By Michael Owens
Lyoto Machida drinks his own urine. Dennis Hallman wore purple speedos to the Octagon and showed his jewels to the world. THe career of Bob Sapp. The list goes on. After last night’s UFC on Fox event you can add another name to the all-time list of weird, weird goings on.
Cody McKenzie has developed a reputation for eccentricity in his short UFC career. From his patented McKenzietine submission streak to his D’Artagnan-esque facial hair he has certainly stood out from his contemporaries. However, his appearance and behaviour last night elevated his bizarre stature to new heights.
Those watching the prelims last night might have noticed his lonely march to The Octagon, accompanied as he was by just one cornerman. Then, as Bruce Buffer was announcing his name with his usual gusto, he paced in front of… nothing. No banner covered with the names of sponsors as is the tradition and normal procedure with fighters. Furthermore, it was apparent that he was not wearing traditional MMA shorts, but off-the-rack basketball shorts. These had pockets and were definitely not regulation attire.
When the fight started things got even more strange. Referee, Herb Dean, actually stepped in during the fight to remove the price tag from the shorts, suggesting McKenzie had just bought them before strolling to the cage.
Befitting of this incredible nonsense, McKenzie’s performance was far from impressive and he was out struck and out grappled all the way to a unanimous decision loss to Sam Stout.
UFC President Dana White was absolutely incredulous during the post-fight press conference, but attempted to offer some explanation for what had transpired:
“Yeah how did ya like that one? That was fantastic right? What that was was UFC amateur hour,” he said.
“That’s one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen, and it’s even weirder that we let it happen.”
He actually put the blame in the hands of the promotion’s officials, but could offer no explanation as to how this all happened, except for, you guessed it, Cody McKenzie is a bit odd:
“Maybe he was going to fight in his jeans and said ‘well, maybe I should get some shorts. I don’t know. Cody McKenzie’s a strange dude. But it’s not Cody McKenzie’s fault that happened tonight, it’s the UFC’s fault. We’re here for a show on Fox, and it’s pretty damn embarrassing. Pretty embarrassing. I could not be more embarrassed by this. I don’t even know what to say. We’re stupid. I was pissed.”
The UFC’s official twitter account shared a picture that showed the fate of the lightweight’s unorthodox attire
Finally, if all that wasn’t enough, Adam Hill from the Las Vegas Review-Journal tweeted the following information about McKenzie’s post-beatdown behaviour:
“Only got worse for Cody after fight. He downed a couple shots and then had two beers, but kinda spit one up on himself in tunnel below arena … then tried to take beer outside to have a smoke, but wasn’t allowed. Said it was probably for the best as he dribbled blood all over.”
Bizarre.
