Super Fight League bout halted when fighter tumbles through cage door

The India-based Super Fight League promotion had a rocky start during its recent American debut.

At SFL 35 in Tacoma, Wash., on Saturday, the first fight was halted for a bizarre reason. With Raven Guice (1-2) and Jesse Hardenbrook (0-0) in the clinch and fighting for position against the fencing in the night’s curtain-jerker, the cage door swung open.

As fans gasped, Guice tumbled off the elevated fighting surface, rolled down some stairs and made a hard landing on the concrete floor. A kneeling Hardenbrook looked on in disbelief while narrowly avoiding a similar fate as his opponent.

“It looks like the latch on the cage door actually broke,” a puzzled commentator notes. “The fighters went up agains the door in the blue corner, and the door popped open, and a fighter tumbled out of the cage.”

A cageside physician tended to the New York-based Guice as he remained on his back for a few minutes. He received a warm round of applause once on his feet, but the fight was waved off and declared a no-contest at the 2:57 mark of the opening round due to an “equipment malfunction” that left Guice unable to continue.

After cageside officials inspected the other latches on the cage, the eight-fight card continued without incident.

Sadly, this isn’t the first such incident in MMA. Check out one from 2012 at a regional show in Kentucky below.

And check out the full SFL event (including the cage tumble) in the above video, starting at the 29:00 mark, or check out the .gif (courtesy fansided.com).

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