In the latest of bizarre moments to stem from Russian MMA, Vadim Vadimych taunted his rival Israpil Ramazanov by presenting him with a sheep during their face-off.
The farcical encounter happened at a recent press conference for MMA promotion 'Our Business'. The Russian-based promotion regularly host press conferences with fans in attendance before their events, with the fighters competing on the cards often coming to blows before even stepping in the cage.
In the clip, Vadimych leaves the stage before returning with a sheep that has a veil on. He puts the animal down in front of his rival Ramazanov, who is nicknamed 'Legendary Murad'. Despite the crowd seeing the funny side of the situation as the sheep strolled making noise, Ramazanov was not impressed as he walked towards Vadimych and tried to slap him before taking him down. A scuffle broke out with security rushing onstage to break it up, as another onstage member retrieved the confused sheep.
Ramazanov has a respectable following of 146,000 fans on Instagram and has previously competed for German promotion Hype Fighting Championship. With both Ramazanov and Vadimych's MMA records being nonexistent, it's unclear if the pair are going to fight at an 'Our Business' event or whether they were appearing at the press conference for other reasons.
It's not the first time baffling moment (and most likely not the last) to come from an obscure Russian MMA promotion. Epic Fighting Championships recently hosted a fight in which four men battled it out in a two-on-two, but they were all blindfolded. It turned into a blind wrestling match with the fighters being separated on several occasions as they became confused whilst grappling on the mat.
What did you make of the Russian fighter gifting a sheep to his opponent? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below
There was also a controversial fight involving middleweight fighter Ivan Strelnikov in Hardcore MMA, which is also based in Russia. Strelnikov was forced to cover up a tattoo on his stomach that showed Nazi symoblism during his decision loss to Kenan Guliyev. The failed attempt to cover up the tattoo, which translated to "born to be white", saw the tape come off just seconds into the opening round as Strelnikov's opponent landed a body shot.
Earlier this year in Epic FC, Alexander Karapetyan took on two opponents at once, both of which weighed more than him. What made the feat even more impressive is that Karapetyan has one arm, but it didn't matter as he managed to knock one of his opponents out on his way to winning the fight.
