There was a lot of animosity going into the Brave CF 57 co-main event rematch between Mohammad Fakhreddine and Mohamed Said Maalem, and a definitive end to the bout didn’t prevent the bad blood from spilling over.
After Fakhreddine (15-4) picked up a knockout win over Maalem (11-4) on Friday’s card in Bahrain, he went over the corner of his opponent and flipped the middle finger amid his celebration. That prompted one of the cornermen to scale and jump over the cage, causing all hell to break loose.
To his credit, however, referee Aaron Wallace stepped up and prevented the chaotic situation from escalating.
Wallace did his best to restrain Fakhreddine, who managed to get free and rush the cage intruder with a winging punch. Multiple people filled the cage, and Wallace pulled back multiple men and separated people until cooler heads prevailed.
Ultimately, things got civil enough for both men to meet in the center of the cage for the result announcement to be read.
Check out the madness below (via Twitter):
Mohammad Fakhreddine 🆚 Mohamed Said Maalem pic.twitter.com/XuSYMEKYPN
— BRAVE Combat Federation (@bravemmaf) March 11, 2022
Don't go starting post fight fights with the Vanilla Gorilla Aaron Wallace Cageside #BraveCF57 pic.twitter.com/GAq6TPP4jn
— Noel O'Keeffe (@nok1980) March 11, 2022
The tension between Fakhreddine and Maalem stems from their first bout at Brave CF 52 in August. Maalem earned a first-round TKO victory at the event, but the finishing sequence included multiple strikes to the back of the head. Fakhreddine filed an appeal of the result with the Italian Federation of Grappling and Mixed Martial Arts, and the result was overturned to a no contest.
Fakhreddine got his redemption in the rematch to claim the vacant Brave CF light heavyweight title, but the scene afterward set the table for a potential trilogy down the line.
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