“I wanted to be one of those guys” - Ben Tynan on the decision to wear 'jorts' at ONE Fight Night 21
Ben Tynan might be considered an eccentric in every sense of the word, but that quality makes him such an interesting personality in and out of competition.
The Canadian big man is as loud and passionate inside the ring as he is out of it, and he shows his larger-than-life personality at every chance he gets.
While fighters typically wear the most comfortable athletic clothing possible, Tynan decided his ring gear against Duke Didier at ONE Fight Night 21 would be the much-maligned 'jorts'.
In his post-fight press conference, Ben Tynan explained the reasoning behind his decision to wear jean shorts this past weekend at the historic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.
Tynan is a huge fan of professional wrestling, and he used his heavyweight MMA matchup against Tynan as his avenue to pay tribute to the craft.
"I've always had a vision of fighting in these jean shorts. I don't know where it started from, it might have come from the days of watching professional wrestling as a kid, seeing big beefy dudes in jean shorts beat each other up. I always had that image, I want to be one of those guys. So being able to slap then on and do the same is really cool."
Tynan ultimately paid the ultimate tribute to his wrestling heroes when he completely manhandled Didier for the first-round technical knockout win.
'Vanilla Thunder' is now at a perfect 2-0 in ONE Championship and 6-0 in his overall career. He also earned a cool $50,000 bonus from ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong for his first-round finish.
Ben Tynan wants to carve a path to Anatoly Malykhin's heavyweight MMA throne
Ben Tynan isn't just all fun and games inside the ring, he's also a mean fighter to deal with.
After he secured his second straight win in ONE Championship, Tynan laid out an open challenge to all heavyweight contenders in his plan to carve a path to ONE heavyweight MMA world champion Anatoly Malykhin.
He said in his post-fight press conference:
"Send anyone, anyone you want. Line them up if you have to, I'll knock them all down."