The acclaimed VICE Studios series "Dark Side of the Cage" returns Tuesday, and the second season's second episode should shed new light on a tragic downfall.
The episode looks at longtime fighter Phil Baroni, who remains in prison in Mexico on a charge of murder. A teaser video for the season shows a clip of a phone interview with Baroni and him saying his lawyers won't be happy he did the interview.
A clip provided by VICE, above, shows several MMA notables talking about their relationships with Baroni, who was accused of killing his girlfriend in Mexico on Jan. 1, 2023. He reportedly is serving a decades-long sentence in Nayarit, Mexico.
Baroni fought for almost two decades from 2000 to 2019. Most notably, "The New York Bad Ass" fought for the
UFC and Pride FC, but also competed for Bellator, Strikeforce and ONE Championship. In the early 2000s, he became a popular name in the sport and for a brief period was considered a title contender. Baroni held an MMA record of 16-19. In that span, he fought some of the biggest names of his era, including Frank Shamrock, Joe Riggs, Evan Tanner, Matt Lindland and Dave Menne.
Episodes air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on VICE TV. Later this season, UFC Hall of Famer Don Frye, "whose willingness to absorb brutality in the cage led to the fight of his life against pain and addiction,” is featured in an episode. Other episodes will feature the marble-mouthed imbecile Tito Ortiz, Chael Sonnen and Mark Coleman. Additionally, the season "will shed new light on one of the most heated feuds in UFC history: Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov." The seven-episode season will close with a show about the rise and fall of the Affliction clothing brand, which launched a promotion to compete with the UFC, but found itself calling it quits after two events, and a third that was canceled.
The show's season premiere went inside the career of Jason Miller, whose “Mayhem” nicknamed proved to be prophetic when it came to not just his in-cage personality, but his outside-the-cage issues – which were plentiful for more than a decade. You can watch that full episode below.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Video preview: Phil Baroni's downfall on VICE's 'Dark Side of the Cage'
