MMA Fighter’s Finger Falls Off During Fight, Gets Lost

An odd incident occurred this past week when an MMA fighter inexplicably lost a finger during a match.

Khetag Pliev, an Olympian who competed in the 2012 games as a wrestler, was facing off against Devin Goodale in a Cage Fury Fighting Championship showdown airing on UFC Fight Pass.

A portion of the way through the second round, the referee suddenly stopped the bout.

What was the problem?  Well, he noticed that Pliev was missing his left ring finger.

The bigger issue? It wasn’t immediately apparent where exactly the digit went.

Various officials searched all around the cage to no avail. At one point there was an announcement over the PA system asking people to look for it within the confides of the 2300 Arena.

Finally, after a bit of frantic searching, the finger was discovered lodged inside Pliev’s glove

OMG!!!

Khetag Pliev loses his finger mid-fight at #CFFC94 😱😱😱😱😱 pic.twitter.com/7YHBXGxciS

— MMA India (@MMAIndiaShow) April 2, 2021

In an interview with Marc Raimondi of ESPN, Pliev revealed that he had felt something happen during the match, but didn’t realize what it was.

“In the second round, he caught my glove with one hand and held it,” he said.

Once something is posted online it’s online forever. https://t.co/PGqv38x3w5

— Game 7 (@game7__) April 2, 2021

“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.”

While this obviously isn’t as bad as when an MMA fighter literally got paralyzed after a move went horribly wrong, it still left some viewers pretty distressed.

Goodale was ultimately ruled the winner by TKO. Pliev plans to appeal the fight result with the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission. He maintains that the grabbing of his gloves by Goodale during the bout contributed to the injury and his opponent’s victory should be overturned.

Related: New Contradictions Arise In Deshaun Watson Situation