Photo: Luis J. Gomez/Instagram
If you've been following the drama the last few months, you will know that it all came to a head Saturday night in Las Vegas at Ellismania 15. For those that haven't paid too much attention to the Luis J. Gomez / Ryan O'Neil MMA fight, let's get you caught up...
Ellismania is a "fight" event hosted by SiriusXM talk show host/MMA fighter/skateboarder/all around thrill seeker Jason Ellis. Once a year Ellis and his crew set up a bunch of silly celebrity boxing-themed events and call it Ellismania. This year was no exception, they had musical chairs-themed boxing, porn star stripper boxing, and even roller stating boxing. Silly things that can only come from the brains of thrill seeking, action sports types that continue to live out their childhood indulgences as adults.
Easily the most anticipated bought of the evening was when comedian Luis J. Gomez and comedian Ryan O'Neil, both fans of MMA squared off for an MMA battle. O'Neill a blackbelt in TaeKwondo, Gomez no formal training in MMA but a diehard fan and co-host of MMA themed shows, scrappy as all get out, and the realest of all real ass dudes squared off. Gomez became a part because of comedian Ari Shaffir arranging. He was unaware of Ryan O'Neill before the event, but now they'll go down in the comedy podcasting books as the two principles in a ridiculously entertaining summer leading up to the event.
For most of the summer Gomez has treated the fight like someone who grew up on a steady diet of the pro-wrestling - smack talk, firing off the handle at press conferences, and pretty much WWE-ing the crap outta this entire match up. Making fake threats to O'Neill, his followers, and everything in between. While putting on the show, Gomez enlisted the help of some friends to get ready for the fight. Chris From Brooklyn, host of High Society Radio on GaSDigital put him in touch with Brooklyn Grappling Club for daily training. Gomez even enlisted pro-MMA fighters like longtime Legion of Skanks fan, Mickey Gall an his Believe You Me Podcast co-host and MMA champ, Michael Bisping to help train him.
Things got even bigger as the fight date neared. Gomez, an assumed underdog in the fight - mainly because he had no ring experience - enlisted a GaSDigital sponsor in Smoked Honey to outfit him as well as sports betting site BetDSI placed odds on the battle. Gomez was an underdog in the fight (we even placed a few $$ on Gomez through the site) and then 24 hours before the underdog became the favorite.
So, as the spectacle of the event grew and grew with smack talking happening anywhere and everywhere, come Saturday night at Ellismania 15 in Las Vegas, all the training, smack talk, and anticipation came to a head.
It was a 3 round fight, each lasting 3 minutes. Gomez came out of his corner intent and ready for action. After taking some big hits and kicks from O'Neill, Gomez scored a takedown on O'Neill where he laid heavy blows down on O'Neill. After O'Neill got to his feet the round ended, Gomez solidly won the first round. Round 2 began and both men were clearly gassed, it was a relatively uneventful round but O'Neill took the opportunity to even out the match with some big hits and kicks. When the 3rd and final round began, Gomez started more energized than he was in round 3, jumping and shouting at his adversary. It was a more eventful round for the duo with Gomez having a better cardio game and used that to his advantage to lay some bigger hits on O'Neill giving him the 3rd round soundly. At the end of the fight, the judges scored it in favor of Gomez, the clear winner of the bought.
Three hard months of hard work of a comedian and podcaster paid off as Gomez won the fight proving that he's not only great at the spectacle of the event, he's not a bad fighter either. Thanks for the months of entertainment to both Luis J. Gomez and Ryan O'Neil for the hours of smack talk on podcasts, hype on social media, and just providing pure fun in competition for all of us Danish & O'Neill, Legion of Skanks, Real Ass Podcast, and GaSDigital fans.
Here's the entire fight in case you missed it.