Issue 154

May 2017

Former flyweight number one Ian McCall has a career’s worth of fantastic fights. "Uncle Creepy" picks out his favourite five. 

1. Jerry Samson, Warrior's Quest 6

“My very first fight. I was only 18. They said, ‘Do you want to fight a man?’ I ran roughshod over guys, but to get punched by a man was different.

He was a golden gloves boxing champ in Hawaii.

I remember getting punched by him the first time and I was like, ’Oh s**t. This is real.’ So I had to take him down and choke him out.”

2. Chris David, Total Combat 15

“My first fight against a real journeyman. He was really tough. I threw everything I had at him and he didn’t stop coming forward. My fight went to decision for the first time in my career and I picked up the unanimous victory. I was happy with that one.”

3. Coty Wheeler, WEC 30

“That was a fight where I ended up hurting him really bad. He had a lot of attitude going into it and there were so many people telling me how good he was and how I was going to lose and I was like.

‘F**k you.’ I just shredded him. In the later rounds, I just wanted to hurt him and I did. I think I was trying to kill him at that point.

That’s not always the best game plan but it worked out in this case. I stopped him in the third round.”

4. Demetrious Johnson, UFC on FX: Alves vs. Kampmann

“That was an emotional roller coaster – even the things leading up to that fight. To know that I was able to perform at or even near my highest level under that sort of pressure was awesome.

"To take Demetrious to that limit, knowing he is the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet, will forever stay with me. It does kind of irk me a bunch because of how it ended (McCall was denied a draw and a sudden-victory round by a judging error).”

5. Brad Pickett, UFC Fight Night: McGregor vs. Brandao

“I fought Brad in Dublin. It was a good performance. To get a dominant win over a guy like Brad is great. He was really slow at that weight class. I was able to get in, punch and get out before he was able to throw.

"I showed that speed kills in this division. I fought Pickett coming off of my great performance in the (Illarde) Santos fight. It felt really good to put a few wins together in the UFC.”