Devin Goodale was declared the winner by second-round technical knockout after the referee discovered between rounds that Khetag Pliev’s left ring finger was no longer attached to his hand.
* Warning: Graphic footage that might upset sensitive viewers.
Philadelphia – Canadian MMA fighter Khetag Pliev had his finger surgically reattached after it was severed during his co-main event bout with Devin Goodale at the Cage Fury Fighting Championship in Philadelphia.
Pliev, the former Olympic freestyle wrestler turned professional MMA fighter known as the ’’Terminator’’, told event promoter Rob Haydak that his finger was dislocated in the first round of the middleweight fight on Thursday night before it completely came off in the second.
Goodale was declared the winner by second-round technical knockout after referee David Osaghae discovered between rounds that Pliev’s left ring finger was no longer attached to his hand. The official method of victory, according to Sherdog.com, was ’’Detached Finger’’.
“They just made a PA announcement at #CFFC94 that they are trying to locate a fighter’s missing finger,” TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter tweeted. “It evidently fell off into his glove during the bout and is missing somewhere in the venue.”
ESPN reported that there was an announcement made at the venue to search for the stray digit before Haydak said it had been lodged in Pliev’s glove.
“In the second round, he (Goodale) caught my glove with one hand and held it,” Pliev was quoted as saying by ESPN. “I felt my finger snapped.
“He kept pulling my glove and my finger snapped. We kept fighting. When the second round was finished, I see my (bone) was out in the open.
“I wanted to keep fighting because I felt like I had this guy. But the doctor saw that and stopped the fight.”
Goodale said he did not remember what happened.
“I can’t remember anything, I don’t know,” said Goodale, who improved to a perfect four wins from four as a professional.
“I got hit by something big, I don’t remember what happened. I’m just being honest. I don’t remember what happened. I’ll have to watch the tape myself, I don’t remember anything.”
CM Punk, the former WWE star and UFC welterweight who was working as a colour commentator for Thursday’s broadcast, was equally mystified in the immediate aftermath.
“I don’t understand exactly what happened,” Punk said. “We’re not going to replay it for you, ladies and gentlemen, but it wasn’t a compound fracture.
’’It wasn’t a dislocation, a break, a laceration. His finger was just gone. It’s gone. It fell off, ripped off.”
The 37-year-old Pliev, who placed 10th in the 96kg weight class at the London Games, fell to 5-2 in mixed martial arts after Thursday’s bout, which was contracted at a catchweight of 81kg.
Pliev also fought six times as a professional boxer in the cruiserweight division from 2017 through 2019, compiling a record of five wins and one loss.
Reuters
