Joe “Iron Ball” Son on the Jones - Holland Scale:
At UFC 4, Son carried a large cross to the ring but struggled under its weight.
In 2002, he infamously wore a leopard thong with the PRIDE logo and sported eye makeup, as well as a bowler hat at his entrance, and hugged Imamura during the staredown. The bout was short, and Son quit after he was taken down and almost slid out of the ring, claiming an elbow injury.
After a brief exchange of strikes at Xtreme Pankration 2, Moreira landed a hit which drew blood, and Son then refused to continue fighting, and the fight was called. The result was officially listed as "submission (terror)".
He worked as singer and dancer for HUSTLE's third event.
Joe Son was first arrested for kicking in the door of a roommate's car. He pleaded guilty to felony vandalism on May 16, 2008, whereupon he was sentenced to probation and 60 days in jail. As a condition of his plea agreement, Son was required to provide a DNA sample.
In early October 2008, his DNA sample was matched to a sexual assault cold case that occurred on Christmas Eve, 1990. Already in custody for a probation violation, Son was arrested at the Theo Lacy facility on October 7, 2008. On December 24, 1990, the anonymous victim was walking back to her apartment alone with her dog. Son distracted her by asking for directions and pretending he was lost. Son, and accomplice Santiago Gaitan, a friend from high school, then forcibly dragged her to their car, and threatened to kill her. Son and Gaitan repeatedly raped, sodomized, tortured, and pistol whipped the woman. Eventually, after pushing her out of the car naked and carrying out a mock execution, Son released her. Investigators collected DNA from the woman and created composite sketches, but there was not a large enough DNA databank in 1990 to make a connection, and the sketches went unrecognized. He faced a maximum sentence of 275 years to life. However, before jury selection could begin for his trial in August 2011, the charges against Son were dropped having expired due to the statute of limitations on sexual assault and kidnapping. Son was instead charged with conspiracy to commit murder and torture, crimes with no statute of limitations. During the trial, the woman said that Son told her: "It's Christmas. This is your lucky day." Son was found guilty of one felony count of torture, and given a life sentence.
Less than a month later, Son was accused of killing his cellmate Michael Graham, who was beaten to death. After the killing, Son was moved to solitary confinement. On September 13, 2013, Son was charged with Graham's murder. At his trial in 2017, he was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, and received an additional 27-year sentence.
