Ian McCall Reacts To Controversial Nine-Second Loss In Rizin
There were some big KOs at today’s (Sun., May 6, 2018) Rizin FF 10 from the Marine Messe Fukuoka in Fukuoka, Japan, and the most high-profile one saw former UFC flyweight title contender Ian McCall flattened by Kyoji Horiguchi in a shocking nine seconds.
While the knockout loss had some calling for “Uncle Creepy” to call it a career following a brutal, unfortunate series of events the past few years, McCall himself opened up on the loss in his post-fight interview courtesy of Bruno Massami (via MMA Junkie).
In his opinion, while he was rocked early, he should have been given a chance to fight out of it:
“Well, I got punched real hard, and I got hit,” McCall said. “Big deal. Let me fight. I came here to die, and I think I punched him once. I don’t know. I have to watch it again. It’s really embarrassing, so I don’t know. Truly sad.”
The stoppage did seem to come a bit early, and it’s unknown just how rocked McCall was and if he could have continued fighting intelligently. Admitting Horiguchi’s strength, ‘Uncle Creepy’ reiterated he was still able to compete:
“He’s very strong, but again, I feel it was a very early stoppage,” McCall said. ” … I came here to fight. I came here to fight for at least 15 minutes, and I feel like that was taken from me. Obviously, Horiguchi landed a good shot. He punches hard, but I was OK (to continue).”
An emotional McCall wore the weight of the last few years of seemingly never-ending injuries, missed opportunities, and strange bout cancellations couple with what he perhaps justifiably felt was an early stoppage.
In the hours after the controversial loss, McCall wondered aloud if the sport of MMA had passed him by, and if he truly wanted to continue fighting. If that were the case, he said, it would be a shame because he never got to show the world how good he really was:
“I have to go home and talk to my family and see if I want to do this anymore. I have other opportunities in life, and I’ll be honest: Maybe this sport has passed me by. It’s a lot to think about. And to think it has, it hurts. I never really got to show the world how good I am.”
