An MMA Thanksgiving: 2016 All-Turkey Team

Alex Nicholson

Diversity, both in terms of a fighter’s style as well as his or her nationality, is one of the things that makes mixed martial arts so great.

For mocking fellow fighter Hyun Gyu Lim, Nicholson gets a spot on Sherdog.com’s 2016 All-Turkey Team. The UFC middleweight was working the corner of teammate Mike Perry against Lim at UFC 202. Perry won the fight via first-round TKO, knocking down his South Korean opponent three times in the process. The afterglow of Perry’s Octagon debut was marred, however, when audio of Nicholson surfaced after the fight.

“He can’t even open his [expletive] eyes,” Nicholson said.

In case there was any confusion as to whether Nicholson’s comment might have been in reference to Perry’s TKO win and not Lim’s physical appearance, a glance at Nicholson’s Facebook timeline, where he called Lim “dung him Kong Jung foo,” removed all doubt. The remarks were enough to draw the UFC’s attention, and Nicholson was issued a warning that a similar instance in the future could result in a suspension or termination. “The Spartan” then issued a half-hearted apology, claiming that his excitement for Perry’s performance was “all love no hate.”

Perry defended his teammate during an appearance on ”The MMA Hour” but might have actually done more harm than good in terms of changing public perception. “I don’t think any of my competition can see me, and when I hit Lim, I opened a lot of people’s eyes,” Perry said when asked about Nicholson’s remarks, which came before the TKO victory.

Meanwhile, BloodyElbow.com did a more thorough review of both Nicholson’s and Perry’s past social media posts and found repeated use of the word “n---a” from both men. If that was not enough, Nicholson was arrested in May on a domestic violence charge, although he was cleared of any wrongdoing by the UFC in a subsequent internal investigation.

Eye opening, indeed.

Continue Reading » Kiss We Could Have Missed