Jessica-Rose Clark had one of the biggest stars in the history of professional wrestling tuning in for her latest UFC 276 bout against Julija Stoliarenko.
Clark turned heads in February when she promised during an appearance on The MMA Hour to use “Sexy Boy,” the infamous theme song of WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, as her walkout song whenever she landed on her first UFC pay-per-view after competing exclusively on UFC Fight Night events for the first seven bouts of her octagon career. As it turned out, that promise came to fruition in July when Clark was booked in a bantamweight bout against Stoliarenko at UFC 276 — much to the delight of the 57-year-old WWE legend.
“Heck, I sat there and watched it,” Michaels said recently on The MMA Hour. It was amazing. It was amazing .”
— Jessy Jess (@missjessyjess) October 12, 2022
Clark’s nickname was “Heartbreaker”, which is closely related to Michaels’ famous nickname “The Heartbreak Kid,” thus the link between them.
Unfortunately, Clark’s night at UFC 276 likely peaked with her walkout — she lost just 42 seconds into her match against Stoliarenko after suffering a dislocated elbow from an armbar submission. The loss was Clark’s second in a row and dropped her overall record in the UFC to 4-4. Clark has been out of action since then and she is working towards a comeback.
But even if Clark’s night didn’t go the way she hoped, Michaels still came away from UFC 276 both impressed and deeply honored by the tribute.
“It’s awesome because they did it to The Undertaker [theme song at UFC 276 with Israel Adesanya], cool music. A lot of people have had other performers do that [to their music]. Not me,” Michaels said. “My song, it’s snappy, it’s cool, everybody loves it, but it isn’t really that machismo song. And so, to have a fighter come out to my music and go, like, ‘OK, they get it,’ it’s everything.
“I don’t know a dude in the world that doesn’t love my music, it’s a toe-tapper and it’s a snappy tune, but it’s one of those things like, ‘Yeah, but I can’t come out to that before a fight.’ You know what I mean? It’s a great song, so it’s very cool when it lives on past you and transitions into other sports.” It’s absolutely one of the greatest songs, and so it’s very cool when it lives on passed you and transitions into other sports.”
