With UFC middleweight trash talker, Chael Sonnen pleading guilty to money laundering, I was thinking who else got trouble with the law so I created the list below. Sonnen’s white collar crime sounds really tame compared to these fighters:
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
After losing his light heavyweight belt to underdog, Forrest Griffin, Jackson broke up with his then coach, Juanito Ibarra and went looney. He fasted for several days before going on a high speed with the California law enforcement. Along the chase, he hit several cars. A woman involved with the accident claimed she had a miscarriage due to Rampage. The woman lost the case because the judge claimed there were too many factors to her claim. Rampage gave up in Costa Mesa and arrested on the scene. He pleaded to one felony count of evading a police officer and driving against traffic and one misdemeanor count of driving recklessly as part of a plea agreement. He served 200 hours community time and wasn’t sentenced to jail.
Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver
UFC dropout, Koppenhaver probably would’ve been a gatekeeper in the organization but his antics cost him the job. He didn’t accept fight offers from the UFC and made a controversial comment about the death of Evan Tanner. Koppenhaver went to the smaller shows before deciding to try his luck on porn. At a porn party in 2009, he inexplicably went nuts and started knocking out his fellow actors and male attendees. He ran away and got arrested by the Las Vegas cops later on. In March of 2010, he was arrested again for assault with a deadly weapon in a San Diego bar. He supposedly twitted on jail
“Why the spit bag? Fuck if I know!?? I never spit! lol…they just put it on to be dicks and/or disguise who I was…??”.
Koppenhaver then got arrested two more times for bar brawls and is currently serving a one year sentence.
Marcus “Conan” Silveira
Silveira was one of the pioneers in MMA, he was a heavyweight BJJ black belt who liked to throw punches. But in 2003, he got arrested for trafficking ecstasy and sentenced to 3 years in prison. It turned out the DEA was already investigating him for a couple of years before they had enough evidence to arrest him, including videotaping the sale of ecstasy. Today, Silveira runs one of the most succesful camps in MMA, American Top Team in Florida. He can be seen all the time cornering fighters like Thiago Alves and Thiago Silva.
Kazuo Misaki
Team Grabaka Member, Misaki gave a lecture to Yoshihiro “Sexyama” Akiyama about humility and cheating after their fight (Sexyama greased against Sakuraba). Then Misaki himself got into bigger trouble by evading Japanese cops. Misaki was pulled over for talking on the phone but he decided he wanted to flee the scene instead. He hit several cars including a police cruiser before giving up. The judge gave him a prison sentence of one year, which he hasn’t served yet. Maybe Sexyama should give him an advice about running from cops.
Joe Son
Before being arrested, Joe Son was known for his balls shot by Keith Hackney and 0-4 MMA record. He was also in the original Austin Powers movie as Random Task. In 2008, Son was arrested for a rape charge that happened in 1990. Along with another assailant, Son was accused of pistol whipping a girl, forcing her into the car and raping her. Son could face up t0 275 years in prison but the prosecutor doesn’t have an update. Cagepotato followed up the case and didn’t get any return calls from the DA, but they noticed that Son wasn’t in the database anymore.
Lee Murray
Murray on the right
Murray was a genuine British badass, knocking out Tito Ortiz in a street brawl and even winning a UFC match. But then he committed a $92 million bank heist in England with a couple of his friends. He flew to Morocco, hoping not to get extradited. He was right, Morocco didn’t send him back to UK but they sentenced him to their own prison for the crime. At first he was was only sentenced 10 years but UK wanted more time for the crime. So the Moroccan government added 15 years for a total of 25 years. He will be out of jail when he’s 58.
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