Thiago Oliveira was disqualified in his fight at Octagon 44 for biting Erkin Darmenov’s ear.
Anything can happen in combat sports, and another example was provided in Almaty, Kazakhstan. On April 29, there was a welterweight MMA bout between Oliveira and Darmenov on the Octagon 44 main card, which ended with chaos.
Toward the end of the first round, Oliveira had his opponent pressed up against the cage. The Brazilian landed a knee that looked like it hit Darmenov’s groin, dropping the Kazakhstan-born fighter to the ground.
Once he secured back control, Oliveira began hunting a rear-naked choke, which was being fought off by his opponent. The Brazilian fighter decided to bite Darmenov’s ear, drawing an immediate panicking reaction from ‘Talatuli.’ The referee was standing right next to the illegal maneuver but somehow didn’t see what happened.
Moments later, Oliveira secured the rear-naked choke, leading Darmenov to tap out. Despite complaints by the Kazakh fighter, ‘Siriguela’ called him crazy and began celebrating by dancing and mocking his opponent.
Darmenov couldn’t hold back his frustrations and called out his opponent for the foul play, which almost led to a physical altercation between the teams. After several minutes of the fight-ending sequence being reviewed, Oliveira was disqualified for his illegal actions.
The Brazilian was furious about the decision, leading to him throwing a tantrum and trying to escalate the situation. Security stepped in and forced Oliveira to leave the cage before Darmenov had his hand raised.
Thiago Oliveira loses sixth consecutive fight after being disqualified at Octagon 44
Thiago Oliveira needed a win at Octagon 44. After starting his professional MMA run with a 16-4 record, he lost his lone Bellator fight in October 2020. Since then, ‘Siriguela’ has lost five more times, including the disqualification on April 29. It’ll be intriguing to see if Oliveira is invited back to compete at an Octagon event in Kazakhstan.
Meanwhile, Erik Darmenov likely would’ve preferred to win a different way. With that said, he secured his fifth consecutive win after starting his professional MMA career with an 8-5 record. The 26-year-old is now one step closer to reaching his full potential.
Watch the fight between Thiago Oliveira and Erik Darmenov’s ear starting at 4:03:04 below:
