What’s the story?
Russia’s heavyweight MMA fighter, Ibragim Khalilov was facing his Tajikistani opponent, Bakhtiyar Barotov in China at WBK 22 event. As a goodwill gesture and to show respect to one another, fighters normally have the traditional ‘touch glove’ moment, before they start hammering on each other.
When these two fighter faced off inside the cage, no one expected that Khalilov would have taken advantage of this moment. When Barotov had his hands out for the customary glove touch, Khalilov went for the one punch knockout instead. The fight was over in 3 seconds.
In case you didn’t know...
This knockout is regarded as one of the most dirtiest knockouts in the history of MMA. There always have been incidents of foul play and cheap shots in MMA. Biting, eye gouging, groin strikes, fish hooking, headbutts, 12 to 6 elbows and many other moves are illegal inside the cage.
But this, punching someone during glove touch once the bell rings, is not illegal.
The heart of the matter
Fans and MMA fighters from all around the world are criticizing this disgraceful act. We don’t know what was going on in Ibragim Khalilov’s head at that moment, but nothing can justify that cheap shot. Here is a video of the shameful act,
(Video source YouTube)
Reviewing the video, we can clearly see that Barotov had reached out with his right hand to touch gloves. Khalilov also went for the glove touch, but instantaneously whacked Barotov with a right hand, knocking the daylights out of him.
What Next?
This knockout had people from all over arguing over it. This undeniably was a cheap shot, but it’s not illegal to hit an opponent after the bell rings. Ibragim Khalilov was awarded the victory by knockout. If winning is everything, it sure was an easy way.
This story even had the UFC Bantamweight Champion, Cody Garbrandt retweet about it,
Sportskeeda’s take
There is no law for bad sportsmanship. MMA has its share of foul play and cheap shots. Groin strikes, eye gouges, biting etc. are quite common in this sport. While most of the fighters refrain from such things and prefer to fight with dignity and honour, there are always some who can’t resist the temptation to fight dirty.
On many occassions, fighters have been disqualified for illegal elbows or kicks. Like in the case of UFC 134, where Anderson Silva was disqualified for an illegal upkick to Yushin Okami or Jon Jones getting disqualified against Matt Hamil in the finale of TUF 10 due to illegal elbows.
However, in this case it was completely legal to hit an opponent once the bell rings. It sure was a cheap and sickening way to score a victory, but completely within the defined rules of MMA.
All fighters should always remember the golden rule, once inside the cage “Protect yourself at all times”. Bakhtiyar Barotov will certainly remember this in his future fights.
