Bryan Battle embraced fighting in enemy territory, but he wasn’t necessarily trying to make enemies after his latest win at UFC Paris.
But viciously knocking out local favorite Kevin Jousset immediately put him at odds with the crowd so the former Ultimate Fighter winner took advantage of the moment by erupting during his post-fight interview and offering the fans a two-finger salute as he celebrated his victory. Following his win, a message on Twitter went viral claiming that Battle was being fined $250,000 for his actions and he was being banned from competing in France again.
The only problem? The post came from a parody account on Twitter, but the truth never stopped anybody from overreacting and even Battle got caught off guard when he heard the news.
“I knew it wasn’t a real thing or it wasn’t something I had heard of,” Battle told MMA Fighting. “I’m like $250,000 fine, banned from Paris? That’s crazy. I was like I wonder who gave them this information?
“But as the day goes on, people are leaving comments and it’s growing, growing, growing and then one of my friends said no [that was a parody account]. I saw Chael Sonnen did a whole video [talking about the punishment] and people in the comments were like ‘Chael, you need to check your sources.’ That was funny.”
While it didn’t take him long to figure out the message came from a parody account, Battle already had an idea that he was dealing with fake news thanks to another fighter who followed him with an equally inflammatory post-fight interview.
“I knew there was no way I was getting fined, and [Renato] Moicano wasn’t getting fined,” Battle said referencing the UFC Paris headliner after he finished Benoit Saint Denis. “He actually was talking about the government.