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In the sport of MMA, athletes are given a specific amount of time to prepare for a fight. They need to establish a good gameplan and get in the best shape to win a contest. In an ideal world, an MMA camp should last months before a fighter is ready to perform inside the cage. There are times, however, when athletes choose to take fights on short notice and cut their preparation time extremely short.
Short notice fights in MMA are high-risk, high-rewards situations that some fighters take advantage of for a myriad of reasons. There's an obvious risk of a higher possibility of loss because preparation time is shortened. The rewards, however, could skyrocket an athlete to superstardom, not to mention the fact that short notice fights tend to have higher purses.
At UFC Fight Night 202, UFC lightweight 'King' Bobby Green is finally doing his first-ever main event after nearly a decade in the company. How did he do it? He stepped in on two-weeks' notice to replace Beneil Dariush against rising star Islam Makhachev. The likelihood of losing this fight is through the roof as Makachev is heralded by many as a future lightweight champion.
If Green beats him, however, it would most likely be one of the biggest upsets in the history of the UFC lightweight division. Green isn't even in the top 15 and he's facing an heir apparent to the throne. People are already talking about 'King' more than any of his fights in the past.
This is what we were talking about when we mentioned the "high-reward" nature of short notice fights. Even just taking one can put you into relevancy. Today, we look back at 5 of the most memorable short-notice fights that paid off big time and sent fighters to legendary MMA status.
#5. Daniel Cormier propelled himself into MMA stardom on a short notice fight
Former UFC double champ and future Hall of Famer Daniel 'DC' Cormier was an undefeated heavyweight in Strikeforce back in 2011. As a former Olympic wrestling team member, 'DC' was pegged as another wrestling heavyweight trying his luck in MMA. No one saw his true potential for greatness until he took a short-notice fight against Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva.
Cormier was not chosen to partake in 2011's Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix due to inexperience. After Alistair Overeem was forced out of the tournament, 'DC' stepped in on just 5 weeks' notice to face 'Bigfoot'.
Silva was piping hot at the time after finishing the legend himself, 'The Last Emperor' Fedor Emelianenko. Pundits were predicting that Cormier, the wrestling champion, would utilize his grappling to win. Instead, 'DC' attacked Silva in the striking department, showing amazing kickboxing that became his calling card throughout his career.
The UFC great eventually knocked out Silva with just a minute left in the first round, launching one of the greatest career runs the sport has ever seen.
#4. Michael Bisping finally reaches the top of the mountain
One of the biggest criticisms of UFC Hall of Famer Michael 'The Count' Bisping's decade-long UFC career is that he never seemed to get over the hump. Despite being in the top ten for a very long time, Bisping never got a title shot. It seemed like every time 'The Count' strung together a couple of wins, he lost to the next top guy.
He'd lose to the guy that could have brought him straight to title contention such as Rashad Evans, Dan Henderson, Chael Sonnen and Luke Rockhold. In 2016, the England-native was nearing gatekeeper status. It wasn't until 10 years and 26 fights into his UFC career that Bisping finally got over the proverbial hump.
With his monumental win over former middleweight champion and MMA GOAT-contender Anderson 'The Spider' Silva, Bisping finally beat the guy. As luck would have it, however, life threw another curveball at 'The Count'. With former middleweight champion Chris Weidman pulling out of his title rematch with then-champion Luke Rockhold, Bisping got his shot. The catch, though, was that it was on 17-days' notice.
Nonetheless, at UFC 199, against a man who had already beaten him, Bisping made all Brits proud by introducing 'Left Hook Larry'. After connecting with the now-famous left hook on Rockhold's jaw, Bisping finished the night with subsequent strikes on the ground. It was one of the most heart-warming moments in MMA history. The man's 10-year journey culminating in a fight he took on little over two weeks only adds to the drama of it all.
Watch Bisping talk about his win in this clip from Joe Rogan's podcast:
#3. Seth Petruzelli single-handedly put EliteXC out of business
When we said "single-handedly", we meant quite literally. The relatively unknown Seth Petruzelli's short right hand that dropped EliteXC's top star, the late-great Kimbo Slice, will forever be etched in MMA lore. It started a chain of events that led to the eventual closing of EliteXC.
To make things even crazier, Seth took the fight on less than a day's notice. Yes, you read that right. Less than 24 hours against one of the hottest prospects in MMA at the time. It doesn't get more short notice than that.
When Kimbo's original opponent, UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock, pulled out after suffering a cut over his eye during pre-fight practice, Petruzelli got a call to step in. Getting promoted from the prelims, Petruzelli was outweighed by more than 20 pounds and was seen as a sacrificial lamb to one of the biggest stars in the company.
In a fight that mirrored the swiftness of how it was put together, Petruzelli KO'd Slice in just 14 seconds. In the fallout, Petruzelli spoke on a morning radio show called Monsters in Orlando, shedding light on a possible underhanded manipulation by the company:
"The promoters kinda hinted to me and they gave me the money to stand and throw with him, they didn't want me to take him down. Let's just put it that way. It was worth my while to try and stand up and punch him."
While Petruzelli later recanted the statement, it sparked an investigation by the Florida State Athletic Commission into possible shady practices by EliteXC. With such heat putting pressure on the company and other speculated financial difficulties, the LA-based fight league closed its doors for good.
It all started with Petruzelli's now-infamous right hand. MMA is a crazy sport sometimes.
#2. Reinier de Ridder becomes a double champ on less than a week's notice
Over in Asia's biggest fight organization, ONE Championship, we've seen the rise of one of the best MMA fighters today, 'The Dutch Knight' Reinier de Ridder. The undefeated grappling phenom is the only double champ in any major MMA organization right now. After his dominant dismantling of Kiamrian Abbasov at ONE: Full Circle, de Ridder might be on the verge of becoming MMA's first-ever triple champ.
Before he became champ-champ and the modern-day legend that he is now, de Ridder did something more difficult than winning a second belt. He did it on less than a week's notice. Who he did it to also makes the feat even more incredible.
'The Dutch Knight' beat arguably the face of the organization at the time, then-double champ Aung La N Sang. After taking the Burmese MMA legend's middleweight belt, de Ridder snatched the man's second belt just a few months later.
After Aung La's original challenger, Vitaly Bigdash, tested positive for COVID-19, de Ridder came in at the last minute. With most people still seeing his first win as a fluke, de Ridder silenced all critics in one of the most lopsided wins over a champion ever.
Watch de Ridder's 5-round decimation of Aung La here:
#1. "I'm not surprised, motherf****rs"
These might be the greatest words ever said in a post-fight interview. What makes these words so iconic is the fact that they came after the greatest short-notice win in MMA history. Without a doubt, no one's achieved a career glow-up in winning a fight on short notice quite like Nate Diaz. In March 2016, Diaz shocked the world by demolishing the biggest star the sport has ever seen, Conor McGregor.
McGregor was basically an MMA god in 2016 after starching the dominant featherweight champion Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds to win the belt. 'The Notorious' had his sights set on then-lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, with the aspiration of becoming a double champ.
With just 11 days left before the fight, dos Anjos had to withdraw due to a foot injury. The UFC then had to turn to the man who initially called out McGregor in a now-infamous post-fight call out:
The lead-up to the bout, despite having just 11 days, was one of the most entertaining and iconic in MMA history. Pretty much everyone was expecting the 19-2 featherweight champion to steamroll the 18-10 Stockton native. Instead, we saw Diaz submitting the gassed out McGregor in the second round of a crazy, bloody, back-and-forth classic. After the win, Diaz became a household name and one of the biggest pay-per-view draws the sport has ever seen.
