Brazilian MMA fighter and former UFC competitor Diego Brandao was doing very well on his MMA comeback. The Ultimate Fighter 14 winner had scored a pair of exciting victories, but his good streak came to a bizarre end last weekend.
Brandao faced Russian fighter Akhmed Aliev in the main event of EFN’s Fight Nights Global 73. The fight appeared to be your standard MMA match, right up until the second round.
Aliev was in Brandao’s guard when the fight quickly spiraled out of control and included some illegal headbutts, an attempt to poke eyes, ear biting, illegal kicks to the neck, throwing garbage, among other bizarre occurrences.
https://twitter.com/grabaka_hitman/status/904805024743784455
A video surfaced on Twitter where users pointed out that Aliev shouted: “ah, he’s biting!” At second 0:05, you can catch Brandao biting the Russian fighter’s ear, right before he covers it with his glove and the referee tries to stop him.
Aliev, comprehensively upset by the attempted Mike Tyson move, proceeded to smash Brandao with illegal headbutts to the chest and all hell broke loose on the octagon.
Then, the referee attempted to bring both fighters to their feet with the little control over the fight he had left, but that’s when Brandao managed to get one last kick off to Aliev’s neck.
And as if the situation weren’t bad enough, after the illegal kick to the neck, Brandao decided he’d had enough and looked to make a quick exit through the door, but decided to climb the fence instead when he realized it was locked.
While it appears Aliev initially starts the madness at first glance, Brandao may have instigated Aliev’s actions. All of it happened while the crowd kept throwing garbage at the octagon.
After all the madness, Brandao eventually was convinced to go back into the ring so that Aliev could be announced as the winner by TKO, because Brandao left the cage, he was handed the loss by “retirement.” To voice his displeasure with the whole situation, the Brazilian flicked off the audience on his way out of the arena.
Brandao ended up being handed a fine with 30 percent of his earnings from the fight for “not sporting behavior,” as FNG matchmaker Artem Hallanov explained. He did not disclose how much Brandao was paid to compete, but the competitor stated after the fight that he was making six figures per fight at Fight Nights Global.
The Brazilian ex UFC fighter is no stranger to unusual occurrences. Despite having UFC level, he ended up leaving the promotion after an arrest for assault and has competed with EFN Fight Nights Global in Russia for the last year. He won his first two bouts there and was matched up with Akhmed Aliev for his third.
The whole fight is available on Fight Nights Global’s YouTube channel, catch the entire absolutely insane action below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=185&v=8gw_IvAzbcc