Cub Swanson and Dooho Choi are headed to the UFC Hall of Fame.
Swanson and Choi threw down in an all-time classic brawl at UFC 206 in Toronto in December 2016. The featherweight bout, which Swanson won by unanimous decision, became most analysts Fight of the Year.
Now the fight and its participants will be enshrined in the Fight Wing of the UFC’s Hall of Fame, the promotion announced Saturday during the UFC 273 pay-per-view broadcast. The 2022 induction ceremony will take place during the UFC’s International Fight Week in July in Las Vegas.
“The fight between Cub Swanson and Dooho Choi is one of the greatest fights of all time,” UFC president Dana White stated. “This fight was an absolute war for all three rounds and both guys left everything they had inside the octagon. It was crazy. This fight was an incredible display of heart, endurance and determination and it was so good, it was named the 2016 Fight of the Year. Congratulations to Cub Swanson and Dooho Choi on a fight that will always be remembered as one of the best ever.”
Swanson came into the fight at UFC 206 with back-to-back wins. But Choi had won an impressive 12 straight, including his first three in the UFC by knockout – the latter two of which earned him Performance of the Night bonuses.
The first round featured plenty of striking, but also a standing guillotine attempt from Choi that helped him batter Swanson. But Swanson recovered and started to control the pace of the fight in the standup game with punches, knees and kicks. Swanson worked for a big finish with a barrage of punches, but Choi caught him with a right and put him on the canvas. Choi nearly had a finish, but Swanson recovered and landed a takedown.
The third round was nonstop offense – including a Superman punch from Swanson with just seconds left in the fight. The Air Canada Centre crowd went crazy after the the fight, which Swanson won with a pair of 30-27 scores and a 29-28.
Swanson beat Artem Lobov his next time out, giving him four straight. He then had a four-fight skid, but since then has rebounded to win three of his past four. Choi lost his next two after the Swanson loss and retired from MMA in 2019 on a three-fight skid. But each of his final five bouts won post-fight bonus awards.
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