Demetrious Johnson’s walk to the cage at UFC on Fox 9 was almost longer than his fight. In a rematch 14 months in the making, Johnson retained his Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight crown and once again denied Joseph Benavidez the belt on Saturday at the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, Calif., silencing a partisan crowd with a single punch.
With eight submission wins in his MMA career, Benavidez plants his flag on Ted Nugent Island when it is time for him to march to the cage. Prior to his first fight against Johnson, Benavidez entered to Nugent’s “Stranglehold.” On a three-fight winning streak, a pair of KO/TKO stoppages included, Benavidez still turned to Nugent’s eight-minute song in order to put him in the proper state of mind to put away another human being.
“Go get that right hand counter” may or may not have been AMC Pankration head coach Matt Hume’s final words for Johnson as the bell sounded for round one. Johnson stalked Benavidez into the cage and countered a left hand from the challenger with a heavy right hook that knocked out the Team Alpha Male representative. Still unbeaten in the UFC at 125 pounds and coming off his first knockout win since 2010, Johnson’s reign as flyweight king continues, with T.I. providing his anthems.
Urijah Faber is a showman. His arrival to 2Pac’s highest-charting single, “California Love,” makes Faber’s walkout one of the most recognizable in MMA. Fighting an uphill battle in Faber’s hometown, Michael McDonald walked out to inspirational songwriter Lincoln Brewster’s “Today is the Day.” With support of 11,000 Sacramento faithful, Faber turned Golden State love into a second-round guillotine choke-induced submission against McDonald. The dominant victory puts the Team Alpha Male patriarch in position for a bantamweight title shot heading into 2014.
If you walked out to Canadian rapper Drake at UFC on Fox 9, then you found success in the cage. Flyweight newcomer Alptekin Ozkilic kicked off the show with a win, thanks to Drake’s “Started from the Bottom.” Meanwhile, Bobby Green picked up his seventh straight victory and utilized another Drake single off the 2013 album Nothing Was the Same, entitled “Worst Behavior.”
Fighting out of the City of Brotherly Love, Zach Makovsky hopped in his hot tub time machine and called upon Philadelphia funk band Fat Larry’s Band for his first trip inside the UFC’s Octagon. Off the 1982 album Breakin’ Out, the horns of “Act Like You Know” crooned Makovsky to his first UFC victory in his seven-year MMA career.
UFC on Fox 9 Walkout Songs:
Demetrious Johnson: T.I. “Go Get It” Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head (2012)Joseph Benavidez: Ted Nugent “Stranglehold” Ted Nugent (1975)
Urijah Faber: 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre & Roger Troutman “California Love” All Eyez on Me (1995)
Michael McDonald: Lincoln Brewster “Today is the Day” Today is the Day (2008)
Chad Mendes: Aaron Lewis “Country Boy” Town Line (2011)
Nik Lentz: Shearwater “Whipping Boy” Winged Life (2004)
Mac Danzig: Samhain “Archangel” Initium (1984)
Joe Lauzon: Thousand Foot Krutch “Move” The Art of Breaking (2005)
Ryan LaFlare: A$AP Rocky “1 Train” Long Live A$AP (2013)
Bobby Green: Drake “Worst Behavior” Nothing Was the Same (2013)
Pat Healy: The Green “Forgive Me” HAWAI’I ’13 (2013)
Scott Jorgensen: Kid Cudi “Alive (Nightmare)” Man on the Moon: The End of Day (2009)
Zach Makovsky: Fat Larry’s Band “Act Like You Know” Breakin’ Out (1982)
Sam Stout: Saigon feat. Jay-Z “Come on Baby” The Greatest Story Never Told (2011)
Cody McKenzie: The Devil Makes Three “Old Number 7” The Devil Makes Three (2002)
Abel Trujillo: Rick Ross feat. T-Pain “The Boss” Trilla (2008)
Roger Bowling: Trick Daddy “Let’s Go” Thug Matrimony: Married to the Streets (2004)
Alp Ozkilic: Drake “Started from the Bottom” Nothing Was the Same (2013)
Darren Uyenoyama: Yasuharu Takanashi “Pride” Pride FC Theme Song (1997)
Tommy Messano is the editor-in-chief of ULTMMA.com. You can contact him on Twitter at @ULTMMA.