UFC 266: Chris Daukaus Explains Throwing Up Middle Finger in Abdurakhimov Fight

Las Vegas, NV — Chris Daukaus may be the first fighter to knock an opponent out twice in one fight following UFC 266.

“Apparently that happened, so I’ve got to rewatch the fight,” the heavyweight exclaimed following his fight with Shamil Abdurakhimov on Saturday. The first “finish” came near the end of the first round, with Abdurakhimov seemingly down and out. With Daukaus in mount, however, the Russian came around, and the fight was allowed to go to the second.

Speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press following the bout, Daukaus (12-3), winner of five straight, four under the UFC banner, admitted he was “a little bit” surprised the fight was allowed to continue, “but I couldn’t land clean shots even when I was in mount. So I really didn’t expect [the ref] to stop it with that. If he was going to stop it at the end of the first, it would have been before I got that position.”

Daukaus also took time to explain why he threw up a middle finger at his opponent at the start of the second round.

“At the beginning of the fight, we touched gloves, it was cool. And then he started pawing at me with his fingers open, he scraped my eyes a little bit,” Daukaus explained. “Now obviously it wasn’t warranted enough that it was an eye poke, but he was like starting to scrape at my eyes. I was like ‘nah, this f*cking dude is going to start doing some stupid stuff’ because I was connecting. I was landing. He knew he was going to lose, so I just got a little upset and flipped him off.”

Daukaus theorized that the eye scraping was to “maybe give himself a break, because even between the first and second, he was just standing there, and he was like, wobbling before the second round started. And even then, I was talking sh*t to myself. I don’t know if it was on the camera, if you could see it, but I was like ‘he’s done, he’s done.’ That’s something, I have to keep my emotions in check, especially fighting in front of crowds now.”

Watch the full UFC 266 post-fight press scrum with Chris Daukaus above. More coverage of the event can be found below.