Thiago Oliveira denies biting his opponent’s ear during a controversial bout in Kazakhstan, despite being disqualified after a replay showed the incident.
Thiago Oliveira maintains that he never bit his opponent’s ear during a controversial bout in Kazakhstan this past weekend. Oliveira initially celebrated a first-round rear-naked choke victory over Erkin Darmenov at Octagon 44, before getting disqualified after a replay showed him biting Darmenov’s right ear in order to adjust his position. Despite this, Oliveira insists that he is innocent.
“If you watch the video you’ll notice it never shows me biting him,” Oliveira said. “I move closer to his ear so the rear-naked choke gets tight. There’s no point saying I didn’t bite him because everyone will draw their own conclusions, but watch the video and you’ll see I didn’t bite him.” He further commented, “Those who know me know I never needed anything like that to win. And I wouldn’t do something crazy like that now. He was about to give up anyway, I didn’t need to bite him.”
Following the disqualification loss, Oliveira’s record dropped to 16-10, marking his sixth straight defeat after previously having an 80 percent winning rate prior to 2019. The one-time Bellator fighter claims referee Dauranbek Zhakaev wanted to restart the contest after the incident, but Oliveira insisted he didn’t do anything illegal and decided to leave the cage. Consequently, he was not paid his win bonus. “They didn’t disqualify me [for biting],” Oliveira claims. “I said I wouldn’t continue, and then they disqualified me. Believe me if you want, and life goes on.” Oliveira also mentioned that he is unsure about any remaining fights in his contract with Octagon, and wants nothing to do with the promotion following this past bout.