UFC bantamweight veteran Raphael Assuncao was at the center of controversy for spitting at an opponent who was disqualified against him at an IBJJF tournament last weekend. The incident was caught on camera and shared on social media by his opponent, Matt Walsh, so naturally it went viral as fans were shocked to see a former professional fighter behaving that way. The footage that was initially released only showed the actual match from the IBJJF Atlanta Spring Open 2024, followed by a cut to Assuncao confronting Walsh and spitting at him after the fact. It was clear that there was some time missing between the two incidents though, as Assuncao had time to put on a t-shirt after the match and before confronting Walsh.
Now Raphael Assuncao has shared his side of the story and shed a little light on what transpired in between the IBJJF match and him spitting at Walsh. He started out by explaining why he had an issue with the technique in the first place:
“This guy disrespected me on the mats. He popped my knee illegally. Then I asked him, ‘Hey, man. You guys gotta watch that move.’ He says that his gym are known for doing that type of move so I replied back, and ultimately, he said that he can show me much more than just popping my knee in the parking lot.”
“So, I lost my temper. I chased him down and I asked him, ‘Hey, you told me that you will show me much more in the parking lot.’ He sissied out. He acted like a sissy, and I just spat on him.”
The context that Raphael Assuncao provided does shed a bit more light on the nature of the spitting incident, and he also explained that the disqualification actually defeated the whole point of him competing at an IBJJF event in the first place. Assuncao is also apparently waiting to see if there’s any lasting damage to his knee:
“And just one more quick quote, the reason why I chose to compete in the IBJJF Federation after retiring from the UFC is because of the rule system, how everything is structured, everything is nice, everything’s clean, and then I’m faced with this situation. It’s okay, I guess, a learning process. And last but not least, I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow to get an MRI on my left knee with Dr. Barber, hopefully, it’s not what we think it is.”
Raphael Assuncao gave his side of the story from the spitting incident at the IBJJF Atlanta Spring Open in a series of posts to the story of his official Instagram account, and they were all shared to Twitter:
Raphael’s side of the story pic.twitter.com/BhBzEfLzFa
— BJJotter (@JiujitsuOtter) May 8, 2024