Issue 143

July 2016

GSP gets excited about three things and three things only: women, violence in the Octagon and dinosaurs. You’ve seen him take care of opponents in the cage and now you can watch him flex his paleontology muscles in The Boneyard with Georges St-Pierre, which was broadcast on the History channel. There’s no word on when we’ll be able to see him explore his third passion yet though.

Moscow, Russia: Dirty deeds

Yes, Jeff Monson is back with more Russian shenanigans. ‘The Snowman’ thought he was booked to fight in a ‘fake’ exhibition match for a local promotion because he had an injured arm, but his opponent wasn’t playing. When the action started, Ivan Shtyrkov knocked him to the canvas and yanked on his hurt limb until he got the tap. Bloody Elbow reports Monson “bitch-slapped” the promoter that duped him into the fight. 

Albuquerque, New Mexico: Child’s play

If you’re going to try and steal from anywhere, it’s probably best not to target a gas station that’s just a block away from Jackson-Wink MMA Academy. Bellator bantamweight Saul Elizondo was on the scene to stop a suspect from throwing a punch at a clerk before easily taking him down. “I’m used to training with all these monsters here and grabbing this guy felt like grabbing a little child,” he told KQRE News.

Bali, Indonesia: Monkey business

Mark Hunt may have knocked out 22 fighters in his combat sports career, but how many monkeys could he dispatch? MMA fans almost found out when a pack of primates invaded the ‘Super Samoan’s pool in a video from his post-fight holiday that became a viral sensation on Facebook.

Tokyo, Japan: Friendly fire

What do you do if you’re Shinya Aoki, sat ringside at Rizin 1 and Daron Cruikshank calls you out? Throw a water bottle at him of course. Unfortunately, ‘Tobikan Judan’s aim is nowhere near as good as his submission skills. The bottle sailed over the ring to the commentary booth and hit fellow Japanese MMA icon Tatsuya Kawajiri instead.

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Champions from three different international editions of The Ultimate Fighter picked up wins at UFC 197: Carla Esparza (USA), Yair Rodriguez (Mexico) and Robert Whittaker (Australia).