Viral Russian internet sensation Hasbulla Magomedov stole the limelight at UFC 267 in Abu Dhabi by entering the octagon, meeting some of promotion's biggest figures, and even clashing with his rival Abdu Rozik.
UFC president Dana White had already excited fans ahead of Saturday night's action by releasing a video of Hasbulla saying he was looking forward to a meeting between the pair.
Mainly on pundit duties, former light heavyweight and heavyweight "champ champ" Daniel Cormier also gushed at having met the breakout star of 2021, who first shot to global fame earlier this year when he was touted as fighting fellow pint-sized blogger Abdu Rozik.
To caption a video of him smiling as Hasbulla let off a cheap and cheeky rabbit punch, Cormier wrote: "Can’t believe I dropped my hands around this guy! I deserved it."
Yet while this was limited to social media, Hasbulla reached a far bigger audience when front and center on the card that was free and not pay-per-view in many countries.
After Islam Makhachev's stunning first-round win over Dan Hooker, the figure who had previously been ringside entered the octagon where he was picked up and swung into the air by the victor.
Then passed on to Khabib Nurmagomedov, he later took pictures with the 29-0 lightweight great who formed part of title hopeful Makhachev's corner.
As fellow Russian Petr Yan claimed the bantamweight interim title at Cory Sandhagen's expense, and Glover Teixeira became the oldest first-time UFC champion ever at 42 by dethroning previous light heavyweight king Jan Błachowicz, a pumped-up Hasbulla got physical himself in the crowd.
There, he clashed with arch-nemesis Abdu Rozik, with footage of the incident captured and uploaded by boxer Amir Khan.
"It's going off. Who you got winning?" asked Khan, with the viral scuffle seen almost 3.5 million times.
The UFC had earlier tweeted Tajik blogger Abdu Rozik showing off his fighting skills with a series of shadowboxing blows, writing:"Business just picked up."
And now it remains to be seen if the pair can finally settle their differences after Hasbulla's purse demands supposedly got in the way of a previously planned meeting.
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