A UFC welterweight’s wife received threats against the fighter’s life ahead of UFC 280, while Joe Rogan calls fight fixing claims stemming from Paul vs. Silva “crazy” (spoiler: he’s correct). That and more in the latest Sunday MMA Quick Hits.
Sean Brady says Fan Messaged Wife Ahead of UFC 280, Threatening to Kill Him
The worst kept secret in MMA? It has the worst fans. In no other sport on this planet do you have arm-chair quarterbacks continually claim they can beat up athletes who train professionally in martial arts. Or worse. In some cases, much much worse.
Exhibit #999 in this being the case: Sean Brady’s wife was sent messages saying the fighter would be murdered and buried in the desert if he won his fight against Belal Muhammad at UFC 280.
Brady revealed the threats during an appearance on The MMA Hour this past week.
“Someone messaged her and said that if I won the fight against Belal that they would kill me and bury me in the desert – it was pretty bad,” Brady said on the show (h/t MMA Fighting).
“She was right there front row sitting with [Joe Pyfer], and she busted through the security and got to me when I was walking out of the [octagon], but she was right there [in Abu Dhabi] with me, [and] she got messages.”
If this is you — get out of this sport. Stop being a fan. You’re not welcome here.
Jeff Monson Hit with Illegal Soccer Kick in What Could Be His Final Fight
Jeff Monson is one of those trivia questions from a bygone era. Never the best guy out there, but he sure did get around, fighting virtually everywhere: the UFC, PRIDE, Strikeforce, DREAM, M-1, not to mention being a Cage Warriors heavyweight champ in the promotion’s early days.
More recently, Monson gave up his American citizenship after settling in Russia, and has continued to compete into his 50s. That didn’t work out so well in his most recent fight, which may very well be his last. Illegal soccer kick incoming.
So that's how Jeff Monson's career ends. Soccer kicked and left ring on a stretcher. A LITTLE bit of acting maybe? Fight ends a NC pic.twitter.com/D111Cq6ZDX
— Matysek (@Matysek88) October 29, 2022
Tapology has yet to list this fight for Monson, whose record currently stands at 61-26-2. Alexandr Ilyasov was the opponent, in the main event of a Draka card on Oct. 29. He also lost a bare-knuckle boxing match to Aleksander Emelianenko earlier this year.
What Is Going On in Japan?
Credit to Bruno Massami of Gazetae Sportiva for this clip, as it appears the official video from the promotion edited parts out. Ahead of BreakingDown 6, a fighter attacks his opponent WWE style with a chair — only, this doesn’t appear to be a work.
This is happen today in Press Conference of Asakura Bros's Promotion, Breaking Down.
Yes, it's happen in Japan, not in Russia @Matysek88 @Grabaka_Hitman pic.twitter.com/RJRMegh3Wu
— Bruno Massami (Бруно Массами) (@BrMassami) November 2, 2022
RIZIN star Mikuru Asakura, who recently lost an exhibition boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, is one of the names behind BreakingDown, which promotes one-minute MMA fights with a reality TV angle where prospective combatants trash talk one another in front of judges.
If you’ve ever spent time in Japan, whose culture is built on a tradition of civility and respect, you know this isn’t the norm. So it’s all the more shocking to see a chair shot, and the bloody aftermath.
Joe Rogan Calls Claims of Fight Fixing in Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva “Crazy”
Joe Rogan isn’t saying anything particularly controversial here, but maybe this will get it through some people’s inconceivably thick skulls: no, Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva wasn’t “fixed,” and Silva did not take a dive when knocked down in the eighth and final round.
“Some people are trying to say that fight was fixed because of the knockdown,” Rogan explained on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast recently (h/t MMA Junkie). “I just want to explain to people this is what happened. … Anderson moved forward to Jake Paul, and Jake Paul hit him with sort of a stepping jab and caught him right on the chin. And when he caught him on the chin, Anderson Silva was falling backwards and then he leans away from the right hand, and he goes down. He was down from the punch, but it looks like the right hand doesn’t connect, but the left hand is what’s f*cking him up.”
“That dude hits f*cking hard, and for anybody to say he doesn’t hit hard because he’s a YouTube star — if this guy was not a f*cking YouTube star and he was some dude who went out there and flatlined Tyron Woodley with one punch and just knocked down Anderson Silva in the f*cking eighth round … come on, son. That is legit as f*ck. Anybody that says that’s not legitimate is crazy. He cracked him.”
Case closed? Probably not for some people. But look at it like this: Jake Paul does have some natural athletic ability (as opposed to someone like CM Punk, who struggled with that when he transitioned to MMA, albeit at a much later point in like). In taking up boxing, you now have an athletically gifted 20-something with a ridiculous amount of money who can train full time with the best in the business. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’s able to beat past-their-prime non-boxers. Anderson Silva gave Paul his toughest test to date. Anderson Silva is 47, and were it not for the final-round knockdown, arguably could have won the fight.
No, it wasn’t fixed.
