Jose Canseco, former Oakland A’s and Yankees slugger, got what some might call ‘payback’ in his Mixed Martial Arts debut against South Korean Super Heavyweight Hong Man Choi. He was defeated by knockout after just 1 minute, 17 seconds in the ring. At that point, the 7’2” Choi had knocked Canseco to the mat and began punching him in the head, much to the delight of everyone who paid money for Canseco’s 2005 book Juiced. Nonetheless, the referee stopped the fight.
Repeated blows to the head are the only explanation for this shirt.
Canseco, who has boxing experience, claims to have injured his knee shortly after the fight began. It must have been very shortly after. There wasn’t enough time to even say ‘halfway through’. He said, “I hurt my knee back home real bad but I didn’t want to disappoint the fans.” How thoughtful! Evidently, seconds after stepping into the ring he heard something snap—but that could have been his ego.
Having barely won a celebrity boxing match against the 5’6”, 165-pound Danny Bonaduce, Canseco went into this match with disproportionate confidence. But the 6’4”, 240-pound former Major- Leaguer was no match for Choi.
“That’s a big man,” Canseco told Sports Illustrated. “I ran into one of his left jabs and that almost knocked me out. You have no idea how scary it was facing a man that big.”
No? How about we ask your ex-wife? I’ll bet she has some thoughts on that.
The former AL MVP lost the love of his peers when he wrote a tell-all book, naming names—big names—regarding steroid abuse and other alleged bad habits of baseball players. This caused an uproar, though not a great deal of surprise. It also led to an investigation into steroid use in Major League Baseball. Needless to say, Jose will not be receiving any Christmas cards from Mark McGwire or Roger Clemens. Besides, steroids make the game more fun to watch.
Canseco admits that he has had money troubles, selling all of his baseball awards, including the 2000 World Series ring that includes 22 major diamonds and 34.5 grams of gold. That little bauble earned him 40 grand. Although he says he sold the ring to get rid of everything that reminds him of a game he never really liked (but played for decades because of the easy access to drugs and chicks), he also admitted to taking on some pretty strange jobs to make ends meet. That’s how he ended up fighting little Danny Bonaduce. And how he ended up in the ring with the MMA giant Hong Man Choi.
Some people call that “Karma”.