'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The brawl at UFC 229 between the respective teams of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor undoubtedly put a stain on what was a tremendous show overall, but while it’s easy for the likes of Dana White to label it as a black eye on the sport, the truth is that it isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened.
Post-fight brawls and fracas have happened on numerous occasions in MMA history – both inside the UFC and in other promotions too – and while fans and analysts shake their head when they go down, they definitely drum up publicity.
Here are 6 other notorious post-fight brawls in MMA history.
#1: The StrikeForce Nashville Brawl – 04/17/2010
Before UFC 229’s incident, this was by far the most notorious post-fight fracas in MMA history. Not only did it put an extra stain on what was a disappointing show for StrikeForce, but it signalled the end of the promotion’s broadcast stint on CBS Primetime and inadvertently led to the demise of the promotion when it was bought out by UFC parent company Zuffa a year later.
The main event saw Jake Shields upset Dan Henderson over a five round decision to retain his StrikeForce Middleweight title, but during the post-fight promo, all hell broke loose.
Fellow StrikeForce fighter Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller entered the cage unexpectedly to challenge Shields to a rematch, and despite Miller clearly grinning and meaning no harm, Shields’ teammates – including then-StrikeForce champs Gilbert Melendez and Nick Diaz, as well as UFC star Nate Diaz, took exception.
Miller was first shoved away by Melendez and then punched by the elder Diaz, and the brawl ended with Miller on the canvas with both Diaz brothers attacking him with soccer kicks, while StrikeForce announcer Gus Johnson called for restraint, yelling “gentlemen, we’re on national television!”
Eventually the brawl was broken up by a combination of security, StrikeForce officials and Henderson’s teammates, but the damage was done. The reputation of the Diaz brothers as being completely unhinged was cemented, and when the show did a disappointing rating, CBS used the fracas as the reasoning for pulling the plug on their relationship with the California-based promotion.
#2: Ortiz flips off Shamrock at UFC 19 – 03/05/1999
During the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ of the UFC – deep into the infamous cable ban – some of the UFC’s biggest stars came from Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den team. By late 1996 Shamrock himself had left the promotion, but his students continued to see success in the Octagon, and two of those more successful fighters were Jerry Bohlander and Guy Mezger.
Meanwhile in 1997, UFC 13 saw the debut of a cocky young fighter named Tito Ortiz. A bleached-blonde wrestler with a bad attitude, Ortiz defeated Wes Albritton in his debut fight to reach the finals of that event’s Middleweight tournament, but in the final he fell prey to a guillotine choke from Mezger despite dominating early on.
Two years later, Ortiz returned and renewed his rivalry with the Lion’s Den by beating Bohlander down in one-sided fashion. That set up a rematch with Mezger two months later, and it was following that fight that a fracas that would define the UFC for years to come broke out.
Ortiz defeated Mezger in another largely one-sided bout, controlling him on the ground and destroying him with ground-and-pound, but once the fight was called off, he decided to turn up the heat.
Firstly he pulled on an offensive t-shirt which read “Gay Mezger is my bitch” before turning to Mezger’s corner to flip off Shamrock himself. The then-WWE superstar went ballistic and had to be restrained from leaping the fence to confront Ortiz, while Tito himself just grinned at the chaos he’d caused.
Three years later Shamrock would return to the UFC to face Ortiz – and the fight main evented UFC 40, which went on to become one of the most successful shows in promotional history.
#3: Ortiz causes chaos again at UFC 51 – 02/05/2005
By early 2005, Tito Ortiz had lost the UFC Light-Heavyweight title he’d held between 2000 and 2003, but he was still easily the UFC’s most bankable star, largely due to his penchant for being able to build major rivalries with his opponents.
Once his feud with Ken Shamrock was done, he’d moved onto a rivalry with former training partner with Chuck Liddell, but after he’d lost to Liddell in 2004 it was somewhat unclear where he’d head next. At UFC 51 he fought – and defeated – Vitor Belfort in the final fight of his UFC contract, and nobody was really sure what he’d do next.
The mayhem that he caused after the Belfort fight gave the fans more than a little indication. Ortiz was highly respectful to Belfort himself, telling him “you bought the best out of me”, but when he was handed a mic, he soon turned to his real targets – his old rivals Shamrock and Liddell.
Tito challenged Liddell first, and ‘The Iceman’ soon obliged and leapt into the cage to confront Ortiz. The two jawed for a few moments before Ortiz then called out “Ken Slam-cock” too, and sure enough, angry as ever, Ken made his way into the Octagon.
It was then that things got really wild, as Shamrock was so incensed that he had to be held back from going after Ortiz by NSAC officials, and that seemed to egg Liddell on too as he was then escorted from the cage. The whole mess finally came to a head when Shamrock was given a mic and began to roar at Ortiz about how he was already signed for the rematch.
It was a chaotic way to end UFC 51, but for Ortiz, Shamrock and Liddell it paid off – Tito’s rematches with Shamrock and Liddell both took place in 2006 and ended up breaking the records for UFC pay-per-view buyrates at the time.
#4: The Noons vs. Diaz incident – 06/14/2008
Almost two years prior to the infamous ‘Nashville Brawl’, the Diaz brothers were involved in an earlier post-fight altercation, this time in the Elite XC promotion against KJ Noons – and bizarrely, Noons’ father Karl.
Noons and Nick Diaz had met for the inaugural Elite XC 160lbs title in late 2007, and the fight had ended when Noons – who largely dominated with his striking – opened a cut on Diaz’s forehead that forced the doctor to stop the fight.
7 months later, the two men were in action on the same show – Elite XC’s Return of the King event in Honolulu, Hawaii. Diaz defeated Muhsin Corbbrey on the undercard, while the main event saw Noons defend his title against Yves Edwards.
Following that fight, Diaz entered the cage to challenge Noons for a rematch, to which Noons asked his native Hawaiian crowd for their opinion. The crowd reacted by booing Diaz loudly, and this caused Diaz to grab interviewer Bill Goldberg’s mic, and utter his now-famous quote – “Don’t be scared, homie!”
Suddenly, all hell broke loose as Noons’ father Karl suddenly lunged for Diaz, prompting his brother Nate to launch a water bottle at the elder Noons. A fracas then ensued that ended with both Diaz brothers being escorted from the cage to a chorus of boos, flipping off the crowd in the process.
The event cemented the Diaz brothers as MMA’s top villains, although Nate later claimed Karl Noons was drunk and overreacted during the incident. And video footage appeared to back him up – he had indeed only thrown the bottle after Karl lunged for Nick, contrary to the claims of the elder Noons.
#5: McGregor jumps the cage – 11/10/2017
Although the UFC announcers tried to portray Conor McGregor as a blameless victim in the UFC 229 post-fight fracas, the reality is that while it was his opponent Khabib Nurmagomedov who caused the brawl there, the Irishman is no stranger to jumping over a cage to confront a largely innocent party himself.
The incident in question took place in late 2017 following ‘The Notorious One’s excursion to the world of boxing for his fight with Floyd Mayweather. McGregor was cornering teammate Charlie Ward in Dublin at the Bellator 187 event, and was evidently a little too pumped up for his friend’s fight.
Ward knocked out opponent John Redmond with seconds to go in the opening round, and showing a flagrant disregard for the rules, McGregor leapt over the cage to celebrate with his teammate – and as officials rushed towards the UFC star to remove him from the scene, he lost it completely.
Referee Marc Goddard was the target for McGregor’s ire, and the Irishman rushed towards him and lunged at him a number of times while being restrained by Bellator officials. For his part, Goddard – a former MMA fighter himself – remained stoic and simply stepped away from the snarling Irishman.
Cooler heads eventually prevailed and McGregor left the cage, but it was a sign of things to come in terms of the wild events that would surround ‘The Notorious One’ in 2018.
#6: Coleman and Baroni vs. Chute Boxe – 02/26/2006
The Japanese PRIDE promotion was a lot like MMA’s version of the Wild West – no drug testing, odd weight classes and a lot of mismatches – and if ever there was an MMA version of the Gunfight at the OK Corral it was probably the incident that occurred at the end of the 2006 fight between Mark Coleman and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua.
On paper it was a mismatch; Coleman was years past his prime and had been firmly beaten in his last two PRIDE appearances, and while it was PRIDE 2005 Grand Prix winner Shogun’s first appearance at Heavyweight, the Brazilian was largely expected to deal with ‘The Hammer’ with relative ease.
Shogun had never faced a wrestler as good as Coleman though, and within seconds he found himself taken to the ground. The Brazilian scrambled and went for a leglock that Coleman avoided, and when ‘The Hammer’ lunged for an ankle pick, Shogun stuck out his right arm to brace himself – and dislocated the elbow on the way down.
The referee immediately flew in to stop the fight, but Coleman didn’t understand what was going on and continued to punch at the Brazilian – even throwing the referee off to the side in the process.
From there things got really crazy, as Shogun’s Chute Boxe teammates – including his brother Murilo ‘Ninja’ and PRIDE champ Wanderlei Silva – leapt into the ring to attack Coleman, causing Coleman’s teammate Phil Baroni – as well as his father, of all people – to join in the fracas, which ended with Baroni tackling Silva to the ground and Coleman standing on his head.
Although PRIDE officials were finally able to separate the two factions – leaving Coleman and Baroni flexing in the ring – the animosity continued backstage, where Coleman was seen ranting at ‘Rampage’ Jackson that he could’ve done with his help.
The rivalry would finally end three years later in the UFC, when Shogun defeated Coleman in a rematch, but the brawl in the PRIDE ring remains one of the most memorable wild moments in MMA history.
