Promotion is a big part of any combat sports events. But there’s still quite a gap between trash talk and random physical confrontation during what was meant to be a face off.
Russian bare-knuckle boxing promotion Hardcore FC was recently conducting a press conference for their forthcoming event.
This was when boxer Javid Rzayev arrived on camera with a microphone and started trash-talking one of the participants, his opponent stood up and walked up to Rzayev. He exchanged a few words with Rzayev before delivering a right punch that rendered him unconscious.
The other boxers watched from their seats stunned at what had just happened. It is strange that there wasn’t any security there, particularly in light of the manner in which a combatant who was obviously not authorized to be there managed to stop proceedings.
This has occurred before in the promotion as well. They have a reputation for having spontaneous brawls break out in the middle of press conferences.
In light of this, several individuals on social media believed it to be a manufactured PR ploy. Nevertheless, the promotion said that the competitor who attacked Rzayev would be disqualified from his event.
UFC knows all about contentious interviews. While they’ve done their best to stave off physical conflicts there have been a couple prominent ones in the past.
Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier engaged in one of the largest brawls ever seen at a press conference. The two were at the moment engaged in a fierce rivalry. When they squared up for a picture op with the media, Cormier pushed Jones. This set off an all-out brawl between the two.
They’re not the only ones either. Kevin Lee and Michael Chiesa engaged in an altercation at a UFC press conference as well. After Lee made a remark about Chiesa’s mother, all hell broke loose. The remark angered Chiesa, causing them to run at one other and even exchange punches before security intervened.