Andre Lima didn’t just get the win after Igor Severino bit his left bicep, he also had the bite mark tattooed after picking up the victory.
In one of the most bizarre fights ever in the UFC, Andre Lima was awarded victory by disqualification after his opponent Igor Severino bit him in the left bicep during their flyweight bout at UFC Vegas 89 last Saturday night.
Lima complained that Severino bit him during a clinch in the second round of the scheduled three-round bout; the referee Chris Tognoni then stopped the bout to take a look at Lima’s arm. After consulting with the cage-side physician, Tognoni decided that the mark on Lima’s bicep was a bite mark and called for the stoppage of the bout due to disqualification.
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Interestingly, Severino protested to Tognoni that he did not bite his opponent. The referee insisted however that he did and when the replay was shown, it was clear that Severino took a bite of Lima’s bicep while he was on his back… but things would only get interesting from there.
After the fight, UFC president Dana White announced that he had cut Severino from the UFC’s roster.
“Those were two up-and-coming undefeated fighters. If you get frustrated and want out of the fight, there are plenty of ways to do it, but the worst thing u can do is bite your opponent. Now, you get cut and lose the biggest opportunity of your life. Not to mention, he’s going to have real problems with the NSAC.”
Dana White
The UFC boss then went on to give Lima a $25,000 (~$38,290 AUD) post-fight bonus for what he went through. White then doubled the bonus to a total of $50,000 (~$76,580 AUD) after he learned that Lima immediately went to get the bite mark tattooed with the words: ” I got f*****g bit bonus”.
During an interview after the fight, Lima said he was surprised that Severino bit him. The fight was back-and-forth and it wasn’t that Severino had anything to be frustrated about.
“We were exchanging really well at that point, then he tried to take me down,” Lima said through a translator. “I went down, but I got up, and as I was getting up, I yelled because I felt pain, very sharp pain. I really thought that the fence had gotten into me. That’s what I thought happened.”
“I started yelling, ‘Ow, ow, ow,’ and they started looking at me. I was like, I don’t know what’s happening here. I really thought it was the fence, because there was absolutely no way he would have bitten me, especially with the way the fight was going. It was back and forth, it was good for him, it was good for me, and it had a lot of potential to be the “Fight of the Night.” So that’s when I started yelling. I felt the pain and then later realized he bit me.”
Lima said that he wanted to ask Severino why he did it but things happened so fast. By the time he got the bite mark permanently inked, Severino was already on his way home after White gave him the pink slip.