"School of Michelle Waterson" - Fans make fun of Ricky Turcios "punching air" at UFC Vegas 58

Ricky Turcios (L) and Michelle Waterson (R) (via @rickyturcios and @karatehottiemma on Instagram)
Ricky Turcios (L) and Michelle Waterson (R) (via @rickyturcios and @karatehottiemma on Instagram)

Ricky Turcios recently lost a lopsided decision against Aiemann Zahabi at UFC Vegas 58. The TUF alum went into the history books for his poor striking numbers, landing only 27 of 235 attempted significant strikes. Turcios landed 11.5 percent of his significant strike attempts, the fourth-lowest single-fight rate in UFC history among bouts with at least 150 strike attempts.

Turcios' poor performance incited hilarious reactions from fans on social media. Fans couldn't stop comparing him to UFC strawweight Michelle Waterson, who is notorious for her elaborate feints. A user named @MMAWretch wrote:

"Ricky Turcios firing off devastating elbow feints developed by the school of Michelle Waterson"

Michelle Waterson hails from a karate background which gives her a rangy kickboxing style. 'The Karate Hottie' has, however, faced immense criticism for 'punching air' more often than not.

Turcios came out with a frantic pace against Zahabi, who appeared to be the more composed fighter. The Canadian managed to land 54 out of his 105 attempted strikes to earn his second consecutive win.

Turcios dropped his first shot at a UFC contract back in 2017, losing to Boston Salmon at DWCS. He defeated Brady Hiestand to become the TUF 29 winner at bantamweight last year, finally earning his UFC contract.


Georges St-Pierre's advice to Aiemann Zahabi ahead of the Ricky Turcios fight

Aiemann Zahabi is the brother of Firas Zahabi, long-time coach to the legendary Georges St-Pierre at the Tristar Gym in Canada. 'GSP' had a piece of advice for Zahabi ahead of the latter's UFC Vegas 58 clash against Ricky Turcios.

According to Zahabi, the former welterweight king asked him to be his own self instead of trying to do anything 'extra'. The Canadian bantamweight explained during the post-fight presser:

"You know what’s funny? It was something that Deion Sanders said in an interview recently, and Georges told me basically the exact same thing. Deion Sanders says if you’re out there trying to prove you’re the man, you’re not the man. The man who is the man is just the man being himself. Today, when I saw Georges, he told me, ‘Don’t try to do anything extra today. You are who you are. You’re going to win being who you are. Just go out there and be you.'”

Watch Zahabi's appearance at the post-fight scrum below:

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