Four times fighters took on deadly animals after MMA star books PPV bout with chimp

MMA fighter Cole Johnson claims that he will take on a chimp next week – but it’s not the first time we’ve seen an animal compete.

Johnson has announced that he is going to livestream a bout between him and a chimp on Friday, seemingly as part of some sort of crypto project. He claims that a 100lb animal will not be able to deal with his technical skills honed over years of wrestling.

Fans don’t necessarily believe that the stunt will really happen, although if it does take place it won’t be the only time a fighter has taken on an animal. Here are four examples that we at Bloody Elbow have compiled ahead of the big night.

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Khabib Nurmagomedov wrestles bear

Legendary UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov is one of the most famously intense fighters in history. He completely dominated and seldom lost a round much less a fight in his 29-0 career run.

He actually began his training as a youngster in Dagestan, where his father Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov would eventually become one of the most beloved trainers in the sport’s history. He would wrestle with bears as well as eventual world champions like his cousin Usman Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev.

Home videos of Nurmagomedov wrestling with bears as a child often circulate around the internet and show just how tough he can be. The video is dated as September 1997, meaning he would have been a few weeks shy of his ninth birthday.

Arslanbek Makhmudov wrestles bear

Khabib isn’t the only Dagestani fighter to decide to wrestle with a killer bear. Boxing star Arslanbek Makhmudov also took part in the dangerous activity – this time as an adult with a fully-grown one for a social media clip.

Makhmudov has been in there with world champions Agit Kabayel and Tyson Fury, holding his own and amassing a 21-3 record with 19 knockouts. He also can clearly handle himself in the grappling as he managed to get the bear’s back in his footage.

Mick Moloney boxes a kangaroo

In October of 2023, Martial Arts instructor Mick Moloney who works at the Mildura Martial Arts school was out walking his dog and enjoying a relaxing time by the water. Things got serious soon, though, when he noticed that a kangaroo had his dog Hatchi locked in a headlock and fighting for its life.

He filmed the encounter on his phone as he ran into the water to attack the kangaroo. He can be heard in the video shouting “I’m going to punch your f—ing head in” to the animal, who proceeds to knock his phone out of his hand into the river.

Somehow Moloney retrieved both his phone and his dog from the situation, emerging with minimal scratches. He joked that the kangaroo was ‘jacked’ and looked as though it had just got out of prison.

Travis Kauffman chokes out mountain lion

The last instalment on this list stretched the criteria of fighter pretty far. Travis Kauffman was in fact a 31-year-old jogger in Fort Collins, Colorado who had never taken a jiu-jitsu class or even watched combat sports as a fan all that closely.

However, when he found himself being attacked by a mountain lion while out for a run, his defence instincts kicked in. He used some rudimentary jiu-jitsu to get the animal off him and ended up choking it to death.

Kauffman was only 5’10 and 150lb by his own admission, but was able to get the better of a deadly animal. He left with pretty serious injuries and 28 stitches.