Dan Hooker’s birth child.
Backyard Fighting Is Back
Backyard fighting isn’t a new concept. In fact, we’ve seen people become famous from fighting in the backyard, such as Jorge Masvidal and the most famous street fighter, Kimbo Slice. But, UFC’s own Dan Hooker took his own spin on the backyard fighting scene and did something a little different.
Hooker brought 32 men into his backyard to fight in a one minute fight tournament. The winner would walk away with $50,000, but everyone got $1,000 for fighting, win or lose. Oh yeah, and they’re all super-heavyweights! So, of course I watched and of course we have to review it, right?
First things first, there is a disclaimer in the video and I’ll reiterate here: please don’t try this at home. This event was under super vision of medical professionals with professional fighters and trained athletes in a controlled area with real judges and referees at the helm. Again, don’t try this at home.
The 55 minute video kicked things off with the rules; you must punch with closed fists, no open hand strikes. No hammer fists, no eye pokes, no tackling, no excessive clinching. If you drop your opponent, no follow up shots, you must back up. If you are knocked down, you get a three second count. If you can get back up to your feet within the three seconds, you can continue. If an opponent takes a knee, and you strike them while on the ground, you may be disqualified. Each fight will last one minute and if the one minute is exceeded, judges will decide a winner. Now, let’s fight.
They began with a prayer, which was a nice touch, in hopes that no one gets seriously injured. Each fighter had MMA style gloves and had vaseline applied to their face similar to a pro-fight. There was no high production or editing here. No names were said for bouts, but shit got real when the first fight came to an end in about five seconds via TKO after the losing fighter was dropped face first in the grass of Dan Hooker’s backyard and the referee stepped in immediately.
An aspect I think all fight fans can appreciate is that once a fight ended, another one began. But, that praise also needs to go to the editor. No fluff, all fights. The second fight was on the whole opposite end from the first. This one went the full minute and a winner was decided by the judges. One fighter was knocked down twice, while the other was knocked down once. The man knocked down once got the judges nod. The only issue here is that they weren’t saying names, so I can’t specifically tell you who won each fight. Maybe that’s something they can edit in for the next event, if there is one.
Each first round fight gave us a good feel of what to expect with a wide variety of finishes. One man even had the fight stopped after throwing a punch and seemingly tearing his bicep. The referee stepped in right away and stopped the bout before he took any more damage. From previous Dan Hooker comments on a recent interview with The Ariel Helwani Show, this was the most serious injury from the event. We hope the fighter gets well soon!
Round one of the tournament lasted around 20 minutes. Not bad for 16 fights. We saw some big men, ranging from tall, wide and some were even both. But, one thing is for sure, they were throwing heavy leather because every single one of them wanted that $50,000!
One fighter was interviewed after round one. He was asked about the one minute rounds, to which he said “You think one minutes not long enough, but fuck, when you go out there and throw some heavy hands, fuck, it feels like forever!”
Dan Hooker then made an announcement that some winners had slight injuries (one threw out his shoulder), so, four losers will fight each other to get back into the second round. Two will ultimately advance to the round of 8 fights, similar to a losers bracket.
The four losers then fought, which they called the “Wild Card Round”. One fight went the distance, while the other ended in very quick fashion after a TKO via body shot. Brutal! Round two then began immediately after, and it kicked off with two behemoths, which ended in a TKO within the last ten seconds of the fight.
Overall, the second round was just as fun as the first. Dudes being guys. Big boys throwing hands. From decisions to TKO’s, fights are fights and they were all swinging. Well, except for one fight that neither man barely threw anything, while the savage crowd screamed for someone to throw their hands. That one went to a decision. Other than that, bombs were unloaded.
We got another fighter interview following the round, where the interviewee spoke about the period of waiting between the rounds, to which he said “it’s not too bad.” He said he felt good, his cardio felt good, and the end is in sight, now. When asked about his game plan, he said “be aggressive, patient, because they usually swing without thinking what’s coming up, you know? Then wait for that and counter. Tuck the chin, keep the hands up!”
Dan Hooker let everyone know who was next and now, the quarterfinals are up. The first matchup ended in a buzzer-beater TKO where the losing man dropped face first in the dirt, which had the crowd going wild! Dan Hooker then had a quick PSA for the fans in attendance to please not post any videos until the series is out, in order to not spoil the winner. That’s much appreciated, and as someone who’s followed this since it was announced, I’ve not seen any spoilers. So, his PSA worked.
One of the fights in the middle of the quarterfinals went to a decision, but we didn’t see at that moment who the judges chose to win, which wasn’t ideal, but we did see who advanced when the next round began, of course. The quarterfinals were a good time, and the final fight in that round saw another buzzer-beater TKO, which is always entertaining.
Dan Hooker pulled names out of a hat for the semi-final matchups in between rounds. With fights being only a minute long, the semi-finals went fast. A man by the name of “Wild Boy” advanced to the finals and would battle the other semi-final winner, a man named “Tumanako”, which I hope I spelled correctly, but I probably did not. Apologies. Can we get nameplates next time, Dan?!
Funny enough, the two finalists were two of the smaller and shorter guys in the tournament. But, I say “smaller” in comparison to the other opponents. These two were not tiny. They did give the finalists a small break since the semi-finals went by quick, which is good. Right before the fight began, Hooker re-iterated that this is indeed for $50,000. Whoever wins this fight, gets the money.
Once the two men started throwing, it was all action for all 21 seconds that it lasted. Twenty-one seconds is all it took for a winner to be crowned and a man to walk away $50,000 richer. Appropriately, the man they call Wild Boy got the win and walked away with the prize money. And, of course he did! You’ve got to be a wild boy to step into a backyard and fist fight giant super heavyweights like this. Now, I think this man has the most worthy nickname of all time. Congratulations, Wild Boy!
Wild Boy was interviewed following his win, where he said he had the confidence to push the pace and win the money.
UFC’s very own and now fight organizer, Dan Hooker, gave some final words. “There’s plenty more, there’s a lot of money. I want to get the boys paid. There’s a lot of money on the line, I want to give it to the boys. Thanks for coming! The cops have been over here and they’ve been knocking on my door and shit, cause they think we’re going to act like *explicit* but, they don’t understand that it’s the knuckle game and it’s nothing but respect here, yeah? Everyone won, everyone had a good time. Chill out, you can drink, but not here! We’ll just start taking guys in the vans and getting them back. Thank you guys!”
Overall, the event was absolutely insane. Gritty, raw, real, whatever you’d want to explain it as. Some may even say things like “dumb.” But, the men are all getting paid, everyone was respectful win or lose, and Hooker also mentioned previously that everyone was ran through concussion protocols following the event. As a fight fan, this was fun to watch. I’d greatly look forward to watching some big boys toss hands in a yard for cash once again. So, I give Dan Hooker, The Mac Life and Dr. Social two thumbs up. We look forward to more! My only gripe is to please get nameplates edited in next time if possible, because seeing their names would’ve helped me out a lot here!
You can check out the full event on The Mac Life YouTube channel, which is embedded below.
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