Issue 156
July 2017
Goings on both good and bad from around the mixed martial arts world
1 Reality check
Birmingham, England
How many of you have ever wanted to get one of those reality TV stars into a cage and have the chance to punch them square in the face? Lucky Greg Jenkins from Liverpool’s Masda Gym had that privilege. He was picked to be locked in the cage with a tattooed professional drinker Aaron Chalmers from MTV’s UK version of Jersey Shore, Geordie Shore. It wasn’t at some small-hall show either – their stage was BAMMA 29 at a 15,000 capacity arena in England’s second city.
2 Brother, can you spare a dime?
New York, New York
Life really has a way of kicking you in the balls sometimes. You’d think it was bad enough that Marcos Galvao suffered his first defeat outside a title fight at Bellator 175 in Rosemont, Illinois, but his misery was compounded when he returned home to find his life savings had been stolen, leaving him no money for rent, groceries, bills, taxes, and your everyday expenses. Luckily, there are some big hearts in the MMA community, and a GoFundMe page raised more than $25,000 for ‘Loro’ in less than two weeks.
3 I do
Vladivostok, Russia
Sergey Lesnikov had a perfect day at Fight Nights Global 63. He started by winning his professional debut by triangle choke in round one. He then invited his girlfriend, Natasha, to the cage, got down on one knee and asked: “Do you love me?” She answered “yes” and was swung around the cage. Who says romance is dead?
4 Crossing borders
Geneva, Switzerland
What do you do if MMA is illegal in your country, but you still need to compete? Fight in your neighbors’ backyard, of course. The inaugural amateur French MMA Championships, sanctioned by the World MMA Association (WMMAA), was recently held in Geneva, Switzerland, owing to the ongoing legal battle in its home country. Support may be lacking from the blue, white and red officials, but they did have the support of WMMAA honorary vice-president Fedor Emelianenko.
5 Double trouble
Pueblo, Colorado
We were so close. Just a few weeks on from Shamrock FC’s double KO featured in the last issue of Fighters Only, Adam Martinez and Maikel Pérez so very nearly got another in Legacy Fighting Alliance. Unfortunately for us, but lucky for them, they both have tough chins and survived to fight on. Martinez even recovered to get a nice guillotine choke.
6 Virtually identical?
Yokohama, Japan
You expect opponents in a professional fight to weigh pretty much the same. Perhaps you might expect a little fluctuation in height and reach, but weight classes generally mean as close to a level playing field as possible. Not in Rizin, and that’s why we love it. German pro wrestler Jazzy Gabert enjoyed an 11-inch height advantage and 33.7lb weight advantage over ‘King’ Reina Miura. Mismatch? Nope. The diminutive Japanese still won by an armbar. We’d put good money on her ‘reward’ being a giant-killing assignment against Gabi Garcia.
7 Man boobs
Sydney, Australia
Mark Hunt has had a rough 12 months: beaten up by “steroid monkey” Brock Lesnar, victim of an Alistair Overeem knee and now ridiculed by a Japanese action figure’s representation of him – complete with male breasts and modest meat and two veg. He wasn’t too happy. “Why would u do this to me man boobs and penis on display why bleeeee why u do it Mei Wen Ti how dare u bastards,” he cried on Instagram.
8 Like a knife through butter
Coventry, England
The UK bare-knuckle boxing scene seems to be the latest place to rehab the careers of MMA journeymen. First Joe Riggs crossed the Atlantic to bash some out-of-shape brawler’s face in, now Melvin Guillard’s at it. ‘The Young Assassin’s trip was more eventful, however, as he got into an altercation with his opponent, Irishman James Sweeney, the day before the fight and even drew a knife on him in a local eatery. Not that he would have done much damage with it, as Wes Sims explained: “I was there... Yes he has a butter knife in his hand, yes Shonie Carter filmed, and yes we would have stomped the s*** out of those Irish! Good times in the UK.”
9 Wheels of fortune
Grozny, Russia
It’s unlikely any of Absolute Championship Berkut’s champions are in the market for a nice new ride. The generous benefactors of the Chechen organization are handing out new high-powered performance vehicles to their top fighters quicker than you can say ‘low emissions’. Here’s new bantamweight king Petr Yan with his brand new Mercedes.
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