Leonardo Barbosa lost to Ahmed Ali Hotak on February 11.- In a statement on Facebook this week, Barbosa said he lost on purpose because he felt threatened.
- Barbosa said an armed man approached him in the locker room before the fight and yelled at him.
- Insider has not been able to independently verify Barbosa's story.
In possibly the strangest
A Brazilian featherweight, Barbosa spent his entire pre-pandemic career fighting in regional shows in Brazil
A February 11 match against Ahmed Ali Hotak at the Truly Grand Fighting Championship was his first bout in the COVID-era, and his first outside of Brazil, taking place at the Ghazi Stadium in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Barbosa and Hotak's fight was the main event of a seven-fight card, but before their match began, Barbosa said in a statement on Facebook that a man in the locker room showed him that he was carrying a weapon.
"A 'fan' said something I didn't understand and showed me that [he] was armed," Barbosa said, adding that he thought at the time that it was common for people in Afghanistan to be openly carrying firearms.
"When the fight started, this same fan was with two security guards, wouldn't stop shouting the same things in the locker room … always with a lot of anger," he said.
Fearing for his life, Barbosa said he threw the fight against Hotak, losing in the second round.
The end of the bout arrived midway through the second when the two athletes were in a clinch and, with his back to the fence, Hotak, the local fighter in Afghanistan, threw a couple of knee strikes to Barbosa's body.
Barbosa can be seen on video reacting strangely to the second strike, leaping backwards into the air before falling onto the ground where he then covered up.
The referee intervened, waved the bout off, and Hotak had won by knockout.
Barbosa said in his statement that he wanted to make a comment regarding the fight because it "is not something that sport preaches."
He said: "I was just in a strange country, I felt scared, and I wanted to preserve my life because I honestly didn't want to find out how far the anger of that 'fan' would go."
Insider has not been able to independently verify Barbosa's story, and identity of the armed man cited by Barbosa isn't known.
Watch the finish right here:
—caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) February 18, 2021
After Hotak's victory, fans stormed the cage, according to MMA website Sherdog.
"Security tried and failed to control the looming mob that enveloped the victor's team," a report on the site said.
In another strange twist, Sherdog also reported that the fight was Hotak's first for nearly three years.
His long absence from the sport came, remarkably, as a result of a failed attempt to kidnap him outside his house in Kabul, which ended in him being stabbed in the stomach. Hotak recounted the story to the website Asian MMA.
Victory against Barbosa advanced Hotak's pro MMA record to nine wins (four knockouts, three submissions, and two decisions) against one loss.
Barbosa's pro MMA record fell to 17 wins (one knockout, 15 submissions, and one other) against seven defeats.
Truly Grand Fighting Championship did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Barbosa said in his Facebook statement that he has now been promised a rematch against Hotak to be held outside Afghanistan.