injury has placed UFC veteran and The Ultimate Fighter 4 middleweight winner Travis Lutter‘s competitive future in jeopardy. Unable to compete, Lutter is branching out from operating his two MMA academies in Fort Worth, Texas to mining his 12-plus years of experience as an MMA fighter to write a book on helping aspiring MMA fighters get started in the business.
In this exclusive interview with the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, Lutter talks about his Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started in MMA book, the important steps a beginning fighter should take as well as the extent of his neck injury and competitive future.
(Where’s your glass trophy now, playboy? Props: thesun.co.uk)
By CagePotato contributor Jim Genia
In a perfect world, The Ultimate Fighter would give us an up close and personal look at some of the most promising mixed martial artists out there, vyi…
(Where’s your glass trophy now, playboy? Props: thesun.co.uk)
By CagePotato contributor Jim Genia
In a perfect world, The Ultimate Fighter would give us an up close and personal look at some of the most promising mixed martial artists out there, vying for greatness in the crucible of combat. But in reality, it’s become a perversion of manufactured drama and prefabricated stars — stars made bright not by the depth of the competition they must face but by the trouncing of whatever hapless wannabes a SpikeTV producer chose at the tryouts. You see, it stopped being about “who’s the best” a long time ago, and was twisted into “who makes for the best TV,” so what we get now is more Jersey Shore than Ultimate Fighting Championship, only instead of Snooki and JWoww’s cleavage we get an IFL champ or Sengoku veteran beating the ever-loving crap out of people with maybe a handful (if that) of fights.
That’s why, when a TUF winner loses in Octagon — sometimes after facing real UFC-level competition for the first time — it’s totally awesome! Because, sure, Michael Bisping, Joe Stevenson and Mac Danzig are tough, likeable guys, but don’t try to fool us into thinking they’re the definition of “badass” just because they defeated a personal trainer from New Orleans, a boxer from Maine and some kid who should be working on a farm. We’re not the ignorant general public flicking through the channels, we’re knowledgeable MMA fans. We know better!
Therefore, here, in no particular order, is a list of the ten greatest TUF winner fails of all time. It’s a list based not on animosity towards any particular fighter, but on animosity towards the Spike TV executive who skipped over the few hundred fighter hopefuls with real talent and real skill, and instead chose the clown with the funky hair, the drinking problem and the propensity for trashing houses…
Michael Bisping vs. Dan Henderson, UFC 100 British fighter Michael Bisping was a stud in the UK MMA scene (which is a lot like saying you’re a gold medalist in the Special Olympics) when he got the call to compete on TUF, and he took Season 3 top honors after beating, well, pretty much no one of note. But he continued to rack up wins on the pay-per-views, defeating such marginables as Elvis Sinosic, Charles McCarthy and Jason Day. However, TUF 9 saw him pitted against Dan Henderson as an opposing coach, and we were supposed to believe the inevitable Octagon conflict between them would be competitive. It wasn’t, and fans everywhere rejoiced over a knockout so devastating Bisping has no recollection of anything to do with the weekend of July 11, 2009 and about nine days before and after.
(Poor kid. He didn’t even get a chance to go on a three-fight losing streak. Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com)
Following his submission loss to Charles Oliveira at UFC Fight Night 22, TUF 8 lightweight winner Efrain Escudero has been released f…
(Poor kid. He didn’t even get a chance to go on a three-fight losing streak. Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com)
Following his submission loss to Charles Oliveira at UFC Fight Night 22, TUF 8lightweight winner Efrain Escudero has been released from his UFC contract. Escudero confirmed the news last night via Twitter, writing "I was released by the Ufc today speaking to strikeforce and bellator. Taking a week off and make my way back!!!!!"
Escudero becomes just the second Ultimate Fighter-winner to be pink-slipped in the show’s five-and-a-half-year history; TUF 4‘s Travis Lutter got canned in April 2008. TUF winners tend to get a lot of leeway in their UFC careers — check out the spotty records of guys like Mac Danzig and Kendall Grove — but missing weight and garbage-ass performances will get you on the UFC’s bad side no matter who you are. Escudero struck out big time last week when he missed weight by an unacceptable four pounds, then lost to an up-and-comer in a fight that was entertaining despite Efrain’s best efforts to stall.
We’re sure Effy will land on his feet, and may even battle his way back to the UFC one day. But between this and Todd Duffee‘s firing two weeks ago, it seems like the UFC is becoming less interested in giving second (or third) chances to fighters who aren’t performing up to expectations.
A lingering neck injury has placed UFC veteran and The Ultimate Fighter 4 middleweight winner 
