‘Uncle Creepy’ Ian McCall Just Can’t Get a Break… He’s Just Been Knocked Out in 9 Seconds by Kyoji Horiguchi…
There was a time when Ian McCall was one of the most interesting fighters in the UFC. The man they call ‘Uncle Creepy’ has a unique personality and always made for entertainment, as much for his interviews as for his performances in the octagon.
It’s just not working out for him these days. After a wretched run of injuries and bad luck, McCall left the UFC after losing to John Linekar in 2015. After a hiatus that lasted for almost two years, he joined Japanese promotion RIZIN, losing his first fight to Manel Kape.
The pressure was on for a memorable performance against RIZIN stalwart and potential Asian superstar Kyoji Horiguchi. Well, it certainly was memorable. With the fight only lasting for a mere 9 seconds, McCall is going to have a hard time forgetting it.
Dark Past
‘Uncle Creepy’ hails from Costa Mesa, California. As a youngster, he was always getting into fights and was a member of a gang called Lords of South County. Basically, they weren’t nice people and would start fights on individuals which ended with the whole crew ganging up on one person.
After getting his life back on track, and having a decent background in Kung Fu and BJJ, McCall entered the world of competitive mixed martial arts. Arguably his career highlight to date was beating Brad Pickett on the main card of Conor McGregor vs Diego Brandao in Dublin, way back in 2014.
Since then he’s had a whole bunch of injuries and three straight losses. Possibly the unluckiest man in MMA, his defeat to Kape came after a cut on his forehead was opened by the actual ring ropes. He just can’t get a break.
9 Seconds
This terrible run of misfortune continued today when Horiguchi dropped him in 9 seconds, in today’s RIZIN FF 10 headliner. It was reminiscent of Conor McGregor’s victory over Jose Aldo. McCall came forward aggressively and all it took was one punch to end the fight.
Horiguchi is one of the most exciting fighters in Japanese MMA today. He holds a record of the 24-2, with one of those defeats coming to the seemingly-invincible Demetrious Johnson, way back in 2015. Despite riding a three-fight win streak after that loss, he left the UFC to join RIZIN in 2017, and become a major star in his home nation.
WOW #RIZIN10 pic.twitter.com/Q5StvGr3O9
— FITE (@FiteTV) May 6, 2018
What’s Next?
In one of the saddest interviews in the history of MMA, McCall appeared to have given up all hope of kickstarting his career in combat sports. He said in the post-fight interview:
“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.”
It’s unfortunate because there is no doubt that he has the natural talent to hang out with the best bantamweight fighters in the world. He’s just been hugely unlucky. Meanwhile, Horiguchi extends his win streak to nine in a row. It’s not inconceivable that a move back to the UFC or to ONE is in his near future.
