Issue 089

June 2012

From ‘Beast’ to ‘Predator’ MMA fighters seem obsessed with nicknames. But, instantly recognizable and appropriate as monikers ‘The Axe Murderer’ and ‘The Iceman’ are, they just aren’t as cool or as inventive as these five,

1 TIM ‘THE HONEY BADGER’ RADCLIFFE

Originally nicknamed ‘Badger’ by teammates mocking Radcliffe’s graying hair, when someone saw a YouTube video of the honey badger, the name was elaborated upon. And for those who don’t know, the honey badger is widely regarded as one of the most ferocious animals on the planet. It’s perfectly happy to shove its face into teeming bee’s nests looking for honey, and willing to fight anything within range, regardless of size and heedless of danger. Not a bad animal for a fighter to be named after, really. A talented grappler, Tim Radcliffe is 12-4 with seven submission wins via a variety of chokes. The reigning, and two-time, lightweight champion of the English capital’s Ultimate Challenge promotion, Radcliffe earned his second title run by surviving an early knockdown and some heavy punishment on the ground from Michael Pastou to come back and score a stoppage win after a head kick and some swift ground ‘n’ pound. 

2 JEFF ‘SCARY NICKNAME’ NADER 

In 1996, director Wes Craven re-invigorated the entire horror movie industry with Scream, a knowing, ironic slasher film about slasher films. Jeff ‘Scary Nickname’ Nader takes a similarly playful approach by acknowledging the need for fighters to try and stand out with a memorable nickname he’s come up with a truly brilliant one. A product of the New England and New Jersey-based Reality Fighting promotion, Nader (with a professional record of 4-4) got his first real break when, after accepting the fight on short notice, he made his Bellator Fighting Championships debut in August 2011. Matched with Ultimate Fighter seven contestant and rising Bellator regular Dan Cramer, Nader was thoroughly dominated until staging a stunning comeback, winning with a flurry of punches early in the third and final round.

3 IAN ‘UNCLE CREEPY’ MCCALL

A fantastically moustached eccentric who looks a bit like a seedy buccaneer, Ian McCall’s appearance and ‘Uncle Creepy’ nickname (apparently given to him by a friend’s son) certainly help him stand out. Well-known to hardcore followers of the sport’s lower weights, McCall made a big impression in his UFC debut in Sydney in March, battling to a highly-controversial draw with Demetrious Johnson in the first flyweight fight in the promotion’s history. Outwrestling and outworking an active, skilled wrestler for much of the fight, and completely dominating the final moments, McCall clearly thought he’d won, only for Bruce Buffer to announce Johnson as the winner. But a tabulation cock-up meant it had actually been judged a draw, forcing a rematch. Still, McCall, a former Tachi Palace Fights champion, proved he belonged in the biggest of big leagues. 

4 NICK ‘THE NINJA OF LOVE’ DENIS

Few fighters make as impressive a big-league debut as Nick Denis. The Canadian bantamweight picked up the $45,000 ‘Knockout of the Night’ bonus in the opening preliminary fight for the first UFC on FX in January with a stunning 22-second destruction of Joseph Sandoval thanks to a barrage of vicious standing elbows. Bringing a 10-2 record (and having never gone the distance) into the fight, the 28-year-old makes a great addition to the UFC roster. As for the nickname, his childhood training in kyokushin karate makes the ‘ninja’ part fairly self-explanatory but it’s probably best not to speculate on where and how he decided to combine that with ‘love.’ Still, great nickname.

5 ‘USELESS’ ULYSSES GOMEZ

In a sport where nicknames tend towards outrageous hyperbole – Matt Brown is obviously not ‘Immortal’ and while Stephan Bonnar is clearly ‘American,’ he’s far too nice to be a ‘Psycho’ – it’s refreshing to see such a wilfully self-deprecating nickname as that chosen by Mexican-American bantamweight Ulysses Gomez. Perhaps best known for the night when, according to internet legend at least, he supposedly knocked out IBF and WBA Light middleweight world boxing champion Fernando Vargas in a street fight, ‘Useless’ is the reigning Tachi Palace 135lb champion (and former 125lb titleholder). He’s also a highly skilled, decorated grappler boasting a 9-2 professional record, with seven wins by submission. In another couple of wins we could be seeing the colorful, and far from useless, Las Vegas-based Gomez fighting in the UFC.