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Cory Peterson

We're not going to be here long today and that's pretty fortunate, because I really don't want to spend much time talking about this dude for reasons I will make clear shortly: It's Cory "L.A. Giant" Peterson.

There isn't really an origin story to Peterson: He was a vaguely-trained amateur fighter who trained with the large-but-lesser-known LA Boxing gym. LA Boxing has been around for twenty years and has fielded dozens of mixed martial arts fighters--but very few ever competed outside the regional circuits. Peterson is the only one to have a fight on a major international broadcast, and there's no real wonder why Pride's talent scouts picked him out of one of their open tryouts: As a 6'11" giant with scary tattoos and no professional fights, he was their favorite kind of victim.

The L.A. Giant made his mixed martial arts debut at Pride 27, a chubby, awkward 0-0 fighter in ill-fitting thai shorts against the 6-0 Sambo and boxing champion Sergei Kharitonov. It wasn't pretty. Peterson latched desperately onto Kharitonov and threw flailing wrist punches at the side of his head, to which Kharitonov responded by just throwing him to the ground and punching his face bloody while Peterson put up no resistance whatsoever, and when the referee seemed too content to let the beating continue, Sergei grabbed a quick armbar and submitted him in just under ninety seconds. It was Peterson's only major MMA fight: He took two more regional bouts before retiring from the sport permanently, having failed in his only shot at the big time.

You might feel bad for the L.A. Giant, beaten bloody on camera and taken advantage of by unscrupulous Pride matchmakers. For once, you shouldn't. Those scary tattoos I mentioned two paragraphs ago? White power tattoos. Just a whole mess of them. An SS lightning bolt, an Odal rune, a Celtic cross and a bunch more. Japan has always had an odd relationship with white nationalist imagery, so they didn't bat an eye at Peterson--and while it makes it feel a little gross to make a character for him and write about him, it also makes it a whole lot more satisfying to watch Sergei punch him in the face.

But I don't want to end on the sour note of white nationalism, so instead, let's talk about how weird MMA is. Peterson's last fight came at 2004's Venom: First Strike, the--you may have guessed--first event held by a partially Tito Ortiz-funded fighting company. It was a massive, 20-fight card, and somehow included:

-Jon Fitch, one of the best welterweights in history
-UFC standout and GSP victim Pete Spratt
-Pancrase semifinalist and Tito Ortiz BJJ coach Justin "The Nsane 1" McCully
-Dutch Vale Tudo pioneer Ed de Kruijf
-RINGS and UFC standout Aaron Brink, at the time embarking on his adult video career
-Muay Thai champion and future MTV reality star Kit Cope
-Future UFC Main eventer "The Dean of Mean" Keith Jardine
-Future WEC titlist Marcus Hicks
-Former WCW and WWE wrestler Sean O'Haire
-Future UFC/WEC star Anthony Njoukuani
-Future Bellator world champion Emanuel Newton

It was studded with fighters who'd be relevant within just a couple of years. It showed, too: The event was a giant bomb that immediately killed Venom and ensured their Second Strike never came. You just can't pull together Justin McCully money twice.

Moveset, stats, logic and four attires, sort of (Pride 27 vs Kharitonov / Total Combat 4 vs Rez Dawg (really) / Venom - First Strike vs Royster / Pride attire but bareknuckle, since he never fought or did anything else again). Enjoy your brand new ethically abhorrent punching bag.