There have been plenty of unique endings to fights over years and years of mixed martial arts (MMA) action, but what happened Friday night (Feb. 7, 2025) at LFA 201 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, may take the cake.
The incident occurred during a lightweight scrap between Brazilian finisher, Paulo Henrique, and surging Russian contender, Vladimir Kanunnikov, who brought an eight-fight win streak into his LFA debut on Friday night. Kanunnikov was expected to be able to take care of business on enemy soil and he ended up doing just that, but his decisions in the final few seconds of the fight ultimately cost him the win.
Kanunnikov looked dominant in the early going as he was able to get the fight to the ground and started to score some nice ground-and-pound along the cage. As he was going through the motions the Russian fighter ended up putting his hand around Henrique’s throat. Fighters are allowed to put pressure on the neck and even apply a choke if they can, but Kanunnikov ended up squeezing his fingers together in an attempted illegal throat grab. The referee watched closely and was forced to step in to wave the fight off as Henrique was on his way out.
It wasn’t as gnarly as a Steven Seagal throat rip, but it was still pretty nasty and definitely against the rules. Check out the final sequence in the above video player.
Believe it or not, Kanunnikov wasn’t disqualified for his illegal choke. Instead, the lightweight bout was ruled a No Contest. The incident still costed Kanunnikov a potential victory in his LFA debut and fans will now remember the time they witnessed a fighter try to win by way of throat rip.