Tamires Vidal made a small slice of unwanted UFC history on Saturday night.
The Brazilian bantamweight suffered a bizarre loss to Melissa Gatto on the undercard of Lerone Murphy’s big win over Edson Barboza in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Despite fighting 10lbs above her natural weight class on late notice, Gatto dominated the first two rounds with her superior grappling skills.
Vidal was in desperate need of a big round three, but it had barely got going before referee Chris Tognoni was forced to step in and wave things off.
The 25-year-old took an accidental jab to her left breast – which is legal – before clutching her chest in pain, turning away Gatto and making the grave mistake of trying to call a time-out.
Gatto swarmed with a series of follow-up strikes that led to her recording a strange knockout win just 37 seconds into the final frame.
Vidal seemed to be in serious discomfort as she held a bag of ice on the impacted area while the official result was read out by legendary announcer Bruce Buffer.
Footage from the UFC APEX showed she was still nursing the injury as she headed backstage after dropping to 7-3 as a professional MMA fighter.
MMA fans were shocked and confused at the end of the fight.
One person tweeted: “A difficult watch. Not sure that should be legal.”
Another fan said: “Crazy, why don’t female fighters do this more?”
A third person added: “Just when we thought we seen it all.”
Someone else commented: “To be honest, I’m super surprised that it hasn’t happened before! like, all the women fights in UFC history & that hasn’t happened before tonight lol that’s crazy.”
Post-fight, Gatto claimed that while studying her opponent she realised that Viddal tends to stop fighting after being hit in the chest.
The 28-year-old didn’t reveal if she was targeting Viddal’s breasts on purpose but did say she had been advised to continue fighting if a shot landed in or around that area.
“I watched her last fight, and she always feels that [area],” Gatto said at her post-fight press conference.
“She always tries to stop the fight, but the [referee] said to me, ‘Don’t stop. You go.’ And I go, I finish, and I get my victory.”
News Summary:
- UFC fighter bizarrely knocked out after taking punch to the breast
- Check all news and articles from the latest Football updates.