A SECTION of fans at UFC 289 were lucky to escape serious injury when a barrier broke and they fell on the arena floor.
Eager fans in attendance at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena repeatedly crowded the closest railings to where the fighters were making their octagon walk during the seventh pay-per-view event of the year.
TWITTER@TANERFRANKCanadian Mike Malott received a huge pop before he made his way to the octagon[/caption]
TWITTER@TANERFRANKHoards of fans tried to greet him as he made his cage walk[/caption]
TWITTER@TANERFRANKBut they tumbled to the arena floor after a barrier gave way[/caption]
But the barrier broke as Canadian welterweight Mike Malott made his way to the cage, leading to several fight fans falling down.
The falling fans came dangerously close to landing on Malott and the UFC‘s cameraman.
Thankfully, they didn’t and escaped their tumble with minor injuries.
The clip of the potentially horrifying incident quickly went viral and sparked a slew of comments from MMA fans worldwide.
One tweeted: “This could have been disastrous.”
Another said: “Wow totally unexpected.”
And another said: “Jesus Christ.”
One remarked: “Holy hell.”
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Another chimed in: “I use to work arena/stadium safety. That happening is a SIN.
“I hope everyone was w/o injury.”
Malott – who bagged himself a bonus with a submission win over Adam Fugitt – also commented.
The 31-year-old tweeted: “Yea, that was close.”
UFC president Dana White addressed the incident in the post-fight press conference, saying: “Nobody was seriously hurt.
“[There were] a couple of minor injuries.
“The arena handled it immediately, roped it off, got security up there and moved to better seats and handled it like a bunch of pros.”
The veteran promoter added: “You guys have no idea all the stuff goes on behind the scenes every single Saturday.
“This played out on the other side of the curtain and you got to see this.
“But there is stuff that happens every single Saturday and we deal with it on the fly every weekend.”
GETTYUFC president Dana White praised the arena’s handling of the incident[/caption] Read More