UFC 229 aftermath: 6 times in MMA history that brawls broke out post-fight
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.