Russian-born mixed martial artist Khetag Pliev made headlines for an unusual reason after his latest bout at Cage Fury Fighting Championship.
The 37-year-old fighter, who still dreams of competing in the UFC, lost one of his fingers during a bout against Devin Goodale at CFFC 94.
When TMZ Sports asked him about what happened inside the cage, Khetag Pliev told his coach to explain what occurred to cause such a horrific injury.
Khetag Pliev's coach recalled:
"So, in the second round, Khetag Pliev took the opponent down. The opponent reached under and grabbed his glove. When he grabbed his glove, he started to pull on it multiple times. When we went back and watched the video, even the announcers were like, 'he's pulling on his glove, the referee hasn't noticed yet.'"
He further explained:
"Well, when he was pulling on the glove, it caused his finger to get lodged in a different position by him pulling on it. It came out of the slot. And so then when they came back up, and they started exchanging punches, the finger basically severed because of the whole thing."
Khetag Pliev had his finger reattached to his hand not long after as medical officials rushed him to the hospital.
As the mixed martial artist left the cage, Devin Goodale was declared the winner via technical knockout.
Khetag Pliev's coach revealed that his pupil tried to hide the injury because he wanted to finish the fight, even though his finger was already hanging from his hand. He said:
"First of all, though, I want to say: Khetag Pliev has to be one of the toughest dudes on the planet. When he came back to the corner, he tried to hide that his finger was hanging by a piece of string so he could go back there and knock this dude out."
Khetag Pliev's team announced that they would challenge the referee's official decision, as they believe he should have been declared the winner via disqualification.