Former UFC fighter Jesse Taylor was kicked off Ultimate Fighter for drunken rampage before narrowly
Jesse Taylor is one of the more colourful characters in MMA who has plenty of stories to tell after nearly 20 years in the sport.
The 39-year-old first rose to prominence on The Ultimate Fighter in 2008 when he made the final of Season 7 before being removed due to his behaviour.
UFC president Dana White told Taylor to 'go home, get your life together, call me in a few months,' after he was shown security footage of a drunk Taylor kicking out the window of a rented limousine ahead of the biggest fight of his life.
‘JT Money’ was also accused of frightening female patrons at the hotel he was staying at and screaming about being a UFC fighter before White took away his chance of becoming one.
Taylor was invited to join MMA's premier promotion after assuring White by saying: “I'm in AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] now. I've totally got my life together. It's the biggest mistake I've ever made. And I'll never do it again, I'll never disappoint you or the UFC again."
However, he was tapped out by CB Dolloway in July 2008 and subsequently cut by the UFC who eventually invited him back in 2017 before a failed drug test led to him being kicked out again.
In between his two UFC stints, Taylor travelled the globe fighting the very best and even managed to pick up a win in Russia against the odds.
He told talkSPORT: “I had this fight over in Russia. It's a cool story, it was just like Russia versus everyone else. I was USA's representative, and the Russians won every fight, and the only fight that we won was the fight where I was favourite to lose the most.
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However, things almost went badly wrong after Taylor’s big win when he met Vladimir Putin and tried to give the Russian leader a hug.
"It was like a private event. It was out on the Black Sea, and Vladimir Putin was there," he added.
"It's like a private party and I was so excited after the fight. I was just pumped up, and I was so happy so I go hug Putin and you can’t hug Putin.
“All these people like aprons, you know, like, they ripped me off. So, we go backstage, and all the people with the aprons take the aprons off, and they got, like, AK-47s, and they're like, ‘Yeah, you're lucky because usually, they kill people that do that.’
“So luckily, they didn't shoot me or kill me. But, yeah, because everyone was shaking his hand, I pulled him in for a hug. And you can't do that. It was crazy, man.”
After surviving to tell the tale, Taylor is now set to test himself against Cage Warriors middleweight champion, Christian Leroy Duncan, on December 31 in London.
The 33-16 fighter is hoping to win the title he first picked up exactly ten years ago when he beat Chris Fields, who has recently been training Daredevil star, Charlie Cox.
That will be easier said than done against Duncan who boasts a perfect 7-0 record and comes into the fight high on confidence after picking up back-to-back highlight-reel KO finishes.
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