While fighters are always advised to tap when they find themselves caught in a submission, those athletes can generally count on a referee to save them if things go wrong. That wasn’t the case this past weekend in one of the most egregious non-stoppages in recent memory.

It’s obvious the referee isn’t doing a job when cornermen have to jump the cage and break up a submission themselves. It happened in a women’s MMA fight earlier this year, and it happened again this past weekend in a fight between Silmar “Sombra” Nunes and Caio “Paturi” Robson Silva under Brazil’s Capanema Fight Combat banner. This time, it was even worse (via Twitter):

CFC: Silmar Sombra vencia o Paturi por Finalização, quando o octógono foi invadido por um membro da equipe do Paturi e agrediu Sombra pic.twitter.com/QuZBvKOcJw — PANCADANTE (@pancadante) September 25, 2017

Prior to the controversy, the fight looked like any other. Nunes (35-12-1) eventually found an opening to jump on a guillotine choke, which he successfully locked in tightly around Robson Silva’s (11-9) neck. That’s when all hell broke loose.

Nunes squeezed the choke from bottom, and before long Robson Silva went out cold. Despite several checks for consciousness, the referee refused to step in and stop the fight. That prompted Robson Silva’s corner to take action, jumping the cage and attacking Nunes so he would release the hold.

Even though he was pounced on by his opponent’s corner, Nunes immediately checked on his unconscious opponent as chaos surrounded them inside cage at the event, which took place at Campo Leandro Pinheiro in Capanema City, Para, Brazil.

Nunes made a brief comment about the situation on Instagram after the fight.

“P.S: If you don’t tap you’ll go to sleep,” Nunes wrote. “Another win, thank God, I was assaulted at the end of the fight, but everything went OK.”

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie‘s official blog and is edited by Mike Bohn.