Brazilian MMA Ref Intern Allows Fighter To Be Knocked Out Three Times During Bout

So you want to do some MMA fighting in Brazil to show off the skills you learned at a strip mall Muay Thai academy? Be careful what you wish for. It might turn into something like what went down over the weekend at the Copa Thunder de MMA Amador event in Sao Paulo, Brazil where Michael Douglas stepped into the octagon to face Jessian Lucas. Things got off to a rocky start for Douglas.

Just 11 seconds into the first round, Douglas lost track of Lucas' right foot and ended up taking a kick off the melon that sent the fighter falling over like a downed oak tree. Noticing that his opponent was still moving and the ref wasn't stopping the action, Lucas did what MMA fighters are trained to do. He went in and started bashing Douglas in the face, causing the fighter to be knocked out for a second time.

By this time, we're way past where an experienced ref like Herb Dean would've jumped on top of the KO'd fighter to save his life. But this isn't the UFC. Brazil is gonna Brazil. It turns out the ref, Kleber Lopes, was an intern getting his feet wet in the sport. Anderson Ulysses of Brazil’s National Athletic Commission of MMA issued an apology for the incident.

"At 11 seconds of the first round, Michael was knocked out by a high kick to the head and the referee made his first mistake, not interrupting the fight.

“He committed the second mistake by allowing the fight to continue with the athlete unconscious.

"We apologize to the athletes, teams, MMA fans and Thunder Fight for the mistakes committed due to lack of experience of the professionals.

“We inform that the referees that committed the mistakes were interns who were getting tested and had no experience as referees, but had undergone rule courses previously.”

That's refreshing. You hate to see these MMA commissions who won't admit they sent out a worthless intern to do a job where a guy could get killed. I get it, we all have to start somewhere, but maybe we have Kleber work some headgear matches or do some virtual reality simulations where he's transported into the body of Big John McCarthy and has to stop Conor McGregor from raining down hammer fists on Jose Aldo's face at UFC 194.

Let this be a lesson for those of you who think you'll jump on a plane down to Rio and fight your way through the country via some Royce Gracie moves you learned on YouTube. Be careful in Brazil.