During the UFC 306 main event between Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley, an unexpected display of affection caught everyone off guard. During the second round, as Dvalishvili was dominating the action, he planted kisses on O’Malley’s back while in a clinch.
Veteran UFC referee Herb Dean, who was officiating the bout, recently shared his thoughts on the unusual incident. In an interview with Helen Yee, Dean stated, “That does fall under unsportsmanlike conduct. It was a little bit romantic. A little too much romance.”
Despite the peculiar moment, it didn’t significantly impact the outcome of the match. Dvalishvili continued his dominant performance throughout the remaining rounds, ultimately securing a unanimous decision victory and claiming the bantamweight title.
Dvalishvili explained his motivation afterwards saying:
“Yeah, so I grabbed his neck, and he had like 10 seconds left. I knew he could wait it out, and he wasn’t going to sleep or tap. I just wanted to have a little fun with him, you know? I don’t hate the guy, I was just messing around a bit, but at the same time, I wanted to show that I was in control, that I dominate the situation. That’s why I was kissing him, but I got a little carried away and lost track of time. When I let go, he followed up and punched me in the head. I started defending myself again and said to the referee, ‘Sorry, ref, sorry.'”
Kisses in the octagon are highly unusual the closest it got to this recently was when UFC’s Paul Craig kissed an opponent at Polaris face offs.
Craig faced a tough lesson when transitioning to competitive grappling. In a Polaris event, Craig lost to Jed Hue, who secured a quick corkscrew footlock, forcing Craig to tap. Hue even playfully blew a kiss to Craig after the submission, adding insult to injury.
