ShoXC: Malaipet’s Elbows of Fury
I’m not sure how many people caught the ShoXC event Friday night on Showtime, but if you did watch, you were “rewarded” with one of the weirdest endings I’ve seen in an MMA fight in a while.
In the main event, Thomas “Wildman” Denny faced off against Malaipet, a decorated Muy Thai fighter from, well, Thailand. Malaipet’s only 3-1 in MMA competition, and likes to stand-up with punches and kicks. Denny obviously knew Malaipet’s weakness was his ground game, and took the fight to the ground near the start of the first round.
Denny dominated Malaipet on the ground, quickly locking in a rear naked choke. What came next was pretty amazing–Malaipet, who according to Mauro Ranallo (or Stephen Quadros, I can’t remember which one said it) apparently learned submission wrestling from video tapes, managed to work his way out of the choke. I was shocked–he looked like he was dead to rights. It was a pretty amazing display of will, in fact. As the two fighters stood back up after Denny landed some ground and pound on Malaipet, I was excited for the direction this fight was heading: a lethal Muy Thai fighter trying to beat a MMA vet who could dominate him on the ground.
Unfortunately, that’s when the fight took a strange turn. Denny went for another takedown, and Malaipet was blocking it while leaning against the cage. He had Denny’s head locked under his arm, and inexplicably decided to rain down elbows to the backside of Denny’s head. Denny didn’t know what hit him, and the fight was stopped so the doctor could check on him.
That’s when it got really weird. Ranallo and Quadros seemed to have no clue as to what referee Herb Dean was doing. They thought Denny should be getting a ten minute rest period, but I’m not sure if that option was ever given to him. The cameras captured Denny’s corner examining the back of his head–one person in his corner said he had “bumps” on the back of his head. Denny appeared to be dazed and confused. The doctor made his way to Denny’s corner, and asked Denny if he could continue to fight effectively. After a moment, Denny eventually said no, and the fight was called. Your winner, by DQ, Thomas “Wildman” Denny.
The fun wasn’t over yet. In the post-fight interviews, Denny seemed to say that he could have kept going, but at the same time that he was in no condition to continue. This drew boos from the audience. The crowd cheered Malaipet, who claimed his elbows to the back of the head were an accident. It was quite the post fight scene, and Stephen Quardros was already calling for a rematch while doing the post-fight interviews in the cage. Both men seemed open to it.
I don’t know what to think of this. Some might argue that Malaipet wanted to get disqualified because he thought he couldn’t win the fight. I don’t see the logic there–after all, he managed not to tap to a deep rear-naked choke. If he has that kind of willpower, it seems like he could finish the fight, especially if he was able to stand-up and deliver leg strikes.
Then again, he honestly can’t of thought that the strikes were legal. In his post-fight interview, he did claim he was trying to hit Denny in the side of the head. That’s a pretty flimsy excuse.
Perhaps Quadros’ on-the-fly explanation was correct: Malaipet was going on instinct and made a mistake. That seems the most probable to me. Whatever the case, it was a controversial ending, and sets up a great rematch that EliteXC should put on one of their major CBS cards this Summer.
If you haven’t seen Friday’s show, you should make an attempt. It was action packed throughout, and will probably be on Showtime OnDemand shortly. All-in-all, another solid card for EliteXC, with a disappointing yet intriguing ending.
