10 most notorious street fights in MMA

#8 Cody Gibson, the peaceful warrior?

What separated the old school UFC fighters from the current crop is that almost all of them are, at their core, fighters. To them, a cage or a ring wasn’t a necessity to fight. Backyard, back-alley, bar, everything was fair game.

And then there’s Cody Gibson. The Bantamweight rode a six-fight win streak into the UFC, where he debuted (on short notice) against top 10 135-pounder, Aljamain Sterling. The loss was unsurprising and completely pardonable.

Gibson rebounded by knocking out Johny Bedford but was submitted by a soon-to-retire Manny Gamburyan in his next fight. But the worse was yet to come. After the fight, Gibson was in a bar where a bro started spoiling for a fight. The much-smaller Gibson, who was admittedly tipsy, tried to play down the tension until the guy actually punched him! Gibson retaliated by taking him down until onlookers separated the two.

When asked, Gibson said that showing restraint was his utmost priority at that moment, because he did not want to be imprisoned for assault. Jail time would seriously endanger his employment with the UFC and a California high school, where he is a wrestling coach.

Needless to say, Gibson’s maturity and presence of mind were extraordinary, but we bet that he was secretly hoping that he would run into the guy alone, later. UFC Featherweight Dennis Bermudez commended Gibson’s self-control. Gibson was released from the UFC after his next loss and returned to Tachi Palace Fights, where he recaptured the 135-lbs belt and has scored a successful title defence since.