James "The Sandman" Irvin
Record: 14-5-0 (Win-Loss-Draw)
10 (T)KO's
2 Submissions
1 Decisions
James Lee Irvin (born September 12, 1978) is an American mixed martial artist who currently competes as a Light Heavyweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is a former World Extreme Cagefighting heavyweight champion.
On April 2, 2008, Irvin fought Houston Alexander as the opening fight on the televised portion of UFC Fight Night: Kenny Florian vs Joe Lauzon, knocking Alexander out with a superman punch in 8 seconds. The 8-second knockout tied the record of fastest knockout in UFC history, until UFC 102, where Todd Duffee broke the record with a 7 second KO.
Irvin was supposed to fight Rashad Evans at UFC 85 in London, England but he sustained a foot injury that forced him to pull out and Evans was removed from the card as well.
When the UFC's middleweight champion Anderson Silva was to make his light-heavyweight division debut, Irvin became his opponent after four other fighters had already declined. UFC: Silva vs Irvin was intentionally scheduled for July 19, 2008 in order to conflict with the pay-per-view broadcast of Affliction: Banned. Despite Irvin being the larger fighter, he was regarded as a significant underdog. At about one minute into the first round, Silva caught a kick dealt by Irvin and knocked him down with a straight right hand. Silva then followed with a barrage of punches ending the fight by knockout. Afterwards, Irvin tested positive for methadone and oxymorphone.
Irvin was scheduled to return at UFC 98 against Drew McFedries, making his debut as a middleweight. However, he was unable to fight because of a torn meniscus. Irvin recently injured his knee, forcing him out of a planned middleweight fight against Wilson Gouveia at UFC 102. This is the second straight event James Irvin has backed out of due to the same injury.
James then confirmed he would return on one of the UFC's 3 shows in March. and was later added to the card at UFC LIVE: Vera vs. Jones and is set to make his debut as a middleweight against Alessio Sakara.
James "The Sandman" Irvin Highlights
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPCPfHRKOy0][/youtube]