(Ivey scoffs at your ironic tattoos, hipster.)
By CagePotato contributor Seth "Lysol" Falvo
Let’s pretend you were in Lafayette, Louisiana last night. Let’s also pretend that you were not at a bar that was showing UFC 120. Odds are that you, like me, were at City Bar at some point. Odds also are that you knew that Ken Shamrock was in town to fight Johnathan Ivey, a 29-42 fighter who has lost to everyone he’s fought that you’ve actually heard of. Fortunately, having a friend who works at the Cajun Dome means not having to sit through it to know how it ends. Unfortunately, writing an article about the fight means actually watching it on Youtube.
Let’s start by pointing out the obvious: Ken Shamrock, as evident by his leg kick submission to Pedro Rizzo in his last outing, is doing just enough to get paid anymore. And I can’t say I blame him. Fighting to pay court fees for your old boss is slightly more motivating than “Because my ex-wife’s boyfriend needs money for an engagement ring” and slightly less motivating than “Because the Cajuns aren’t in town this weekend”. Furthermore, Shamrock weighed in at only 209 pounds for his fight against Ivey. Draw your own conclusions.
As for the actual fight, you missed even less than you thought you did. In a fight that never went to the ground, Ivey managed to hang right with Shamrock, even knocking him down at the end of the second round. Granted, Shamrock wasn’t exactly trying to finish Ivey, but still. However, Ivey was poked in the eye in the third round and never fully recovered, allowing Shamrock to take the unanimous decision victory.
You could almost compare this fight to Cro Cop vs. Pat Barry, in that both fights were essentially sparring sessions with slightly disinterested legends winning against younger opponents. Of course, that comparison is still somewhat unfair. As unmotivated as Cro Cop has looked recently, he would still kick Shamrock’s head into orbit. And if Johnathan Ivey attacked Pat Barry in his sleep, Barry wouldn’t even need to wake up to knock him out.
If, for whatever reason, you want to watch the first round, there’s a video here, where the poster of the video mistakenly refers to Ivey as Butterbean.
You can follow Seth on Twitter here.
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Regardless of how many losses he’s had, you gotta admire Ivey for how many fights he’s been in. Plus, there are a lot of guys out there, like Fedor,who pride themselves a little too much about their records. But then there’s a guy like Ivey, who just loves to fight, no matter what the outcome. That’s what being a badass is all about!