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Fighter pulls little person dressed as ‘Terminator’ out of duffel bag at weigh-ins; backstory even weirder

If you’re anything like me, you’re bound to have some questions once you see what German MMA fighter Stephan Pütz did at pre-fight weigh-ins last week.

Those questions build slowly, and it begins with innocent queries such as, “Why is he carrying a great, big duffel bag onto the stage?”

From there, you move on to, “Wait, is he pulling a person out of there?”

And then, “Hold up, did he bring a little person with him as a prop?”

And finally, “Is the little person wearing a ‘Terminator’ mask?!”

The answer to each question, it seems, is a resounding yes. Which of course only prompts more questions.

But first, here’s the video, via Twitter:

This one first came to my attention via Middle Easy. Seeing as how it comes from Germany, I reached out to my guy @JangMMA on Twitter, my go-to source for information on the German MMA scene. I’m not sure what I was expecting – clarity, maybe, or at least an explanation?

Instead, I got a lot of interesting information that I’m still not sure what to do with (via Instagram):

Instagram Photo

Start with Pütz, who is 16-4 as a pro after his win over Jan Gottvald at GMC 16 in Cologne on Saturday. His nickname is “T-800,” a nod to the “cybernetic organism” played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in “The Terminator” film franchise. Turns out Pütz is really into “The Terminator.” Like, really into it. So much so that he even made this video where he pretends to be one (via Facebook):

Honestly, while I started out fully ready to hate on the production values and the use of a what appears to be an iPhone masquerading as some piece of futuristic technology, I was ultimately won over by the voiceover, which sounds like what you’d get if you put Werner Herzog in a death metal band.

Apparently this isn’t the only time Pütz has brought his love of all things “Terminator” to weigh-ins. At an M-1 Challenge event he brought a plastic oil can onto the stage and then drank from it for effect. (Get it? Because he’s, like, a machine or whatever.) Even his opponent seemed amused.

But this time? I’ll give him props for securing a little leather jacket that is very much in the style of Schwarzenegger in the ‘80s and ’90s. And the mask? The mask works.

It’s just … why did it have to be on a little person? And why did he put the little person in the bag? And why take the little person out just to position him atop Pütz’s shoulders? Unless my recollection of the “Terminator” movies is majorly hazy, there’s no prominent little person character in any of them.

But then, maybe I’m falling into the classic trap of expecting a bizarre weigh-in gimmick to conform to some coherent logic. And Pütz won the fight and the GMC light heavyweight title, so I guess I can’t say it didn’t work. Whatever “it” was.

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie’s blog space. We don’t take it overly seriously, and neither should you. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, expect to have the previous sentence repeated in ALL CAPS.

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