Tom Watson defeats Alex Reid at BAMMA 4

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In the highest profile MMA fight in British history, BAMMA Middleweight Champion Tom Watson defeated the infamous Alex Reid at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena.

While Watson is the promotion’s champion all attention was focused on Reid due to his celebrity status in Britain as a result of his relationship with glamour model Katie “Jordan” Price. As a result of this relationship Reid had been regularly featured in tabloid newspapers, women lifestyle magazines and even Celebrity Big Brother. Reid made the most of his newfound fame, winning the reality show and raising eyebrows with his open discussion of his transvestism and possible bisexuality. He had however not fought in an official bout since 2007, with his last fight being an exhibition try-out in 2009 for The Ultimate Fighter’s Team UK, which he lost. Losing is something that Reid had became use to, having been defeated in his last seven fights. He had been due to fight Waston at BAMMA 3 in May, but withdrew due to injury.

After the controversy surrounding his injury withdrawal and the continuing sideshow of his ‘celebrity’ few took Reid seriously as a fighter, with Watson even fighting in Canada two weeks before the fight. He actually lost that fight, being defeated by TUF7 contestant Jesse Taylor, a result that brought to an end his eight fight win streak that included a surprise victory over UFC and IFL veteran Matt Horwich. Despite being seen as a mismatch, the fight drew a large crowd and was shown live on Bravo, a British cable male-entertainment station.

After a lengthy build up and some…er…exotic entrances, the fight would prove to be more competitive than expected, with Reid pushing the action early on and even taking the first round. What it lacked in technical sophistication competence it made up for in excitement, with both fighters putting caution to the wind as they exchanged in sloppy but entertaining kickboxing exchanges. While Watson would comfortably outpoint Reid, winning 49-46, 49-46, 49-47 the commentators hailed the slugfest as a Fight of the Year candidate (no, no it wasn’t) and called for an immediate rematch. Whatever the sporting merits of the contest, it came across as a big-time event on television and both fighters showed plenty of heart and put on a visceral contest that would have plenty appeal to the casual fanbase tuning in on a Saturday night. It was certainly a freak show, but it made for compelling Saturday night television.

A Comics Nexus original, Will Cooling has written about comics since 2004 despite the best efforts of the industry to kill his love of the medium. He now spends much of his time over at Inside Fights where he gets to see muscle-bound men beat each up without retcons and summer crossovers.