Melvin Manhoef is something of a cult idol in MMA. A "What if?" fighter who never got a chance to ply his trade in the UFC despite holding wins over Mark Hunt, Kazushi Sakuraba, and Kazuo Misaki among many others. He never developed much in the way of a well rounded skill set, but his obvious kickboxing talents and wealth of power made him a must watch fighter for many fans. Over time there have been various campaigns to get him into the UFC, none of which ever gained much traction, but showed the consistent mystique around Manhoef's talents.
Now, at 38 and still in the combat sports game, things are looking a little less bright for the former K-1 Heroes and Dream star. He recently took on Cesar Cordoba at International Fighting Championship in Spain, and things did not go well. The end came at 2:59 of round 1. Check out the video of the brutal finish, above.
UPDATE: Since posting the original video, I've gotten a full copy of the fight, and it gets a little weird after Manhoef faceplants on the canvas. Manhoef was able to make it back to his feet, and got what appeared to be a pretty long recovery period after beating the count. Cordoba went right back to wailing on Manhoef, who appeared to have regained at least some of his faculties, only to have the ref jump in at the last second of the round to stop the fight. Manhoef went a little crazy, but he was pretty clearly getting beaten up. Seeing the full video (now posted above) what do you think of the stoppage? No longer a clean KO, now something of question mark.
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