Dana White Confirms Igor Severino Dropped After Biting Opponent
The duration of Igor Severino’s UFC career was around one and a half rounds.
Andre Lima's arm clearly showed the mark left by the bite.
At UFC Vegas 89 on Saturday, the 20-year-old flyweight made his promotional debut by losing to Andre Lima by disqualification. Biting is the cause as confirmed by Dana White.
In what appeared to be a senseless move, Severino bit Lima’s upper left arm during their grappling match in the second round. Lima began screaming instantly and motioned for referee Chris Tognoni to break up the fight, which he eventually did.
Tognoni examined Lima’s arm and conferred with the judges before declaring the bout to be over. The Nevada State Athletic Commission may also be contacting Severino, according to UFC president Dana White, who informed Kevin Iole of keviniole.com a few hours later that Severino will not be continuing with the promotion:
“Those two were promising, unbeaten fighters in their early stages.” “Biting your opponent is the worst thing you can do if you become frustrated and want to end the battle. There are many other options available. You now lose your best chance in life after getting cut. He will also encounter serious issues with the NSAC.”
Dana White
At first, the ESPN booth couldn’t understand why Severino wasn’t immediately disqualified instead of only receiving a warning. They also wanted to know how Tognoni could be so certain that the 20-year-old purposely bit down. That uncertainty was dispelled by a picture of Lima’s elbow, which showed one of the clearest bite wounds you would ever see.
This is Severino’s first defeat in professional mixed martial arts, and it occurs shortly after he made his UFC debut on “Dana White’s Contender Series.” Up until then, he has only fought in his home country of Brazil, most notably for the Jungle Fight Championship.
Before the bite, Severino was on a roll, outscoring Lima 36–30 in big strikes and winning five of the nine takedowns in his three minutes of total control.
Lima had already won on the DWCS in October, so this was also his UFC debut. Before talking to ESPN, he jumped into his coach’s arm and celebrated like he always does:
“He bit me when I tried to take him down, even though I was able to hit him fairly hard. As you could see, I was going to yell because I wanted to finish the fight and keep hurting him. I got bit by him.”
For Lima, that bite became profitable because, according to his management, White promised to give Lima the first-ever “I Got F***ing Bit Bonus,” which MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz learned about.
Looks like Lima chose to get a tattoo to commemorate the occasion:
In the UFC, you can never be certain how a night will unfold.
