The entire MMA community was shocked when it was revealed that a promotion Evolution of Combat featured a fight between Aron Leo and Connor Knight. The startling difference in physique alone was more than enough for most spectators to condemn the mismatch.
The fight was no different – Knight got floored rather fast and Leo got on top of him and rained ground and pound. This convinced the referee and he halted the fight.
Both fights were less than 15 seconds. From what I understand EoC really struggled to get matchups for this card and we’re scrambling last minute. pic.twitter.com/1UGi16sWAt
— CutTag (@CutTag) January 7, 2022
The video footage emerged online on Twitter and has left many MMA fans baffled. MMA journalist Harry Williams gave his thoughts about the unfair fight.
“Can we please find out who allowed this fight to go ahead? I know there’s journeymen, but there’s a line, surely.” Williams wrote.
Can we please find out who allowed this fight to go ahead? I know there’s journeymen, but there’s a line, surely. ? pic.twitter.com/hiy1EI1Ue2
— Harry Williams (@Harry_Williams) January 7, 2022
Conor McGregor’s former sparring partner Artem Lobov also weighed in on the bout.
Tapology have started to remove padded record fights, which is a great idea! @tapology
— Artem Lobov (@RusHammerMMA) January 7, 2022
Now a promoter from Evolution of Combat is answering for the backlash. A spokesperson for EoC told sportbible: “We are aware of the footage and the one image doing the rounds of a particular fight on EoC9.
“We wanted to put out a statement to make people aware that this match up does not represent the values of EoC.”
“We strive to try and match as evenly matched bouts as possible, as some great encounters have proved on 10 different EoC shows.”
“This particular show had many last minute pull outs. We also had staff shortages. Sometimes using journey men is the only way a show can still go ahead and we are grateful to them for that as many other promotions are. This particular last minute replacement was pulled in with less than 24hrs notice, the name used on all run sheets etc was the one given to EOC the evening before. This ensured the Icelandic amateur could still make a showing.”
“We as a promotion regret that this matchup happened with such a size discrepancy and looking back would not make the same decision. We can however say that two consenting men chose to step into the octagon to compete and both walked out healthy.”
“Since this event we have ran another event with a different outlook and look to ensure we keep good standards 100% of the time from now on.”