This has to go down as one of the most heartwarming things to ever happen in an MMA cage.
Colosseum Combat 45’s main event featured two heavyweights with over 400 fights between them. This Indiana promotion seems to get it. Having two massive dudes throwing bungalows is the only way a local promotion should be ending their night. Throw Chris Lytle on the call, and sometimes magic is just bound to happen. And on this night it did.
First, Colosseum Combat’s Heavyweight Champion Jonathan Ivey is the most MMA person you’ve ever seen. His impressive body of tattoo work alone makes him a first ballot entry in the MiddleEasy Hall of Fame. The very sight of him invokes a certain era of cage fighting that you’d think is extinct if you only watch the UFC’s weekly sanitized product. Jonathan Ivey is a small piece of MMA’s badly tattooed soul. This is a man who’s fought in a bar parking and is not ashamed.
Fighting Solves Everything pic.twitter.com/pbOcuIe1On
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) July 1, 2018
Of course, a man with a 41-56 record and that set of tats (not to mention a regional MMA title belt) gives no shits, and after watching him just enter the cage, you get the impression he is willing to do nearly anything in the cage. And of course, tonight he does just that, setting up a knockdown of Travis Fulton by seeming to fake a body injury and/or heart attack. It’s definitely hilarious.
No idea what happened afterwards but this was awesome. pic.twitter.com/OzoQ2e3hmq
— Jonnyboy (@JBNeverDies) July 1, 2018
To appreciate the rest of the finishing sequence, I’ve cued up video of the entire fight card to right before the faked heart attack / liver shot. What follows is nothing short of pure magic.
To stop fighting because you feel like you’ve delivered enough damage to your opponent (who also happens to be your idol) is damn near poetic. Add to the mix that Jonathan Ivey has a tattoo of Travis Fulton, and this seems like the open scene to some kind of buddy cop movie. Can we convince someone to put together a budget for that? If one thing this whole incident makes clear, it’s that we need to hear and see more from Jonathan Ivey.
