Hermes Franca Talks About the Time He Fought for $1:
"So this guy Manny Reyes was writing some trash around 2004 and if you remember the UFC was not doing the lightweight division anymore at that time. Euphoria was doing shows and for some reason they were going to have Manny Reyes fight. He was saying he was the UFC champion and I thought this guy is crazy. He was challenging me for some reason and one of the promoters said, "Ok Hermes you want to fight?" I say "I don’t want to fight this guy, he’s nobody."
"The promoter said that the fans want someone to kill him. I had already accepted a fight with Phil Johns but I accepted the fight. Right before the fight he was saying that he wanted his own rules – one round of ten minutes and that it could only be KO or submission. He created his own rules and they were selling a lot of tickets so he wanted like $2-3,000. Because he was so expensive the promoter asked me if I would fight for one dollar. I said, "What the fuck?" The promoter said, "Come on, do it for me, you’re a good friend." "Ok, let’s fight for one dollar."
"And the arena was crazy. Everyone was waiting for it like I was fighting Gomi or BJ Penn (laughs). It was packed! And then when we’re in the ring I can hear the promoter shouting to me, "Kill him! Kill him!" I said, "Bro you cant do that, you’re the matchmaker! (laughs)"
HT:
cagepotato