MMA/Boxing RIP Thread

[Keith Houchen]

His debut fight as well. 

[wandshogun09]

This is a shocker. Hiromitsu Miura has died. 43 years old. 

The Condit fight was indeed a classic. One of the best fights in WEC history easy and I had it #10 in my Top 50 fights of 2000-09 here…

On 8/3/2020 at 1:07 PM, wandshogun09 said:

We’ve finally reached the Top 10.

#10 - Carlos Condit vs Hiromitsu Miura - WEC 35 - Aug 3rd 2008

This was very early into me following WEC. I’d obviously heard of the promotion and seen all the hype for guys like Urijah Faber and Miguel Torres, I’d seen little clips and highlights and gifs and all that. But with the shows not being televised over here, it wasn’t so easy to watch them. It was actually WEC 34, the show just before this one, that finally hooked me in. It had Faber vs Jens Pulver in the main event and Torres vs Yoshiro Maeda in the co-main and I just remember seeing everyone buzzing about these two FOTY candidates on the same night. Clearly remember Dave Meltzer raving about how good they were on his site. Must’ve been days later I finally tracked the show down somewhere, probably torrents, and that was me sold. From 34 up until the final show 53, I went out of my way to make sure I watched them. I’ve since gone back and seen a lot of the earlier stuff but for me, 34-53 will always be the golden spell of WEC. That 2 year period was maybe the best run of consistently incredible shows that any MMA promotion has ever put on.

This Condit vs Miura fight was a big part of keeping me hooked too. While WEC 34 was amazing, if the follow up show was cack I might’ve drifted away from it. Or just dipped in when Faber or Torres were fighting. WEC delivered in a big way again with 35 though. It was a 4 fight main card and the first 3 were all exciting as fuck with big finishes. Then came the headliner.

Condit was the WEC Welterweight champ. He was only 24 years old here but already he was pretty much a full on veteran. He’d fought all over the place from King Of The Cage to Rumble On The Rock in Hawaii to Pancrase in Japan. He’d seen all the different styles and gained a lot of valuable experience early on in his career. So when he stepped into WEC’s blue cage in 2007, he was already seasoned. He won the belt in just his second fight in the company and defended it twice against Brock Larson and Carlo Prater. At this point he was 4-0 in WEC and had finished all 4 opponents.

Miura had a record of 9-4 here. Nothing special. His background was in Judo and Sambo but he liked to mix it up in the standup too. He’d lost to Mayhem Miller in his WEC debut a year or so earlier but had bounced back with a drop to 170. A first round KO over Blas Avena at WEC 33 bagged him a crack at the gold and here we are.

Carlos Condit (c) vs Hiromitsu Miura - Welterweight Title

WEC 35: Condit vs Miura

August 3rd 2008

Las Vegas, Nevada

The old WEC intro always gives me the old nostalgic tingles.

Urghh. Burn it. Set fire to it immediately.

Seriously, I’ve always said Mir is great in this role as colour commentator but he’s mumbling like fuck here. Tripping over his words and murdering the pronunciation of Miura’s name again and again. The one thing I give Mir credit for, I’m retracting it. Fuck Frank Mir.

“He’s a tough fighter and I’m sure that he deserves to be here but I’m gonna show him that he doesn’t wanna be in there with me. He’s gonna figure out real quick that he doesn’t wanna be in that cage with me.” - Carlos Condit

Round 1: There’s not much of a feeling out process here. Miura knows he has to close the distance because Condit’s a fair bit taller and lankier than he is, so it’s forcing the action right off the bat. It’s working as well, Miura is landing some shots.

Beautiful throw by Miura there. He’s off to a strong start. Back on the feet and Miura with a really nifty trip. He’s letting Condit back up but he’s already shown that his Judo techniques are not to be slept on. He’s letting Condit know he can put him on the mat if he wants to. Condit turning up the heat now, landing some nice kicks and knees.

Condit drops him! Love the way he hid the right hand behind the push kick feint. Miura didn’t see it coming. Condit is on top of him laying a beating down now. Lots of elbows. But he gets overzealous with an armbar attempt and Miura uses it to get up and throw him again. Miura with some ground and pound to end the round. Close one. Miura started strong and finished strong, had those throws. He certainly had more of the round in terms of time. He was in control for over half the round. But Condit did drop him and beat him up on the ground. Based on that, probably Condit 10-9 but I could see giving it to Miura.

Round 2: Condit’s looking good early here with a variety of kicks right out the gate. They wind up on the ground and Condit’s on top. Really good stuff here, it’s non-stop on the feet and on the mat. Condit gets the mount and he’s battering Miura with elbows and punches. Miura is flopping about and gives up his back so Condit dives on an armbar again. Miura having T-Rex arms is what saved him there. Condit on top again and there’s the buzzer. Condit 10-9.

Round 3: Man, this is such a gruelling battle. Miura’s going for another throw but Condit’s not playing ball. Condit briefly gets the mounted guillotine, Miura escapes but Condit still has him mounted. Not good. Condit actually looks really tired here, which you don’t see often. He’s landing the odd strike but he’s mostly using this mount as a chance to rest. Understandably. The pace of this one has been insane. But Miura must sense he’s fading and reverses position. He’s on top now and dropping heat! Hard shots on the ground from Miura here. He’s punching Condit’s head in. Back on the feet and they’re both just giving it everything.

Condit lands in top position somewhere in the madness. He’s got the mount again. The twists and turns and shifts in momentum here are crazy. Condit is elbowing the crap out of him now from mount. Ref Josh Rosenthal looks close to stepping in but Miura keeps moving. He gives up his back but he’s avoided Rosenthal stopping the fight and bought himself a little bit more time. Condit’s working a choke though. He can’t get it under the chin and the round ends. Condit 10-9 again but fuck me that was some round.

Round 4: Miura actually looks the fresher of the two at the start of this round. Incredible. He’s coming out all guns blazing.

He hits a half throw/half trip thingy but Condit weathers it and comes back with a takedown of his own. But now Miura sweeps back into top position! This is nuts. Ground and pound from Miura again. Back on the feet and they’re going after it again and Condit somehow lands in the mount again. And Miura reverses it again! What the fuck? Tons of punches from in the guard here by Miura. Condit looks fucking exhausted now. He’s just lying there with his head flat on the canvas totally spent.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look so knackered in a fight, except for the end of the Robbie Lawler fight maybe. They’re back up. Miura whiffs badly on a big right hand...

Condit puts him down with a knee to the jaw! Miura’s on all fours and Condit is punching away. Not much pop behind the shots but Miura isn’t defending and Rosenthal has seen enough. It’s over.

Winner - Carlos Condit by TKO. Round 4 - 4:43.

Awesome fight. There’s some booing at the stoppage but I thought it was fine. You can’t just turtle up, let a guy hit you with a bunch of unanswered punches and expect the referee not to stop it. Miura just had fuck all left at that point. It was probably as much physical exhaustion as him being hurt. The knee was just the final straw. What a fight though. From listening to the talk pre-fight, Miura got some respect as a ‘tough guy’ but it’s clear he was thought to be a standard run of the mill title defence for Condit. Just a body to feed him. But Miura didn’t come to lose or just have a go. He put everything into winning this fight. Condit probably won every round but that really doesn’t tell the true story of this one. You have to watch it for yourself. Miura gave him hell from start to finish. Honestly, if you’ve never seen it, get it watched. Even better than I remembered.

Mad thing is, Miura never went on to do much in MMA after this. He only fought 5 more times and finished up with a record of 12-7. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another fight of his. It’s like he came out of nowhere to give us this one absolute banger of a fight then disappeared back into obscurity. He was like a man possessed on this night though. Looking him up, he went into Boxing a couple of years after this and went 9-1. Hasn’t fought since 2012 now and at 38, I imagine he’s done. 

 

[Carbomb]

Fucking cancer, man. I'll be glad of the day when we finally figure out that bastard's secret and we make it a thing of the past.

43. Goddammit. RIP.

[wandshogun09]

This is a shocker.

Only 46. Cancer again. Didn’t even know he had cancer. Might have to rewatch the four fight series with Marquez again. What a loss. Gutted. 

[Rossman]

It only came out a couple of weeks ago, he had stage 4 cancer. Absolute Mexican warrior in the ring. As you say, the series of fights with Rafael Marquez was legendary for lower weight fighters. 

[Cousin Jim Bob]

Greg Haugen has died at age 64 from cancer.

Underrated and tough as nails former world champion at lightweight and light welterweight. He was the first fighter to beat Hector Camacho and fought Julio Cesar Chavez infront of 132'000 people in Mexico. 

Very entertaining fighter inside and outside the ring. He could run his mouth as well as he could fight. His trilogy of fights with Vinnie Paz was extremely good not just for the fights themselves but the two of them talking shit about the other guy.

 

 

 

[wandshogun09]

Ah man. Carson Jones, 38 years old. Apparently he had surgery on his oesophagus recently and I saw a tweet from Caleb Truax a few days ago saying Jones had complications from the surgery. Now I see this…

Can’t say I saw much of his career but his first fight with Kell Brook in 2012 was tremendous and his name always stuck with me after that, just on the strength of that one fight. 38. 

[Egg Shen]

Ahh, that's sad news.

Jones was one of those guys that came over, made a name against Brook then was rolled out against several British fighters afterwards as a bit of a gatekeeper/name to get on the record type guy. He spoiled a few plans. RIP.

[wandshogun09]

Ah shit this is a big one. Gutted. 

[NeverYield]

Big George is made from stuff that don't come around often 

True legend 

[wandshogun09]

Dwight Muhammad Qawi has died at 72 after a five year battle with dementia. 

Saw a bunch of his fights way after the fact years ago when I was well into buying discs upon discs of old fights. Entertaining fighter. Stopped Matthew Saad Muhammad twice, wrecked a past it Leon Spinks, fought George Foreman up at Heavyweight and fought Evander Holyfield twice, the first one being an all time Cruiserweight classic. 

[Cousin Jim Bob]

Yes one of those all action and ferocious, so constantly featured on US TV guys. He has a ton of classic fights. RIP.

 

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

2 boxers from the same event in Japan die of the same injury. Awful coincidence 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/articles/cwypq5e0p4wo

[Carbomb]

23 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Boxer Joe Bugner, aged 75

https://www.bbc.com/sport/boxing/articles/cjw6jjqljeeo

This feels like kind of a big deal. His Foreman-style comeback was impressive enough in itself.

[Egg Shen]

I genuinely thought Bugner had died years ago