FF-FilesThe FF-Files: Moissanite, Spurious, Not Genuine
Along the way in our FF-Files odyssey, we have traveled across the globe chronicling fights as they happen, or sometimes, as they don’t happen. Occasionally, the Sherdog Fight Finder staff is treated to a fraudulent submission, wacky response or stunning result. It may be surprising to say that these works of fiction are simply cut out of whole cloth, with no basis in anything whatsoever. These are their nonexistent stories.
As you can tell, there is no photograph for a show-and-tell in this case, as there were not even photoshopped materials willed into existence. In July 2020, during the throes of the coronavirus pandemic, some minor leagues opted to start up again on a small scale. One such organization was Ased Fighting Championship, one of the premier leagues in Azerbaijan. In its infinite wisdom, however, the promotion thought the pandemic was an excuse to sneak something past our keen minds at Fight Finder. Unfortunately for Ased, this entire fight card never actually happened.
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A whole 25 fights were claimed to have taken place on this card, and there was not a photograph or video in sight, including on the very active Ased YouTube and Facebook pages. Likewise, many competitors that were listed as fighting on this card have very active social media presences of their own, including one that has already tried to pull something on us in the past in Mongolia. Some of these fighters are your typical oversharers, posting photographs of dinners or six videos of a single training session and so on, but they mysteriously gave no mention anywhere of a magical event in which they were competing.
In an age where everything is documented—remember, this was not
some secret underground show in 2001 when camera phones did not
exist—and it would be nigh-impossible for 50 fighters to completely
lapse in talking about their bouts, there is but one logical
conclusion: It was a complete fabrication. In a comical follow-up
effort to verify their results, the promotion later submitted four
photographs: one of a cage, another of an empty ring, an old
weigh-in photo too grainy to determine a fighter’s identity and a
hastily crafted poster of the organization’s logo that may have
come from MS Paint. After getting called on it, the link and its
content quietly disappeared, never to be seen again. You done
messed up, A-A-sed.
If you look at this video and see that it is unavailable because it has been removed by the uploader, don’t worry, that was no accident. This was one of multiple videos sent to us about an event from an unknown Afghan organization called New Challenge. The card, surprisingly titled New Challenge 2—as if there had been a first event we had never heard of—supposedly took place on May 28. The Fight Finder team is consistently diligent, and staff members reviewed the tape for each individual match. There was one small problem: The videos were posted as far back as 2020.
How could fights go on in 2021 but proof of their existence was uploaded to YouTube months or even a year before, you ask? There are two schools of thought here. The first is that the matches never happened at all, but by sending in any video from the region, wise minds think that it will pass as verification for the match and be rubber stamped. The other is that these fights may have gone down in the past, but they were sent to the staff to double-dip and either have two bouts count for one or because they were not previously added for some reason. No matter how you slice it, this did not pass muster. If that weren't enough, the organization yanked these matches from its YouTube page, leaving the dead link you see above.
There was a cherry on top of this garbage sundae, of course. Aching to add this fictitious fight night to the Sherdog database, the submitter decided he would hunt down various staff members on other platforms to circumvent our decision. We can’t stress this enough: Leave the Sherdog staff alone with your emails about Fight Finder. Most of these staff members don’t even have access to the Fight Finder system, so all you are doing is bothering them on their days off. Requests are generally handed first-in, first-out, so you will not jump the line by harassing various Sherdog editors offsite. If anything, you may actually find your request pushed towards the end of the queue.
Wrapping up this journey into imagination is an event regarding a legitimate international federation, but the information was not sent in by the federation itself. Typically, this organization runs “cup” style fights, which are amateur-only tournaments that may occasionally sneak in professionals as ringers. When events are held under pro MMA rules, the organizer is relatively clear in pointing this out. The lion’s share of the matches consists of one three-minute round, and certain strikes or moves are prohibited. All of this comes together to form something that does not make the cut. Not to mention, when small children are involved, we’re out. Sherdog Fight Finder holds a blanket policy that fighters need to be at least 16 years of age to take pro MMA matches.
This 2020 event is registered in our database, but there are no matches listed for good reason. It is unfortunate that not all MMA recordkeeping bodies receive the same information from a promoter, but upon speaking to a high-ranking member of the International Federation of Full Contact Fighting, the dispute was quickly cleared up. No pro MMA fights happened that day, and none from this particular tournament will be added. If you flip through the video or even turn it on to see the first two battle-scarred gladiators stride out to the open mat, you will see.
As a bonus, the promoter of this March 2020 event dealt with a troubling incident that day. During the day, a fighter was disqualified for an undisclosed reason. In response, the affiliated coaches and fighters “organized riots with the participation of athletes from their parents and fans, which led to an hour-long stoppage of the competition.” The federation subsequently threw the coaches, their teams and all fighters, family members and associated fans involved out of the event and barred them from any future shows. Sometimes these things happen in full-contact fighting.
As long as your request is grounded in reality and not weaved out of a tapestry of lies, please send all Fight Finder-related inquiries to fightfinder@sherdog.com.
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