Session #5 With More Awesome Monikers

Nicknames are a relentless in folks’s lives. As we’ve mentioned right here prior to now, a nickname may be given to somebody of their childhood and it’s as much as the one who acquired the alias as as to if or not they wish to embrace it. Take me, for instance.

My mother and father gave me the loving nickname of “Spud” as a baby, a nickname that also carries on to this very second. Different folks have monikers that got to them of their youthful years, just for the particular person in-question to get older and inform their father or mother or guardian, “Hey, don’t ever name me that nickname once more.”

MMA fighters have nicknames in their very own proper. Contestants select an alias and relying upon how they do in a battle, the moniker could match like a glove. Must you want a refresher course on how these conferences work, seek advice from the minutes of our first assembly from November of final 12 months.

The All-Nicknames Membership: Inductee No. 14: “Crispy” Carli Judice

The primary nickname to be enshrined in our fifth assembly is one belonging to a fighter who entered the well-known UFC Octagon only a few brief months in the past. Again in March, Carli Judice (4-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) opened up the night time’s actions throughout UFC Vegas 104 from the UFC Apex facility in Enterprise, NV in a girls’s flyweight contest.

Her project on the ultimate Saturday night time of the winter season was Yuneisy Duben (6-1, 1 NC MMA, 0-1 UFC). The latter was making her UFC promotional debut after scoring her contract with the group late final summer time throughout Contender Collection on ESPN+.

When you one way or the other missed Contender Collection that night time, Yuneisy Duben made historical past by changing into the primary victorious fighter in DWCS promotional historical past to safe a UFC deal without having to sweat it out backstage for the remainder of the present. “Crispy” would, nevertheless, flip the script in March with some fireworks of her personal.

“Crispy” Goes Upstairs to End Duben

Very similar to Duben had executed in September towards Shannon Clark, Carli Judice acquired on the spotlight reel in her personal means. With beneath two minutes having ticked off the first-round clock, she delivered a kick to the pinnacle, knocking Duben out on contact.

Though this bout was the primary of the night that night time, Judice’s effort was among the many better of the night. After the present, she pocketed a $50,000 (USD) bonus for the Efficiency of the Night time Award.

Her UFC tenure is simply two fights previous as of this writing, with Judice already booked for a July 19 contest on UFC 318 versus Nicolle Caliari. “Crispy” has top-of-the-line nicknames within the sport in the present day.

The All-Nicknames Membership: Inductee No. 15: Malcolm “The Machine” Wellmaker

We transfer proper alongside to the bantamweight division for our subsequent inductee in tonight’s enshrinement in The All-Nicknames Membership. Like Carli Judice, this fighter is likely one of the rising stars within the sport of MMA. He, too, has one of many superior nicknames in MMA.

Again on the night time of April 26, Malcolm Wellmaker (9-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) made his debut within the group from inside T-Cell Heart in Kansas Metropolis, KS on ESPN+. Wellmaker picked up his UFC contract final 12 months throughout an episode of Contender Collection by the use of first-round knockout over Adam Bramhald (14-3 MMA.)

“The Machine” Runs By way of Saaiman in Below One Spherical

Wellmaker’s opposition that night time was Cameron Saaiman (9-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC). As his nickname, “The Machine”, suggests, that Saturday night time on the job was a fast one. Throughout the opening spherical of an marketed three, he related on a brutal overhand proper punch.

Within the aftermath of this contest, Malcolm Wellmaker acquired the $50,000 Efficiency of the Night time bonus. Inside days of his victory, he resigned from his 9-to-5 job in welding.

“All my profession, I swore that if I made it to the UFC and earned a 50k bonus, I might stop my job,” Wellmaker wrote in a put up on his Instagram feed, “and in the present day, it lastly occurred.”

The All-Nicknames Membership: Inductee No. 16: Jimmy “The Brute” Crute

For our final inductee into The All-Nicknames Membership this time round, we journey to the sunshine heavyweight division and meet a fighter who took a hiatus from competitors just a few years in the past. Jimmy Crute (12-4-2 MMA, 4-4-2 UFC) pressed the pause button on his profession in the summertime of 2023.

Within the aftermath of UFC 290, he stepped again for the second on account of having an “unhealthy obsession” with the game. Crute took a breather from preventing, however not earlier than going 1-3 in a dismal four-fight stretch.

Crute returned earlier in 2025 towards Rodolfo Bellato (12-2-1 MMA, 1-0-1 UFC) throughout UFC 312’s foremost card. His return wasn’t fairly the end result that he had anticipated, although. After quarter-hour, the judges’ scorecards returned a majority draw.

“The Brute” One other One of many Becoming Nicknames

Crute’s alias is “The Brute.” He couldn’t have requested for a extra becoming nickname if he tried, as a result of all through his profession in MMA, he’s been a brute when the cage door slams shut on a battle night time.

Previous to becoming a member of the UFC’s energetic roster by the use of the 2018 season of what was then titled Dana White’s Tuesday Night time Contender Collection, he had amassed a report of 7-0 in Hex Battle Collection.

In so doing, he secured that promotion’s gentle heavyweight championship through first-round submission (arm-triangle choke) towards Ben Kelleher (12-11 MMA, 0-3 Hex Battle Collection) in June of 2017. Crute then retained the strap twice over earlier than getting the Contender Collection call-up in 2018, besting Chris Birchler (7-4 MMA) by first-round knockout on account of punches.