CAGE MATCH FIGHTER’S FINGER RIPPED OFF!
Loses bout but digit was found and reattached
MIXED martial arts fight fans are used to brutality and blood, but even they were left trying to hold down their dinners when middleweight fighter Khetag Pliev’s finger was ripped off as he battled in the cage!
Pliev shockingly lost his left ring finger while struggling with Devin Goodale, 28, at the Cage Fury Fighting Championships in Philadelphia on April 1.
“In the second round, he caught my glove with one hand and held it,” recalls Khetag, a 37-year-old, 212pound Russian native. “I felt my finger snap. He kept pulling my glove and my finger snapped.
“We kept fighting. When the second round was finished, I see my [bone] was out in the open.”
Even with his skin gone and his finger missing, he didn’t want to quit!
“I wanted to keep fighting, because I felt like I had this guy,” Khetag says. “But the doctor saw that and stopped the fight.”
At that point, a huge search was launched for the missing digit. Officials began scouring the inside of the cage and an announcement was made asking the 2,300 spectators to look for it, too.
After minutes had passed, the severed finger was found still lodged in Khetag’s glove.
His opponent was awarded a TKO — but Khetag waited for the official announcement before he went to the hospital, where the finger was reattached.
He says he still intends to contest the decision, claiming his opponent illegally grabbed and held onto his glove.
Meanwhile, promoter Rob Haydak was blown away by Khetag’s grit and determination to continue the battle despite his grisly injury.
“It was crazy,” Haydak says. “He didn’t even flinch. He was getting ready to do the [official] decision and I was like, ‘Uh, guys, get him out of the cage and go put his finger back on.’”