Megan Anderson
Invicta FC featherweight champion Megan Anderson kicked off Wednesday’s UFC 225 open workouts inside the Chicago Theatre in front of a small but engaged crowd. It was the Australian’s first time doing a UFC open workout and the first time that the greater public got to see her move around and work in a year and a half, since her January, 2017 TKO win over Charmaine Tweet.
The young warrior seemed to have fun onstage with her coach and UFC lightweight James Krause, working striking combinations on the feet, throwing punches, kicks, and knees at all levels, using natural stance changes by shifting off of punches. On the ground, Anderson worked knee weaves and wrist control paired with ground strikes to set up head and arm chokes.
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While speaking with media afterward, the Gold Coast native dismissed so-called ring rust as a concept, citing former bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz who made a triumphant return to competition after repeated and much longer layoffs than Anderson now faces. The fighter also categorically dismissed the types of insulting characterizations of women’s MMA talent pool depth, specifically of the featherweight division, that people like UFC president Dana White have long advanced as bulls***.
Colby Covington
The American Top Team welterweight walked out from stage left to a wave of boos from the Chicago fans in attendance. The boos and ensuing taunts and insults sounded sincere, wounded, and hurled as if in hopes to rattle the contender after months of his publicly insulting anyone and anything he could think of.
Covington smiled through it then showed off spinning strikes and big slams with his coach Mike Brown. Afterward, he insulted the city of Chicago and several of its cultural institutions.
CM Punk
If it wasn’t clear during Phil ‘CM Punk’ Brooks’ time onstage that many of the fans in attendance were there specifically to see him, it became abundantly so when scores of them left the venue immediately after his time was up. Their interest wasn’t in the forthcoming former world champions like Holly Holm and Rafael Dos Anjos but instead in the former professional wrestling superstar turned rushed MMA novice who fights for just the second time this Saturday against Mike Jackson.
Brooks, like Yoel Romero did before him that afternoon, turned his open workout time instead into a question and answer/autograph signing session with fans. For those interested in seeing how Brooks moves in advance of his long-awaited second fight, it was a disappointment.
For technique heads, the ideal situation would have been to have both Brooks and Jackson actually move around, hit pads and grapple with their coaches a bit to compare the fluidity and ease of their respective movement to get some insight as to how they might look in their upcoming fight. Instead, Jackson was left out of the event and Brooks instead held court in his typically warm and humorous but blunt manner, legitimately entertaining and engaging fans.
He told the audience that he has more fights on his UFC contract after this next one and that he isn’t interested in stopping competition so soon after just starting it; it occurred to me that the UFC might be well served to keep him on as a goodwill ambassador in the future, however the rest of his new fight career goes.
After his question and answer session, Brooks told the assembled media that part of the reason he didn’t work out in front of the fans was scheduling (he already had other sessions planned in private with his team) and part was psychological.
It’s a scheduling thing, and it’s an anxiety thing. I’ve got severe anxiety,” he admitted. “I’m comfortable in the gym, obviously, I just don’t like people…like, if I was training and someone walked in and started watching I wouldn’t know and I’d be fine with it. It’s whatever. But, as weird as it sounds, I’ll be fine fighting but it’s just the training. I don’t know, I’ve got, I’m like a weirdo.”
It’s just different. I have anxiety.”
About the author:
Elias Cepeda is a host of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Rounds Podcast, a staff writer at FloCombat, and has a regular column for The UG Blog.
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