MMA Fighter Presents Opponent With Flowers Before Kicking Him In The Face

Watch the shocking moment an MMA fighter presented his opponent with flowers at a press conference, right before kicking him in the face:

#popMMA pic.twitter.com/3FK5wxD0lF

— Matysek (@Matysek88) March 9, 2022

The clash took place during a press conference for an infamous Russian promotion, which prides itself on instigating WWE-style backstage brawls between fighters long before they enter the ring.

During the video, one of the competitors can be seen rising from his seat and approaching his opponent with a bunch of flowers as a ‘gift’- before swiftly changing his mind at the last minute and opting to kick his head in instead.

Surely enough, a brawl breaks out moments later as the two men fall to the floor and start grappling each other, before being dragged apart by security personnel moments later.

But after the incident appears to have resolved itself and the two fighters dust themselves down and return to their seats, the initial recipient of the flowers has a change of heart himself and instead decides to rush his opponent, administering his own beatdown before masked security officers once again swoop in to diffuse the situation.

The promotion - believed to be called Arena Fighting - is notorious for holding its press conferences in front of a live audience, and despite claims to the contrary is keen to encourage pre-match confrontations between fighters, with many events ending in mass brawls.

At another event, two fighters even went as far as putting on a pair of gloves before scrapping with eachother unconvincingly on stage.

Elsewhere in Russia, another promotion named the Epic Fighting Championship prides itself on hosting mismatches and other such controversies in the ring.

Previous bouts have seen men take on women, two-on-one match-ups and heavyweight fighters taking on featherweight rivals. Take a look at a recent Russian fight that saw a 27-stone fighter take on an opponent half his size:

These matches typically end with members of the fighters' training teams entering the cage and taking part in the fight, forcing security to intervene.

More conventional MMA promotions typically go to great lengths to ensure that these kinds of events do not occur, as in normal circumstances the fighters and promoter could both be fined by the regulatory body should any sort of fight break out.

But for promotions like Arena and Epic, those sort of incidents are the norm, not the exception.

Indeed, just last week, a three-on-three team battle descended into chaos after a ringman jumped into the ring and got involved, leading to yet another mass brawl erupting as over a dozen men then started duking it out.

In another recent incident, a female fighter took on and defeated a 75-year-old man and his 18-year-old grandson in a controversial two-to-one clash.