There’s a reason the athletic commission don’t want fighters hopping up on top of the cage wall after fights.
This past weekend (Feb. 19, 2023), surging Kazakhstan Flyweight prospect, Teymur Zhaparov (11-3-1), scored his eighth consecutive win, defeating Zhakhongir Nazhmedinov via unanimous decision at Octagon 41 in his home country. All was well for Zhaparov until he fumbled his celebration to Johnny Walker-like degrees.
While Zhaparov may not have suffered the same type of damage Walker did when Walker did his patented post-fight worm dance and tore a shoulder ligament, Zhaparov’s blunder was equally embarrassing. As seen in the video embedded above, the 31-year-old scaled the cage wall in an attempt to … presumably backflip off it? Maybe he just wanted to stand tall in victory. Either way, Zhaparov slipped and landed firmly on his butt and seemingly shook it off with no real injury.
After former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight champion and all-time great, Khabib Nurmagomedov’s, infamous jump into the crowd post-UFC 229 in Las Vegas, Nevada, fighters have been informed by most jurisdictions not to exit the cage over the top. Some fighters — Justin Gaethje perhaps most famously — have been known to celebrate their big wins with backflips off the top of the cage. Despite it becoming a trend for “The Highlight,” there have still been some close calls during his attempts.
Luckily for Zhaparov, this little mishap didn’t take place in UFC’s Octagon, otherwise, he’d be looking at a solid fine in Las Vegas. In the end, he just has to live with the lasting embarrassment as he continues racking up as many wins as he can.