UFC Vet Diego Brandão Flips Out, Incites Garbage Storm, Leaps Out Of Cage

Brazilian mixed martial artist Diego Brandão has been fighting with Russian MMA promotion Fight Nights Global this year, since the UFC released him from his contract after he allegedly pistol-whipped someone outside of an Albuquerque strip club in April 2016. He once headlined a UFC event against Conor McGregor, but two of his past three fights have been in Dagestan.

One of those took place yesterday against Akhmed Aliev and it ended in spectacularly farcical fashion. After a back-and-forth first round in which Brandão knocked Aliev down and Aliev tried a few spinning back kicks, Brandão took Aliev to the mat with about 1:50 left in the second round. That’s when things got weird.

Brandão appears to have maybe tried to bite Aliev’s ear, and while it’s not entirely clear what incited Aliev, the Russian began to smash Brandão’s chest with illegal headbutts. After the referee tried to stand the fighters up, Brandão illegally kicked Aliev in the throat and immediately tried to depart the octagon. The cage door was locked, so he simply climbed out while fans began throwing trash and bottles into the cage. He was eventually coaxed back into the cage to hear Aliev be announced as the winner by TKO (retirement), but not before he flipped double birds to the crowd.

Just another normal day in the Russian MMA world.