Despite critics — including UFC president Dana White — calling it one of the worst MMA judging decisions in a long time, “The Ultimate Fighter” season 16 welterweight Michael Hill is convinced he did enough to defeat his arch rival, Matt Secor, on last Friday’s edition of TUF.
Team Roy Nelson’s Hill and Team Shane Carwin’s Secor have been going at it for weeks — to be honest it seems as though Secor’s been hostile with pretty much everyone in the house — and when Hill got the opportunity to pick his fight, he chose to fight Secor.
The Canadian had his reasons for choosing the fight, one which he eventually won via controversial split decision.
Secor got under everyone’s skin. He just isn’t a good guy. I think he literally has a problem. I’m not sure what it’d be under, but he needs help and maybe some medication, Hill told Trevor Dueck and Jeremy Brand on Tuesday’s edition of MMASucka Radio. He called me a douche and he was making fun of my nipple tattoo but next time you look at him, he has a big penis tattooed on his arm and he’s pretty proud of it and not afraid to show it. He was slapping people’s asses. He’s just a douche in the house man, he’s a little pet dog, just barking, ratting on his own teammates, talking about tapping out all these good guys that he’s been doing seminars with — you just don’t do that in our sport. That just shows his true character.
He did get under my skin and it pisses me off to see him chirp my teammates and not fight them. For him to say I was the chicken thief, it was time to call him out and it was time to fight. He didn’t call me out but I called him out. I knew he was a bad style, him a BJJ guy and me a standup guy but I wanted that fight man and I took it. It wasn’t the performance I wanted but when the ref pulled me off him I knew I won. I just hoped the judges did too.
Most observers believe that Hill did enough to win the first round of the bout with his top control, but that Secor took the second with his near-submission attempt on Hill, and the judges did as well, sending the fight to a tie-breaking third round. In the third, sudden-death round, Secor mounted Hill and eventually took his back at one point, but two out of three Nevada Athletic Commission judges scored the third and decisive round in Hill’s favour, meaning he got the decision.
At the end of the day, neither man really did much to entertain the fans, and Hill knows it, although he remains adamant he did enough in the third to win the bout and even explained why he believed the judges gave it to him.
Yeah, I’m totally not happy with my performance. That just wasn’t me man. I was all jacked up minutes before I stepped in the cage. The whole day it wasn’t me. I got the win. That’s all you can say. I know a lot of people that think I shouldn’t have won that but you’ll have to watch it again. I thought I got the first round, Secor got the second, he had the dominant position in the third round but for me I was the guy moving. I had his arm, he wasn’t going for submissions he was just holding me like he didn’t want to stand up. The ref didn’t stand us up because I was the one hitting him, listening to my coaches, moving to get out of position, that’s what stole me that fight, I think, those six or seven big shots to his head. I think the judges thought I deserved it, they heard me listen to my coaches and that’s what won me that round. The defensive part of the game, it wasn’t like Secor damaged me in a dominant position. Like I said man I was on top of him too in the third round for a bit so it could have went either way but like I said I knew I won and I hope everyone else sees it again and sees it the way myself and the judges did.
According to Hill, he was lethargic in the bout for a multitude of reasons, not least of which includes the fact his coach, Nelson, didn’t adequately help him warm up for the bout.
It just wasn’t my day man. From the moment I got in there my coaches were late. Roy, all he could talk about was UFC 151 being cancelled. I had to warm up myself. If you look at the guy wrapping my hands, he did it in five minutes. He asked if I wanted the boxing wrap or the jiu-jitsu wrap and Roy told him to do the boxing wrap. The boxing wrap, it was stiff, no movement. I didn’t have my coach week five in there. I was hungry. I was facing injuries. I let Secor get to me. I let him get inside of my head. I talked too big of a game and once I stepped into that cage it just wasn’t me man.
For Hill, the biggest sense of disappointment is knowing that he put on a performance that the fans didn’t enjoy, and for someone who takes pride in putting on a show, he understands where they’re coming from, although it doesn’t make it any easier.
I am frustrated. Even when I stood up it started stressing me out the moment my hand was raised. I knew this fight would go down in TUF history as one of the worst performances. I just have to forget about it and move on.
If I can take it back I would. They aren’t all going to be pretty.
Still, though, just because it wasn’t a good fight doesn’t mean that Hill, nor his family, deserve the hate mail and harassment they have been getting from some fans, because it wasn’t Hill who scored the fight, it was three NSAC judges.
That’s why Hill wants his fellow Canucks to have his back as he looks to put this match behind him and move into the next round of the grueling TUF tournament on his road to representing Canada proud in the tournament finals.
If you guys want to write me hate mail go ahead but leave my family out of it. A bad performance but I promise better in the future. I’m getting a lot of stuff on Twitter, Facebook, my email address. My little sister will jump on the board and try to back me up and now people got her name and her Facebook and stuff and it’s just whatever. It’s kinda brutal but it’s a sport, celebrity status, that’s what gonna happen, so I just hope that Canadians respect me and have my back.
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