Issue 145

September 2016

And the award for the year’s best entrance goes to... Shannon Wiratchai. The Thai featherweight made the most of his main-card slot at One Championship 43 – the promotion’s first card in his home country – by ‘riding’ into the Impact Arena on the back of an inflatable dinosaur and brandishing a sword like some sort of prehistoric samurai. ‘One Shin’ won his fight with Kyal Linn Aung by first-round submission.

Illinois, USA: Road rage

The Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison hosted its first fight night when NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers John Wes Townley and Spencer Gallagher locked horns following a mid-race wreck. Fighters Only scored the round 10-9 for Townley for punches landed in the clinch, despite Gallagher’s takedown and scrambling ability.

Makhachkala, Dagestan: How I saved a life

UFC lightweight Rashid Magomedov is the latest fighter to earn a reputation as a have-a-go hero after he jumped into a canal to save a drowning child. According to Cageside.ru, ‘Highlander’ helped to drag the six-year-old boy onto dry land, then did CPR to revive him. “We were not even sure if we were doing everything right, but in the end he survived,” he said. 

New York, USA: The weakest ink

Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker was so confident Mark Hunt would win at UFC 200 he bet on it with a TMZ reporter. If he lost, he vowed to get the gossip website’s logo tattooed on him. If he won, his opponent would get the band’s logo drawn. At least neither would be as bad as Brock Lesnar’s chest piece.

Minas Gerais, Brazil: On the rocks

Planet MMA hopes someone bought Johnny Walker a drink after he was the victim of laissez-faire officiating at Jungle Fight 88. Referee Douglas Aires allowed Henrique Lopes to knock the boozily-named Brazilian heavyweight down three times, and out cold at least once, before calling the fight. We’re all for giving fighters a chance to recover, but not when they’re already unconscious.

40,000,000

The number of Chinese viewers who watched Road FC 32 on TV, according to the Korean promotion. The UFC drew an average of 10 million for The Ultimate Fighter: China.