One of the aspects of respect I had, was # of fights and longevity. Well, if your opponent and you agree not to throw punches and agree on the outcome, that will for sure make it easy to have more fights and fight longer, so that respect I had…
Listen to the Lytes Out Lyle Podcast with his former business partner…it is a tell all of what you are referring to…One of the earlier episodes
It’s likely a lot more fights than that. I’ve seen some people connected to him even claim that almost every win he had after his UFC run ranged from highly suspicious to an undeniable work.
Severn took people’s money and gave them phony fights. Says a lot about his integrity.
MMM
He’s hardly the only one. There were lots of worked fights in smaller shows. I’m sure Monte can shed some light.
I think worked fights was his least scumbaggy move. He ripped plenty of people off ALLEGEDLY
Known Works:
Matsuhiro Matsunaga (U-Japan 1) - November 17, 1996
Kimo Leopoldo (PRIDE 1) - October 11, 1997
Ross Quam (Brawl In The Black Hills 1) - May 15, 1999
Brad Kohler (Ultimate Wrestling) - June 25, 1999
Bart Vale (CFA 1) - March 25, 2000
John Dixon (CFA 2) - July 19, 2000
Travis Fulton (Danger Zone: Night of the Beast) - October 28, 2000
Travis Fulton (WEC 1) - June 30, 2001
Len Walker (Ultimate Wrestling: St. Paul) - July 15, 2001
Travis Fulton (Iowa Challenge 3) - September 22, 2001
Eric “Butterbean” Esch (Capital Fight Night 22) - October 10, 2003
Shannon Ritch (Northern Fighting Championship) - June 3, 2005
Shannon Ritch (Extreme Wars: X-1) - July 2, 2005
Tyson Smith (Action Wrestling Entertainment) - October 5, 2005
Lanny Griffin (Deep South Entertainment) - August 12, 2006
Clifford Coon (C3 Fights) - February 17, 2007
Kasey Geyer (C3 Fights) February 24, 2007
Here’s something that probably no participating fighter of a worked fight realized…
You kill off a fanbase. I’ve watched mma for years and granted it’s not as fun as it used to be, I still am interested. However after seeing how some of those worked fights play out, now everytime there is any type of lull in a fight between two competitors, I now will have doubt where I previously didn’t, and probably shouldn’t. But I will wonder, are these guys taking it easy on each other b/c they don’t want to get hurt, or are they just playing it safe?
Now there is doubt. Not just for the worked fights, but for any questionable fight.
Hope the financial gain was worth the trust of many fans being broken.
Look how fast he gave up when Rizzo started landing on him. That’s all you need to see to conclude that he wasn’t all that interested in actually fighting. Compare that to Couture. Submission grappling, ADCC and stuff like that would have been perfect for Severn.
man i almost wish i didn’t know this. but at least nobody is claiming don fry was in works.
I still think that he and Shamrock both jobbed for Royce.
V big possibility
I actually called one of his worked fights. Got fired for calling it out on the broadcast.
I was at the Justin Eilers/Severn fight around 2000.
This was no work, but it was real clear that Severn was primarily interested in taking and delivering as little damage as possible during the fight. Absolutely not a work, but clearly Severn didn’t even want to get his knuckles bruised. He secured the TD, and then GSP’d his way to a UD chilling in the guard.
An obscure bit of the afterparty of the Severn/Eilers fight:
At some hole in the wall bar I offered to buy Severn a drink. He says he’ll take a screwdriver, no vodka.
So yes, I bought a grown man a glass of orange juice.
I was at the Oct 2000 fight with Fulton. It was suspect as fuck. He threw Fulton three separate times with perfect form and the required yelling to along with it. Most of us looked at each other and shook our heads.
Not sure if you’re joking or not but Don Frye definitely has some funny business on his record.
Severn is a cheap fuck isnt he? So its not surprising someone cheap would bend his morals for more money to hog