Top 3 Bad-Boys of the sport

Let’s get one thing straight rom the get-go:
When I say bad-boy i do NOT mean the moody, angry type of guy who still has time to gel his hair and style his beard. Not the leather jacket, deep in his thoughts, young girls wanna nail kinda bad boy.
I’m also not talking about the would be tough guys and fire starters who are all trash talk and no action.
I’m talking about the bad guys, the seriously dangerous “do not mess with” men of MMA.
Without further ado, your winners are:

3. Gilbert Yvel

A mid Tier fighter at best who’d do well to stay in K1. He recently knocked out a long past his prime Pedro “the rock” Rizzo after losing a third round stoppage to Josh Barnett

(before Josh tested positive for a banned substances for the third time in his career, destroying our chance of seeing the most relevant heavy weight match up outside of the UFC between himself and Fedor… but this is a rant for another day)

Gilbert is best known for his complete lack of sportsmanship with many calling into question the California state athletic commission’s decision to license him stateside. ‘Why’ you ask?

a picture tells a thousand words and many thousand moving pictures will give you a pretty clear picture, here is Gilbert’s finest hour captured on film for all to cherish:

Add in a few DQ’s, holding his yellow card in the air with pride and generally being a scum bag and you’ve got a pretty good idea as to why he comes in at number three.

2. Joe Son

WOW! I’m actually writing about Joe Son, I knew this day would come but where to start? How do I get out all I have to say?

Ok from the start:
Joe Son first appeared at UFC 3 as Kimo Leopaldo’s manager.

A quick note on Kimo; say the words ‘cage fighter’ to someone who doesn’t know the sport, they’d probably think of someone a lot like Kimo.

He’ll be remembered for a few things:

Carrying a giant wooden cross to the cage

Giving Royce the fight of career and costing him the tournament in defeat (more on that in an upcoming article)

being arrested ‘back in February while wearing a police jumpsuit and sandals and playing with a yo-yo on the streets of southern California’

Joe Son then made his next … ever see Austin Powers? he was Random Task, they Asian guy who threw the shoe, sorry had to get that off my brain.
Where was I? Oh right, he appeared in the subsequent UFC tournament as a fighter and pulled the same crazy giant wooden cross trick.

His opponent was Keith Hackney, a supposed ninja who struck Joe Son in the balls about 13 times to take the win. Groin shots did not become a foul until UFC 14.

Joe Son also claimed to be a master of his own martial arts style called “Joe Son Do” (I am not making any of this up) the style seemed to include a little wrestling, no ground game after the take down and putting your chin in the air as if inviting your opponent to hit it flush with their fist.

the following video should fill you in on the treat that the tiny, misguided little man was to the online MMA community for many years. Truly, he was the butt of every joke and a complete gag, everything from his goaté to his 0-4 record.

But last year, he stopped being a harmless joke. On October 7th 2008 he was arrested in connection to a gang rape involving him and another male assailant that took place in 1990.

Son has been charged with five felony counts of forcible rape, two felony counts of forcible sodomy, two felony counts of sodomy in concert by force, seven felony counts of forcible oral copulations, one felony count of sexual penetration by foreign object by force, and sentencing enhancements for kidnapping to commit sexual assault, personal use of a firearm, use of a firearm during a sex offense, and great bodily injury to sexual assault victim.

If convicted, the 39-year-old Son faces a maximum sentence of 275 years to life in prison.

This alleged rape took place 4 years before he carried that ridiculous cross on his back, I guess now we know he had something to seek forgiveness for, also it’s hard to hold it against Hackney for punching his testicles in.

In truth, all stories I’ve heard from people who have actually met him both during and prior to his fight career point to Son being something of a mad man, someone mentally ill and in dire need of some help. A truly sad ending to such a funny story.
There have been no developments on his case up to the time of this publication.

1. Lee Murray
“Lightning” Lee Murray, the movie is in the works and reports point to Darren Aronofsky of “The Wrestler” fame as director.

For those unfamiliar with Lee, he’s suspected of masterminding the biggest bank robbery of all time, over 50 million British pounds. He’s currently in Morocco and residing in a small cramped cell awaiting judgment on his extradition to Britain.

Below I’ve included a short documentary to catch you up on Lee’s criminal undertakings. The reason he makes it top of this list is three fold:

1. He pulled off the biggest heist of all time
2. He knocked out Tito Ortiz in a bar fight
3. In his last fight he went three round with greatest fighter on the planet Anderson Silva. No shame dropping a decision to the best and remarkable that he could even hang that long with him (just ask Rich Franklin)

If Murray had stuck with the sport he could have been a star, what Michael Bisping is now but a few years earlier and a viable middleweight contender or champion. of course we’ll never know, i wonder does he ever think about it while lying in his tiny Moroccan prison cell. My money says it’s probably the only thing on his mind.

Those who failed to make the grade:

Tank Abbot – Never lived up to his reputation

Ken Shamrock – his last win was agaisnt a 25 stone tub who died of a heart attack recently; despite all his talk he has always failed to turn it on in the ring or cage when it mattered

Rob Emerson – Being a member of a privileged white boy gang doesn’t make you a bad boy, it makes you a boy

Chris Leben – similar to the above but involving the word “drunk”

Melvin Guillard – a coke charge and being a jerk is nothing to write home about

Tito Ortiz – there are several reasons but have you seen his wife Jenna Jameson lately? He’s got to be the bravest fighter at least

So their you have it folks, three genuine scum bags and a hand full of lesser losers (in some regards at least).
You can expect a few more articles over the next couple of weeks and I’ll put together a pre-show package for UFC 104

other than that, watch the ultimate fighter and laugh at the out of shape heavy weights, Wes Shivers actually made me feel good about my cardio, like maybe I can afford to skip that third round of circuit training.

-Colm Ivers

Did I get something wrong? Any suggestions? email me at colmivers@gmail.com