Tensions can rise not only between opponents but also within a team. This was evident at UFC Mexico when featherweight Jamall Emmers secured a knockout victory against Gabriel Miranda in the first round, only to have his coaching staff engage in a heated exchange that quickly went viral.
Corner camera footage captured the moment when Emmers’ striking coach Chris Culley stood up and confronted his jiu-jitsu coach Jacob Behney. The incident escalated when Behney grabbed Culley’s arm and pushed him back slightly.
Days after the incident, Culley has broken his silence about what transpired. According to him, the altercation stemmed from accumulated frustration over Behney’s approach to the game plan across multiple fights.
“I stand up and I say, ‘I f*cking told you’. I told him for 3 fights and it was just a summation of everything. I f**king told you, man,” Culley explained in an interview with Sirius XM.
Culley, who is also the godfather to Emmers’ son, revealed that there was more to the situation than what cameras captured. He claimed that UFC lightweight fighter Chris Padilla asked Behney to stop making negative comments during the fight, to which Behney allegedly responded by grabbing Padilla’s hand and saying, “Don’t put your f*cking hands on me.”
The striking coach detailed how their coaching dynamics had been strained following a previous loss. “This guy was telling me to do just things that weren’t in the game plan,” Culley stated. “I firmly believe that it was his decisions in the Landwehr fight that cost us. And that broke my soul because Jamal Emmers is the godfather of my son.”
Following that defeat, Culley made a promise: “I told Jamal, never again. I will never be silent. I will never let, if I see a keyhole to victory, we’re running through it. Or I am not war chief.”
According to Culley, they had agreed on specific roles—he would handle striking strategies while Behney would focus on grappling. However, during the Mexico bout, Culley felt Behney was overstepping these boundaries by giving contradictory instructions.
“Jake is saying, ‘David Loazu, step on the foot. Go, go, go, go, go.’ And that is not what we needed,” Culley explained. “What we needed was, ‘there it is. Opening, check, return. Attach, elbow.'”
Despite the coaching drama, Emmers remained focused enough to deliver a stunning performance, securing the knockout victory in the manner they had practiced.
To add to the unusual circumstances, veteran announcer Bruce Buffer made a rare mistake when announcing the result, initially declaring Miranda as the winner before the error was corrected.
During the press conference, Emmers appeared unfazed by the cornermen controversy and Buffer’s gaffe, even calling out the winner of another featherweight bout on the card between Christian Rodriguez and Melquizael Costa.
While Emmers celebrated his victory, the incident raises questions about the cohesion of his coaching team moving forward.
