Ben Nguyen has become an overnight celebrity after a video of the fighter knocking out Julian Rabaud (aka Julz the Jackal) in 20 seconds at Nitro 11 MMA in Australia.
Nguyen has become an instant hero this week after a YouTube video of him taking down a tattooed opponent went viral. The video, posted on Tuesday, March 4, is particularly entertaining because it contains footage from the pre-match photo shoot. While posing for the traditional face-to-face combat photos, Rabaud got a bit too confident, wearing his belt on his shoulder, and tried to intimidate Nguyen by getting in his face and forcing him to step back. In the video, Nguyen keeps his cool, almost laughing at Rabaud’s attempts to bully him. The video then cuts to Round 1 of their match, in which Nguyen had Rabaud on the ground in about 10 seconds.
The video went viral, with over 2.2 million views, and landed on the Reddit homepage. As a thank you to his fans, Nguyen participated in a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) and revealed that he is a Vietnamese American fighter from South Dakota who loves kats and has two kittens named Tofu and Yuki.
Meanwhile, Rabaud, who lost his bantamweight championship belt that night, blamed the loss on anxiety and strategic luck on Nguyen’s part. “I know he’s got skills. I know he’s quick. But I tell ya what he had on that night and it wasn’t one of them – he had nothing but luck,” Rabaud said in an interview with The MMA Corner.
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The fight between Rabaud and Nguyen actually took place in March of 2014, and since then Nguyen has defended his title against Reece McLaren, keeping his standing as Bantamweight Champion.
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