I’ve been involved, in and around Mma for a good ten years. One of the things I’ve noticed that has never really changed about it is people shouting “fix” at any available opportunity.
A lot of times something strange happens in a fight, (guess what? strange things do sometimes ‘just happen’ in fights and I feel like screaming ‘take off your tin foil hat, take your medication and calm the fuck down’). A good example of this is Rich Franklin v’s Ken Shamrock. If you look at this fight, Ken just seems to fall to his knees while Franklin then lands a couple of heavy shots and finishes the fight. People cried out ‘fix’ straight away. I admit, it did look weird but to actually assume it’s a fix out of looking a bit weird doesn’t make sense. You have to first ask the question, who other than Franklin would benefit from risking everything the UFC has built up and its reputation? What would be the purpose? Franklin won a fight he should’ve won anyway, so who would’ve gained in ‘fixing’ it?
Generally I think there are very few legitimate fixes. I’ll talk about a few below and two of the fights have the same person in them.
In my own career, no MMA Fight Organisation or promoter has ever asked me to throw a fight. It has never happened and I would be shocked if it did.The most that has been asked of me was when I was fighting in Japan (what I was asked was nothing like being asked to throw a fight- but I mention it to let you know the type of things a fight org might say to a fighter). I was asked, badgered and generally pestered to do the ‘gong and dash’ (running at my opponent at the sound of the bell). This was at a time I didn’t really want to do it, since people had got wise to it and I was getting caught out as I rushed them. But I was never threatened or forced to do it.
I was offered a KO bonus against Kimbo (which I had never been offered before for Elite XC) but I can’t see anything wrong with this, although it could be seen as a way to steer the fight in a certain direction. All fights come with these sorts of incentives these days.
People often ask me about the Kimbo fight and if the ref was ‘paid off’. My answer to this is ‘no I don’t think he was at all’. I do think he was swayed by promoters screaming at him to stand the action up and he acted in a biased fashion, add in the fact that Dan Miragliotta has a slightly higher IQ level than a block of cement then it makes sense that he’s going to listen to the powers that be, shouting orders, but I don’t suspect money was exchanged. He was on their payroll, so loyalties led with pleasing his bosses. Was it fair? like fuck was it but shit happens.
I’ve had more than my fair share of fights that have ended in a questionable fashion. I think it’s because I’m in a strange position of being a fighter with a few good wins, but also a lot of bad losses. So when a promoter of an up and coming Mma organisation wants to match his ‘golden boy’ against someone, I get a look in because I have a some creditability, I look the part, I always come to fight but most importantly for the MMA organisation in question, they think I’m beatable.. Thus propelling said ‘golden boy’ to even higher levels of shining goldenness.
This has happened with both Kimbo and Pudzianowski.
Now please don’t think I’m complaining… I’m not. I know I’m lucky to be getting the chances to fight in these massive main event fights, especially when my record has been less than stellar. But with all these incredible chances to fight in the main event on these shows, comes vast amounts of bias from the refs and judges. Whilst it’s far from fair, it’s not fixed.
Let’s take my last fight against Pudz. It wasn’t fixed, no money was exchanged but that’s because it didn’t need to be. Just take a ‘Polish hero’ add three Polish Judges that are around the Polish Mma scene, mix in the fact that they even train with some of the fighters they’re judging and your final outcome is the ‘fucking joke’ of a result we saw ( before KSW reversed the decision to a N/C).
Ok, I’ve gone off on enough of a tangent and explained about some of my fights and expectations of me by fight orgs that…whilst unfair I believe were not fixed. It’s just a simple lesson that, any time an Mma org has built their entire foundations of the company on one fighter…You’re likely to see these unfair questionable decisions. The more the bad decisions are pointed out and the more aware MMA fans become of this, the less likely they are to happen
So, a lot of Mma fights are biased but what about ‘fixed’ fights? What about when a fighter gets X amount of cash to lose a fight? Say what you will about Dana White and the UFC, I can’t think of any fight that was or has been accused of being ‘fixed’ that I myself deem as legitimate. I just don’t think it goes on in the UFC. Dana White & co would have too much to lose. You have to go way back to before White & the Ferro Ties took control of the UFC and that’s UFC 5.
Don Frye vs. Mark Hall. It was a tournament format. Hall say’s Frye offered him ‘£50,000′ to take a dive so he’d be fresh in the next round. Frye says Hall is a ‘very disturbed individual’.
Another fight that I’m pretty sure was a work, was in UFC 6 – Oleg Taktarov vs. Anthony Macias. They were training partners and decided between themselves that Oleg had the best chance of winning the tournament, so Macias gave him an easy pass.
The next fight which I’m pretty sure was a ‘fix’ was Marc Coleman v Takada. The idea was to give Takada more credibility with the fans. Takada is, for reasons that escape me, a Japanese legend, massively popular but with limited Mma skills, that beat Coleman (who was at the time- top of his game) with a heel hook. This is most defiantly a fix as many believe all Takada wins are. I think the commentator Bas Rutten said it best about this fight… “What is he (Coleman) doing!!?”
If ‘fixes’ take place in MMA then I do feel they are more likely to take place in Japanese Mma. I say this having fought over there a lot (please note as I said earlier I’ve never been approached to throw any fights, all my losses are painfully down to me). In my experience the Japanese fighters were controlled more than their foreign counterparts. This also fits in with the Japanese culture, which if you read up on is very ‘them versus us’. When an Mma organisation feels like it has control over its fighters, that’s when you’re more likely to see fixes occur.
One of my favourites is (our old mate) Takada vs. Tamura. What amuses me about this fight is that the only real way you can tell its fixed, is from Tamura’s reaction when he won by KO as Takada rushed at him. Tamura’s reaction was of a man totally gutted that he’d won! He didn’t even want his hand raised at the end & looked completely miserable. I’m guessing he was slightly worried about what the Yakuza were going make of it all since they’d probably betted heavily on that fight! As for Takada, it’s bad when you can’t even win a fight that’s fixed for you to win. I’ll include the video for you to check out, it’s funny.
All the fights I’ve mentioned above are because I’m sure they were ‘works’. The UFC ones happened a long time ago, and I’ve explained how I think it sometimes works in Japan. So summing up, yes fixes happen… of course they do. But they are very very scarce and personally I haven’t seen any legitimate cases in the UFC nowadays, unless the fighters sort it out between themselves and I just can’t see that happening. What is much more likely to happen is an MMA organisation want’s a particular fighter to win because they’ve based their whole organisation on the shoulders of this person, hence the deck is stacked in their favour in as many ways as possible. Unfair but no fix.
Here’s the Vid of Takada/ Tamura
Nice read once again. It’s nice getting an inside perspective of past and present events. Especially the Pride days. Can’t wait for the next one.
Thanks Clayton, appreciate your kind words m8
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it’s very interesting! Moreover I feel author’s worked out own style! So keep writing!
Thanks m8
Great read. I’ve spent the morning reading your blogs and have to say I’m somewhat impressed.
I have to admit though, I find it hard to believe that the man responsible for these well thought out, well presented pieces of writing is the same man famous for seemingly shaking with rage and going batshit crazy on the sound of the bell! It’s quite a contrast.
Thanks for a great read and keep up the good work!
Thanks John, good of you to say. It is quite a contrast, more layers than an onion me haha. Cheers pal
I hope you don’t make people cry like one or stink like one haha! Do you take requests? I wouldn’t mind reading your opinion on the use of Steroids and other performance enhancers in the sport, maybe you could offer a bit of a personal insight or a different viiewpoint. WOuld be good timing, considering what has just happened regarding one of your previous opponents, Alistair Overeem.
[...] It’s Monday morning at 8am and I just stumbled upon the blog of none other than James “The Colossus” Thompson and I must say it is quite interesting. After seeing the guy fight a few times you sort of build an image in your head of what he might be like to talk to, well I couldn’t have been more wrong. Even though he may sound a bit crazy inside the ring or cage his blog is pretty well written. He comes across as a well educated fight historian at certain points even, quite surprising. If you want to read his thoughts on fight fixing you can check it out here. [...]
Thanks for the kind word appreciate them
Awesome read, I came to your blog via a retweet from Mark Hunt. Just want to also say that I have always enjoyed your fights.
Plus I knew you were a different kind of fighter when you were giving an interview for one of your Pride fights and were admitting that you still had a lot to learn. I’ll always be a fan.
cheers Ben, good of you to say m8 appreciate it
Good to see you write this! Also, and no offence, but the reddit/r/mma board seems to be a little shocked that despite a career of getting punched in the head you write very, very well.
That’s because the Reddit community is a bunch of ‘keyboard warriors’ with nothing to base their opinions on except exaggeration and hyperbole. When your whole life revolves around assumption because you are a self proclaimed expert but have no clue as to what you are actually talking about, it is easy to jump to conclusions and make obnoxious statements while enjoying the comfort of a blanket of anonymity that online forums provide.
Great article Mr. Thompson, keep them coming. I also agree with John C, it would great to get your take on PEDs in MMA. Especially, their proliferation in Japan as compared to the other countries that you have fought in. I am not sure how close you got to other fighters in different organizations, and I am not asking you to assume or perpetuate, known or unknown, myths or rumors. Just your intimate knowledge of just how wide spread you feel that it is.
That’s the way the whole Internet is not worth getting stress over. I’ll defiantly becoming a blog about ped in sport.
Who gives a shit about reddit though?
Nice Read JT. Keep up the great work
Thanks Carlo, I will try m8
Very interesting read. Looking forward to your future articles.
Cheers Jack, good of you to say m8
Another good read!
Thank you for sharing your perspective on those subjects.
No problems m8, glad you enjoted reading it. Thanks for your kind words, very much appreciated
Great read, you should consider doing an “ask me anything” on Reddit sometime. Our MMA board is full of great discussion and I’m sure people would be interested hearing more from you. Keep writing!
Funny enough I have started to get into the whole reddit thing since starting this blog. I enjoy hearing the comments from people on there- good and bad
Hadn’t heard of it before my writing as lived in a dark cave for most of my life. Would happily do a Q &A on there if someone asked or set it up. Thanks for reading the blog Jacob and taking time to comment.
Very interesting read!
It makes a certain amount of sense that Japanese fights are (seem?) more likely to be fixed. In Freakonomics, Levitt shows a lot of statistical evidence for fixing in Sumo. It’s not too big a leap to think that would spill over to Japanese mma.
With the Japanese system it’s rare but much more likely to happen.
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wow you’re absolutely clueless about Takada’s and Tamura’s relationship. I like you and your article but you’re completely out of line on that one James. If y
I’m just saying it how I see it. Maybe I wrong but it looked suspect to me.
I guess I still am the only one that thinks that they Anderson Silva vs Chonan fight was fixed…
Yep think you are m8
If I remember correctly, Coleman actually gave an interview where he admitted that the Takada fight was fixed.
Found the interview from heavy.com
Heavy.com: Was the match with Nobuhiko Takada the low point (Writer’s Note: Coleman allegedly lost the match on purpose to give the Pride star some much needed credibility)?
Mark Coleman: It was what it was. I needed to support my family. They guaranteed me another fight after that and I needed that security. It was what it was. I’m going to leave it at that.
Shoot…forgot the link:
http://www.heavy.com/mma/2010/02/mark-coleman-bottom-line-i-can-still-fight/
I forgot about that m8, thanks for sharing the link as relates well to the blog. Cheers pal
[...] Thompson, who’s been involved in a few shady fight outcomes over the years, talks about fight fixing on his blog: In my own career, no MMA Fight Organisation or promoter has ever asked me to throw a fight. It has [...]
Dig the post James, great to hear the insight on fixes from someone who has been in the biz for awhile and fought for Pride (that is notorious for the rumors of it’s fixed fights)
cheers for reading and getting in touch Justin, glad you like the blog m8
Great blog so far, really some of the best insight on topics fighters who still compete wouldn’t write about (Miragliotta has a slightly higher IQ level than a block of cement) great stuff. After your fight May 6th, I’d like to see you fight Tim Sylvia or rematch Bret Rogers or slaughter Sean McCorckle. And would you even fight Aleksander Emelianenko again, he’s had some shady fights of late. Keep up the blog and Good Luck vs Lashley
thanks for wirting me m8, not sure of what fights will be lined up in future but i’m back training and will be ready whoever is thrown (not literally) at me. Thanks pal
This was a great read, and very candid. I have to admit that I was impressed with the over-all style, tone and accessibility. Aside from the fights you *know* were fixed, how many more would you say you are fairly confident of? Not asking for any names, just a rough idea on how often you think this happens, and if you see any of this in more recent times.
As an aside, I think you get a raw deal more often than any other fighter I’ve ever seen. The Kimbo fight was absolutely atrocious, and it was so obvious that you had worked on your stand-up, and had made some very major improvements. It’s hard to say that a fight should be stopped when the action continues, but you most certainly had him in way more trouble than what ultimately stopped the fight.
One last note, despite anything you may feel about your record, the fans genuinely appreciate to see a fighter who is going out to fight. Ever since the Pride days, your name on a card will always get my attention.
Very kind words which I appreciate a lot thank you.
It’s so hard to say with the fixed fights I can’t but a number on it but I’d say a handful.
They let the fight go and gave Kimbo every chance but when i was in trouble it got stop staight away. Such is life.
Sapp vs Minotauro always looked fixed to me. Sapp brutalizing Nogueira for 15 minutes to just give up like that… it looked fishy.
Sapp did but did you see how big Sapp was he gassed.
Just posted this on IFI and link you back, hopefully it draws alot of attention to you post.
Just spotted this pal, thanks for doing that, appreciate you taking the time to do that. Many thanks
Very well done, JT. I have a question for you, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, especially if it would create complications for you. You talked about how a fight promotion will bring you in against their main man because of your notability in the sport. Bob Sapp seems to be in the same position, but a lot of fans are frustrated with him because he frequently taps out or loses in some other way early in his fights. It looks like he shows up just to get paid sometimes, although he went a little longer with you in India. Regardless, the MMA fandom (and undoubtedly the promoters, too) seems to be in on the joke now. What are your thoughts on this and what do you think of the man?
My thoughts are in the blog m8, as a person think Bob Sapp is a nice bloke, and has some interesting stories to tell, he’s good company as he can keep even the dullest group of people entertained as for as long as they will listen as he can TALK A LOT! What i think of him in mma is what the blog is all about. Cheers m8
great read James! , it was a shocker when you got robbed against Pudz glad you took the mike and had your say.
One question about the kimbo fight you had a Giant cauliflower ear going into that fight did the doctors not try to get you to drain it before the fight? I am not saying I thought the fight was fixed . You were kicking his ass and then he punched your giant ear and blood pissed out and he won?! it seems as though if you had drained your ear before that fight you should/could of won
are you not allowed to drain your ear before a fight or something?
keep up the great work mate
You are and if your sensible you do I did as my trainer said it might get infected. He’s a great trainer who knows a lot about mma but that was a mistake. I remember him saying ” even if he pops it they won’t stop the fight ” doh
[...] value a full read, that you can review here, though among a [...]
Very good reading sir! I think you are very right about the Japaneese scene. There is a very good piece on the same topic in Sumo wrestling in the book Freakonimics. Thanks for making this blog!
Alright Faber, thanks for getting in touch, will check out the book when i get a second. Thanks for kind words m8
I love the fact that you write this blog, and I felt compelled to link it on my site. I think people would really find it cool that a heavyweight bruiser chooses to share his thoughts in this particular format. I mean, you aren’t Sean McCorkle on the Underground just flinging poop at people because you enjoy being a keyboard warrior. You’re someone that clearly cares not only about this sport, but how opinions of this sport are misunderstood. Great to hear it from the horses mouth. Keep it up. I’m a fan.
Thanks m8, good of you to say. If i ever warrior on here then feel free to shoot me. Cheers again pal
Takada/Coleman was a definite work. Coleman’s all but admitted it and Dave Meltzer was one of the guys that worked on the finish. Pride were initially fine with having openly worked bouts, as they were showcasing multiple fighting styles, including shoot-style pro-wrestling (which is where Takada comes in – he was a hugely popular shoot-style pro-wrestler in the UWFI and New Japan). You can add Koji Kitao/Nathan Jones too, which I remember from old Wrestling Observer newsletters. Somewhere along the way, they decided to switch to being a fully-legit fight promotion (at least outwardly), but still had the odd dodgy bout. Pancrase had a few works as well (see Shamrock/Hume for a definite one, as Hume was injured), and RINGS was full of them.
Think your right with all of your comments John.
Wouldn’t disagree with any of those you said John. All sounds feasable, appart from the Coleman fight i’m not aware of the otherones but do remember Nathan Jones was a wrestler. will have a look for the other fights on the net when i get a chance. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment John, appreciate it
Nice blog! I stumbled onto it while looking for evidence of fixing in MMA. More than a couple of UFC fights have looked suspicious to me. e.g. Take Hector Lombard’s lethargic debut at UFC 149 recently. Anyways, I like your insights and will definitely recommend this blog to my friends. Cheers!
That’s good of you cheers. What you’ve have to think about when decide if the fixs is in whos fixing it the org the fighter ? Let’s take the Lombard fight. The UFC would want him to win. I can’t see the fighters decided amongst them self to throw it. The most likely explanation is the nerves got to Lombard and he under preformed.