Friday, May 4, 2012

We gonna fight or we gonna flip? Brimage-Blanco fight ends with gymnastics

Editor's note: Jay Busbee is cageside for Cagewriter in Atlanta. Follow him on Twitter.

ATLANTA -If you're an MMA fighter, there's a right way and a wrong way to show exactly how athletic you are. Marcus Brimage and Maximo Blanco chose the wrong way.

Brimage and Blanco opened UFC 145 with a largely drama-free opening bout, 15 minutes in which the fighters logged more miles walked than punches landed. Brimage had trouble getting Blanco to the floor, and Blanco didn't stay down long once he got there. But between the final horn and the judges' verdict ? split decision in favor of Brimage ? the fighters began a curious little display that might not have had the effect they wanted.

[ Related: Travis Browne and Matt Brown highlight UFC 145 prelim card ]

As the horn sounded, Blanco raised his arms in a self-declared victory. With his crew filing into the ring, Brimage shook his head in disgust. And then Blanco ripped a page from the playbook of NASCAR driver Carl Edwards, who backflips off his car after every victory.

Blanco unleashed an array of back tucks, back handsprings and round-offs, and Brimage, with an "anything you can do, I can do better" smirk, matched Blanco's every move. It was a pretty damn impressive display of athleticism, except for the fact that the crowd had come here to see fighting, not synchronized tumbling. The boos rained down from an already-full Philips Arena; the crowd would have to wait another bout for its blood.

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