5 of the most ridiculous things UFC fighters have done in the octagon
Meryl Streep is definitely one of those people who on hearing the term "mixed martial arts" would bray that fighters are as much artists as "tree surgeons" are doctors. Your Highness, 3 Oscars, 8 Golden Globes and being the greatest living actress doesn't make you an authority on what art is or isn't. Art is different things to different people, and whether amorphous or precise, it has the wondrous ability to produce a surge of sensation through a person.
To an MMA fan, art is Anderson Silva weaving around Forrest Griffin's punches, Matrix-style, before putting him down with a single shot. And TJ Dillashaw's phantom footwork that has his opponents so hypnotized that they never see the kill shot.
So, MMA fighters are artists and it doesn't need saying that all artists are given to their whims. UFC Featherweight Champion Max Holloway is obsessed with mini-cupcakes. Pablo Picasso carried a revolver loaded with blanks that he would fire at anyone who pestered him about his paintings. Okay, completely different ends of the eccentricity spectrum, but harmless all the same... right? Maybe, maybe not. We'll let you decide:
#5 Art Jimmerson, the one-gloved wonder
As an opening act, UFC 1 did make its mark, to say the least. People gasped when they saw Sumo wrestler Teila Tuli's teeth kicked out by savateur Gerard Gordeau. They did double takes when the smallest man in the tournament sliced through his opponents with ill-matched ease. But perhaps the most enduring image from the UFC's world premiere was boxer Art Jimmerson stepping into the cage wearing one glove - it makes fans chuckle to this day.
Riding a 15-fight win streak in a sport that was much better known than the others represented, Jimmerson was considered a favourite at UFC 1. Showing off fast hands while quoting Muhammad Ali's legendary "You can't hit what you can't see" in a pre-fight promo, Jimmerson looked every bit a frontrunner. Until he was hit by the Gracie train.
Glove or no glove, the top-10 Cruiserweight didn't throw a single punch against Royce Gracie. In fact, he tapped out because he was trapped under the BJJ magician, quite possibly making it the only submission by "position" in the sport's history.
But what many fans don't know is WHY Jimmerson donned his Infinity Gauntlet to the cage. A few years ago, Campbell McLaren, one of the producers for the UFC and the man who signed Jimmerson for the tournament, gave Darce Side Radio the insider scoop. The story goes that Big John McCarthy, who wasn't yet a referee but was known as a training partner of Royce Gracie, was at the event. Jimmerson decided to understand the enemy better by probing Big John as much as possible, but he probably wished he hadn't. Being a boxer, Jimmerson was under the impression that when fighters clinched in MMA, the ref would separate them.
Big John told him that there is no such thing in MMA and that Royce would take him to the ground and most likely break his arm! It was in this moment of enlightenment that Jimmerson decided to wear just one glove so that when he tapped with his other hand, it would be clear to the referee that he was giving up. That's more anticlimactic than buying a pretty girl fancy drinks, being stunned into silence as her boyfriend shows up, gets his apology for being late kissed away and then watching them leave together as you get too drunk to catch a cab.
We're pretty sure that Benjamin Disraeli wasn't talking about this when he said "hope for the best but prepare for the worst".