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MMA

08th Jul 2018

UFC fighter had a very good reason for awkward confrontation with cornerman after victory

Joe Rogan was really caught off guard

Ben Kiely

How Emily Whitmire reacted to her first win inside the Octagon at UFC 226 caught a lot of people off guard.

In UFC 226’s curtain-jerker, Emily Whitmire scored a unanimous decision victory over Jamie Moyle. After the result was made official, Whitmire did something few people were expecting.

As soon as her hand was raised, she marched over to one of her opponent’s cornerman, UFC veteran Vinny Magalhaes.

“Fuck you, Vinny. You’re a piece of shit.”

Joe Rogan had a wry smile washed across his face as he referenced how Whitmore got ‘a little excited’ prior to the interview. Whitmire explained her decision to confront her adversary’s cornerman to the UFC colour commentator.

“He’s supposed to be my teammate. He said he wasn’t cornering against me again to me like five times and then today I showed up and saw him getting off the bus. He didn’t message me or anything, so he can go fuck himself.”

https://twitter.com/alex_scaffidi/status/1015741132792201217

Doubling down

Backstage Whitmire went into further detail. Apparently, she wasn’t the only person at the gym who Magalhaes made that promise to (quotes via Fansided MMA).

“Vinny is one of my teammates. I talk to Vinny a lot in the gym. He’s one of my coaches in the Ultimate Fighter and he had told me multiple times that he didn’t want to corner against me after he cornered against me with Roxanne (Modafferi). He told me like four times he wasn’t going to corner against me with Jamie because Jamie had asked him to corner.”

“And, he told Eric Nicksick, one of my main coaches and one of his main cornermen that he wasn’t going to corner against me. None of us knew until we showed up and saw him getting off the bus. So, I just thought it was a real shady move from him.”

“Is that Vinny?”

What really ticked Whitmire off was the lack of communication. Had Magalhaes just told her his plans to corner her opponent, she could have handled her training camp a little differently.

“Obviously he knew. If he would have shot us a message, obviously I wouldn’t have cared as much. But the fact that I showed up and saw him getting off the bus and was like, ‘Is that Vinny?’ And then it was! I just think it was a dick move. You’re there during all my hard sparring, you’re there during my training, you obviously know my game plan. How are you supposed to corner a fighter and not plan on telling them what I’m doing? I just thought it was shady of him and I was pretty excited to tell him to fuck off afterwards.”

“No, (I don’t expect him to apologise) because I went over there and he didn’t even say anything.He’s like, ‘She’s one of my students,’ and it’s like, she may be one of your purple belts but she lives in California and you live here and train with me every single day. I think he’s a little bitch.”

Harsh words, but fair enough. Very understandable reaction given the circumstances.