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Fighter’s Coach Spits Water in His Face Moments Before UFC Debut

Stephen Douglas

Diyar Nugozhay’s UFC debut started with his cornerman spitting water in his face.
Diyar Nugozhay’s UFC debut started with his cornerman spitting water in his face. / @Pelunaton

Diyar Nurgozhay did not have a great week in Las Vegas for his UFC debut.

Nurgozhay landed his shot in the UFC after winning the first 10 fights of his career, including his most recent bout on Dana White's Contender Series back in October.

When his big opportunity finally came against Brendson Ribeiro at UFC Fight Night: Vettori vs. Dolidze 2, pretty much everything that could go wrong did.

First the 27-year old fighter from Kazakhstan missed weight by 4.5 pounds on Friday meaning he had to forfeit 25% of his purse to his opponent, win or lose.

Then when he walked out to the cage for his fight on Saturday night, one of the guys in his corner spit water in his face to get him ready. This was of course streamed to the world in high definition wherever you stream ESPN+.

At least he closed his eyes so you know that he knew it was coming?

Finally, as if things couldn't get any worse, Nugozhay, who was a pretty big favorite, lost to Ribeiro via kimura during the second round. That's rough.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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