Adult performer Dick Delaware, a.k.a. Aaron Brink, lost a unanimous decision to Mike Whitehead on Friday night in a fight for the heavyweight title of the Universal Above Ground Fighting (UAGF) organization.
All three judges had Whitehead winning the three-round, mixed-martial-arts bout in front of a crowd of 700-plus in the main event at Club Soho in downtown L.A.
Whitehead, a 6-foot-1, 240-pound wrestler from Iowa, impressed the judges with several takedowns of Brink, the 6-3, 225-pound native of Huntington Beach, during the 15-minute fight inside a 16-foot-wide cage. Brink (24-10-1) said that Whitehead (12-4-1) followed his fight strategy to a tee.
“That guy impressed the shit out of me on takedowns,” Brink said. “He followed his exact game-plan to get points.”
Coming into the fight, it appeared that Brink would have a clear edge in a stand-up battle and Whitehead would have his best chance to win by taking the fight to the ground. After Brink started the bout with a kick, Whitehead quickly shot in on his legs, lifted him up and took him down hard. Whitehead scored with takedowns twice more in the opening round, each time lifting Brink off the mat.
Whitehead did it again in the second and third rounds, but while the takedowns may have looked good to the crowd, they weren’t hurting Brink, who used his jiu-jitsu skills to defend himself on the ground. Brink, meanwhile, landed some punches while he was tied up with Whitehead and connected with a knee on one occasion. He also countered Whitehead’s ground attack in the third round, and briefly took control of his back, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
“I do not believe I won the fight, but I didn’t get credit for some of the things I did. I do believe I should’ve gotten a draw,” Brink said. “A lot of my dominance in the fight was overlooked based on how beautiful his takedowns were.”
Brink said the only hard shots he took came from two accidental head butts from Whitehead.
“He did great with takedowns, and I couldn’t stop them, but he didn’t do anything to finish me,” Brink told AVN.com, adding he would like to fight Whitehead again.
Interestingly, it was the first time in Brink’s seven-year pro career that a fight went to a decision. He said he would next try to fight in the World Extreme Cagefighting organization and is not giving up his attempt to return to the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the biggest stage of mixed martial arts in the U.S.
