MMA’s ‘biggest mismatch’ stopped by ref in first round

Evolution of Combat MMA has since responded to MMA's 'biggest mismatch'

Craig Wood, 21, was competing in the Evolution of Combat 9 event in Glasgow when he was paired against Aron Leo - who is currently ranked as 81st of 365 fighters in the amateur Welterweight category.

While the match itself happened in September 2021, a photo shared on Twitter had the MMA community debating how the fight even came to be.

Despite only being 15 minutes into the fight, the 21-year-old was beaten pretty badly.

MMA writer Harry Williams questioned why the match even happened, tweeting: "Can we please find out who allowed this fight to go ahead? I know there's journeymen, but there's a line, surely."

Someone who attended the fight shared video footage from the initial 15 seconds that saw Wood beaten to the ground before the ref steps in.

To add to the confusion, Wood was also introduced at Craig Knight before the fight.

Explaining the error on Twitter, the fighter wrote: "I asked them to change name to mine but because I filled in for another journeyman within the couple hours of fight they couldn't."

With countless comments questioning Wood's physique, the fighter himself said: "I'll let ya in on something, I'm in a lot better shape than I look."

While Wood certainly held his own on Twitter, many questioned why the fight was even permitted to begin with.

In response, a spokesperson for Evolution of Combat MMA said: "We strive to try and match as evenly matched bouts as possible, as some great encounters have proved on 10 different EoC shows."

They added that the match-up only occurred due to multiple pull outs, adding that "sometimes using journeymen is the only way a show can still go ahead and we are grateful to them for that as many other promotions are".

They admitted that while last minute, they would not make the decision again. However, they did note that the "two consenting men chose to step into the octagon to compete and both walked out healthy."

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