Something truly odd happened late last night. Absolute Championship Akhmat aka ACA had it’s 141st card. The card was headlined by Froes and Suleymanov.
But what stole the thunder was the appearance of ACA founder Mairbek Khasiev in the cage. The founder of the Russian promotion expressed his displeasure at how Ali Bagov and Rashid Magomedov were competing against each other.
He ended up disqualifying both Ali Bagov and Rashid Magomedov for being too boring.
Chechen Mairbek Khasiev is really hands on with the promotion. He’s long been a patron of jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts. Khasiev isn’t afraid to get involved either – he previously overturned the result of Eduard Vartanyan and Muhammed Kokov bout from ACA 110. In the end, Khasiev didn’t overturn this bout into a no contest but it’s doubtful anyone would bother interfere with how he handled Bagov and Rashid Magomedov.
Fans online welcomed the move and weighed in they wished Dana White had acted similarly during Rose Namajunas and Carla Esparza five round bout.
Namajunas and Esparza aren’t alone in the too boring to call pile – previously Adesanya and YOel Romero had a meme worthy clash that bored the audiences and wore out Adesanya’s fanbase at a critical moment.
Alexander Shlemenko reacted to the decision of Mairbek Khasiev saying:
“I support Mairbek Khasiev in this situation,” Shlemenko said in an interview.“a lot of fighters have decided that now you can only get paid for just showing up. They fought like sparring, but it’s still a professional sport.”
“what is mutual respect if you go out to fight? All this is show. Respect is not measured that way. You went out to fight – fight! The fight will end – shake hands, hug, be friends with families, no one forbids you. But now you’re out to fight, out to fight.”
And in case you’re curious about the bout – you can actually watch it below.