Earlier this month at the ‘Ultimate Fighter: Tournament of Champions’ finale, TUF winner Ryan Hall squared off against UFC veteran Gray Maynard in a fight which had all the makings of an old-school ‘style vs. style’ matchup.
Maynard of course looked to keep the fight standing in hopes of landing a big punch and picking up yet another knockout win. Hall on the other hand was looking to take the fight to the mat and use his elite level Jiu-Jitsu to secure a submission win. With that being said, the way Hall looked to get the fight to the ground was a bit controversial. Upon Maynard closing the distance, Hall would slip a punch and drop to the canvas looking for a leg lock on ‘The Bully’.
Maynard was noticeably frustrated throughout the fight, and was even more frustrated after the judges gave the decision to Hall, likely due to his accurate kicks landed throughout the fight.
In a recent interview with MMAJunkie, Maynard once again explained his confusion with the fight, and the decision:
“He’s going to throw stupid kicks, and I’m going to hit him a couple of times, he dives, I get out of the way,”
“Maybe he’s changing up game,” Maynard told MMAjunkie. “He didn’t take any damage. He didn’t really take any risk, either. So if you can do that, of course other people are going to do that.”
“I was going into that fight with a complete different set of rules. I just don’t understand how you can be allowed to run from exchanges, or drop to the ground when I do catch up and not be penalized,” he said.”
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With the loss, Maynard now drops to 1-4 in his last five, and returns to the loss column after picking up a unanimous decision win over Fernando Bruno at the TUF 24 finale earlier this year.