Viktoriia Dudakova has sparked controversy by slapping her coach at UFC’s first event of 2025.
Many fans have come to the support of Dudakova, who has now lost her last two UFC fights, but others were left outraged at the slap.
Having previously been undefeated in professional MMA, Dudakova headed into the fight fresh off a loss to Sam Hughes in August.
And things have now gone from bad to worse for the 25-year-old Russian, who lost her bout against Fatima Kline in devastating style.
Kline’s promotional debut ended in defeat this past July when she took a fight on short notice against Jasmine Jasudavicius.
But she put on a dominant performance back at her natural weight class, dragging Dudakova to the ground in the second round and finishing the fight with elbows.
The most eye-catching moment of the fight, however, wasn’t the 23-year-old’s performance, but rather what happened in the aftermath.
Dudakova was getting cleaned up by one of her coaches when another approached to share some words of advice.
But, as the coach put his arm around Dudakova, she wasn’t best pleased and hit him with a slap.
She appeared to say: “You didn’t even come over. You just sat there [points]. That’s how little you cared.”
MMA fans were quick with their responses to Dudakova’s controversial slap.
“I think it’s fair,” one user said on X. “The coaches job is to protect the fighter and have them ready for any position.
“It’s not just on the fighter that shows up and takes the advice. She relied on her coaches and training and they failed her.
But another disagreed, saying: “You don’t treat the people who help you develop like that.”
While a third said: “The disrespect to slap the coach who spent a whole camp training you is out of control.”
In 2023, UFC President White said Dudakova should ‘lie all the way home’ after she revealed a staph infection following her win at UFC 294.
And his estimations of the Russian fighter may have just been lowered again after her most recent controversial incident.
Elsewhere at UFC Vegas 101, Mackenzie Dern submitted Amanda Ribas in the third round of their main event bout to put her name in contention for a title shot in the women’s strawweight division.
However, Dern revealed she wants to have one more fight before taking on women’s strawweight champion Zhang Weili, who fights Tatiana Suarez at UFC 312 in February.
Conor McGregor reacted to the bout, saying he wants to see a trilogy fight between the Brazilian pair, as Ribas already has a victory over Dern.
Roman Kopylov defeated fellow middleweight Chris Curtis on the main card too at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
UFC CEO White shared photos on Instagram after the bout, which showed Kopylov’s devastating wound despite his victory.
“Tonight’s card was incredible!” he wrote. “Respect to the entire card tonight.”
Russia’s Kopylov is now tied with Israel Adesanya and Gregory Rodrigues for the most UFC knockouts among active middleweights.