At the start of UAE Warriors 39 in Abu Dhabi, a crazy scene played out as a combatant who had seemingly suffered a concussion was knocked unconscious inside the first few seconds of the match.
Rustem Kudaibergenov and Ilkhom Nazimov’s preliminary fight came to an abrupt stop.
The first blow of the bout was a left leg kick delivered by Nazimov (9-3) after the fighters had exchanged gloves. Five seconds into the bout, Kudaibergenov (6-2) caught it and delivered a laser-like counter right hand that faceplanted Nazimov for the walk-off knockout.
Perhaps even more bizarre than the lightning-fast finale was what happened next.
The referee was attending to Nazimov while Kudaibergenov was celebrating by performing a Justin Gaethje-like backflip off the cage.
At that point, Nazimov, who was obviously concussed, believed he was still in the fight and started grappling with the referee.
“He doesn’t know what happened,” the commentator said.
“He just kneed the referee! Did you see that?”
The referee struggled to maintain composure throughout the incident as Nazimov attempted to clinch in a Thai style and launched knees and kicks before realizing the fight was done.
