Igor Severino has apologised for an incident last week that saw him fired from the UFC after being disqualified from a bout for biting his opponent.
The 20-year-old Brazilian fighter was DQ’d during a fight with Andre Lima at the UFC’s Apex facility outside Las Vegas after it emerged that he had bit his opponent’s arm during a grappling exchange — with the referee calling off the fight after observing a very obvious bite mark on the inside of Lima’s bicep.
The incident saw him swiftly released from the UFC and in an interview with MMA Junkie he expressed his sorrow at the actions which have apparently blacklisted him from the world’s largest mixed martial arts organisation.
“It’s been crazy. Some crazy days,” he told the publication through an interpreter. “One day, I was fighting in the best promotion in the world. I was making my dream come true. The next moments, I’m banned from the promotion.
“I come from humble beginnings,” Severino said. “I’ve been working since a very young age. I left my home as a teenager to come over to train and to get here. Then, to see all of this go away and in the way it did, it’s something that is not part of me. It’s not who I am as a person. That’s not who I am as a fighter. I just feel very regretful. It makes me very emotional and sad about it.
“My dream became a nightmare overnight. I’m very regretful to my opponent. I apologize to (Lima), to Dana (White), to the Nevada Athletic Commission, to Sean Shelby, who spoke to me after the fight, to Mick (Maynard) – everyone in the organization – and the fans. Sorry to everyone who was watching that on TV. They didn’t deserve to see that.
“I did something wrong,” he added. “It’s right that I be punished. I got cut. I think that’s one of the worst things that could’ve happened. The commission withheld my purse, so I’m not even sure if I’ll get paid anything. I’m not sure what they’re even going to decide because this money isn’t even for me. It’s for my whole family that depends on me.
“The UFC had every right to release me, but I wish I had a chance to redeem myself,” Severino said. “I don’t want to be defined as a 20-year-old kid who bit a guy in the cage and was banned from the sport, and that was it. Everyone that knows me knows that’s not the kind of person that I am. That’s not my character. That’s not how it should have been. I really don’t want to be defined as the kid who bit his opponent and ruined his life.”
