Fighters Only

Jun 07, 2022

The happiest man in the UFC octagon visits with Fighters Only to share the five favorite fights of his career.

1. Caleb Nelson, First Strike (May 2, 2009)

This was my first professional loss, but still, to this day, it may be my favorite fight ever. We beat each other up for fifteen minutes. He ended up winning. It was eye-opening. To that point, I was a professional, but I had no idea what the UFC was. I had no idea about anything and I was still just training myself. It was a good fight and a fun fight. I was swollen, battered and limping the next day.

2. Paul Bradley, King of the Cage: Chain Reaction (July 17, 2010)

We fought at King of the Cage up in northern Wisconsin. It was an outdoor fight. We were the main event. During the co-main event it started raining so the mat was all wet. The promoter came over to us and told us that it was going to be ruled a no-contest fight no matter what, but said that if we fought he would give us each an extra thousand dollars. That sounded good to me! He agreed and we went out there and fought. It was a downpour. It was like a scene from a movie. You couldn’t stand up on the mat. Every jab I threw my foot was slipping out. He kind of shot and I kind of sprawled. We just slipped around for the rest of the round. That was a very memorable fight.

3. Gerald Meershaert, NAFC: Mega Brawl (May 31, 2014)

My rematch with him has to make the list. It was my last MMA fight before I made it to the UFC. I had fought him once before. I hate rematches. I don’t like the idea of them. In our first fight I won 24 minutes of it and then got choked out with no time left on the clock. I lost. I never wanted a rematch. Since that time I had gone on and done a lot more than he had. His coach thought if he beat me again it would put Gerald in the UFC. It wasn’t the most exciting fight ever but I got the job done and it got me into the UFC.

4. Jason South, MFC 38 (October 4, 2013)

This was my MFC title victory. I lost my first fight for the MFC title but won my second attempt after winning a couple of fights. That was a really cool fight. It was the first fight after my child was born. I won a world title. It is a title people around the world knew about.

5. Cezar Ferreira, UFC Fight Night: Bigfoot vs. Mir (February 22, 2015)

I won a nice ‘Performance of the Night’ bonus for this fight. This was the life-changing fight. I fought him in Brazil and it was a fight I wasn’t supposed to win. I was a huge underdog. I knocked him out. I came out and I kind of made it look easy.