You should never ignore the ref who instructs you to “Protect yourself at all times”. The landmark phrase relates to a multitude of scenarios that can happen in the cage. Although touching the gloves before the start of the fight is not obligatory, it is considered as a sign of good sportsmanship and respect between the fighters.
Former drug-dealer turned MMA fighter, Walter Pugliesi was recently accused of giving a fake glove touch signal to his opponent. The signal resulted in a brutal knockout. Walter Pugliesi faced Konstantin Linnik in a middleweight bout at The Golden Cage 6 on December 4, 2021, in Mazara del Vallo in Sicily, Italy.
As the fight commenced, Pugliesi rushed forward, ignoring the opponent’s try for glove touch, and blasted him with a a flying knee. This effectively put Linnik to sleepin just 7 seconds.
SEVEN SECOND flying knee finish by Walter Pugliesi earlier at #TheGoldenCage4 pic.twitter.com/cGK27Qehk7
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) December 4, 2021
The fans seem have mixed opinions. Some are of the the opinion that Pugliesi raised his hand toward the opponent before the bell demonstrating a mutual agreement to touch gloves. Some have the opinion that the opponent should have taken the clue as he held his gloves for too long. Some of them believed that Pugliesi pointed towards the official instead of Linnik. But what exactly transpired is probably only known to those that were in the cage during those fateful 7 seconds.
One thing is certain – while fans compare this to the infamous Jorge Masvidal flying knee there was certainly no love lost between the two. Both Masvidal and Askren were very open about animosity for one another and made no attempt to touch gloves or do anything of that sort.
Pugliesi has now improved his record to 8-3 and bounced back from a loss in his last fight against Konrad Dyrschka more than a year ago.
For those questioning the origin of the gesture – we leave you with this epic moment that transpired between Nate Diaz and Cowboy Cerrone some years back.