UFC fans witnessed a bizarre first last night when a fighter was disqualified for biting his opponent in the Octagon.
The moment of madness came from the 20-year-old Brazilian Igor da Silva Severino, who was making his debut at UFC On ESPN 53 last night against Andre Lima after having joined the promotion with a perfect 8-0 record via the Contender Series.
In the second round of the fight Lima suddenly shouted to the referee to stop the fight. At first it wasn’t apparent what had happened, but when he lifted up his left arm a visible bite mark could clearly be seen and so Severino was immediately disqualified.
“We were fighting well, and then at some point, for some reason, he decided to bite me,” Lima, recalled via a translator after the fight. “I went down, and as I was getting up, I yelled because I felt sharp pain. I thought it was the fence at first. I thought ‘there was no way he would have bit me’, especially with the way the fight was going.”
Needless to say Severino has also now been cut from the promotion as a result of his actions.
“Those were two up-and-coming undefeated fighters,” White told Yahoo! Sports Kevin Iole. “If you get frustrated and want out of the fight, there are plenty of ways to do it, but the worst thing you can do is bite your opponent.
“Now, you get cut and lose the biggest opportunity of your life. Not to mention, he’s going to have real problems with the Nevada State Athletic Commission.”
For his part Lima appears to have taken being bit in his stride, and in fact even went out after the fight and got a tattoo of the bite mark, framed by the words “I got f****** bit bonus.” .
This amused Dana White so much that he revealed that he’d upped the initial $25,000 bonus he was going to give Lima to $50,000.
“I was going to give him 25k [dollars]. Now I’m giving him 50k. This is awesome,” White wrote on Instagram.
Andre Lima wasted no time turning his bite mark from Igor Severino at #UFCVegas89 into a tattoo. pic.twitter.com/Wgv2jpr59t
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) March 24, 2024
