Video: Cornerman Jumps Over Cage, Saves Fighter Rendered Unconscious By Choke

ABSURDO ! Arbitro não percebe atleta apagado em finalização e final de combate termina em confusão com corners que invadem cage. pic.twitter.com/RdRtdrCDre

— #psicoticosporvt (@PsicoticosporVT) September 26, 2017

A mixed martial arts bout in Brazil recently ended in bizarre fashion when a cornerman leapt over the cage to save his fighter as he was being choked unconscious.

This past weekend, Silmar Nunes and Caio Robson Silva squared off under the Capanema Fight Combat banner. Nunes, a veteran of 48 professional bouts, eventually found an opening for a guillotine choke and applied the hold from the bottom.

Silva appeared to go out, but despite several checks from the referee, Nunes was not told to break the choke. Eventually, Silva’s corner rushed the cage and attacked Nunes to force him to let go of the maneuver. After being separated from his foe by the opposing corner, Nunes quickly checked on Silva.

According to a report from MMAFighting.com, Jorge Gomes was in attendance at the event and was asked to referee the bout moments before the fight. Gomes is a professional fighter with losses to both Nunes and Silva.

“I moved his foot and it wasn’t loose, so I came back and checked his hand again,” Gomes told MMAFighting. “When I decided to stop the fight, his brother came in. You can notice on the video that right before his brother comes in, [Silva] moves his hand close to [Nunes’] ribs, so he wasn’t sleeping yet.”

The first member of Silva’s corner to enter the cage and attack Nunes was the unconscious fighter’s brother, Dax Vinicius Silva, who said that his sibling had headaches and was dizzy following the prolonged choke.

"It took 24 seconds between the moment my brother went out and the moment I came in,” Dax Vinicius Silva told MMAFighting. "If I haven’t jumped in, what would have happened? ‘Sombra’ [Nunes] tells the referee that he was out and he says 'no.' He checks on my brother and continues to say he was not out. I’m screaming at the referee, saying that he’s out, and he won’t stop it. You can see that 'Sombra' is letting it go a bit, but not completely — he’s a fighter and the referee is the one who has to stop the fight. That’s when I came in and had that reaction.”