Jason High was completely out cold and somehow still tried to knee the referee, an action very similar to the one that once got him fired by none other than Dana White. And the bizarre clip of this incident from the Professional Fighters League’s 2018 season has suddenly resurfaced in 2026, showing High accidentally launching a knee at Dan Miragliotta moments after being rendered unconscious.

The incident happened during PFL’s fifth event of the 2018 regular season. High was taking on Natan Schulte in a lightweight bout, but the fight ended at 4:18 of the opening round when Schulte secured a rear-naked choke and won by technical submission.

‘The Kansas City Bandit’ exposed his back during a scramble, and Schulte instantly jumped on the opportunity, locking in a rear-naked choke. However, High refused to tap, but there was only so long he could hold out as he eventually went completely unconscious.

But what happened next was somehow even crazier than the finish. As Jason High started coming around, he was clearly still disoriented and seemingly had no idea the fight was already over. Then, in a bizarre instinctive reaction, the 44-year-old tried to launch a knee at Miragliotta, who was standing right next to him.

Thankfully, High quickly realized the fight was over and pulled back before the knee could land cleanly. Still, the bizarre moment was caught on camera, and years later, it has come roaring back onto the internet.

After all, the incident was even more bizarre considering the fighter had already made headlines for getting physical with a referee years earlier.

Jason High’s history with referees made the 2018 incident even crazier.

On June 7, 2014, High faced Rafael dos Anjos at UFC Fight Night 42 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The fight ended in the second round when dos Anjos stopped him with strikes, but High wasn’t happy with the referee’s call.

‘The Kansas City Bandit’ immediately got back to his feet and shoved referee Kevin Mulhall, turning an already heated moment into a major controversy. And as expected, the UFC wasn’t having it.

Dana White quickly released Jason High from the promotion, making it clear that putting your hands on a referee was a line that simply couldn’t be crossed.

“What I did find out is that I guess that Jason High kid got up and pushed a referee; he’s cut,” White told UFC.com after the fight. “I’m going to cut him.”

White even compared High’s actions to Paul Daley‘s infamous post-fight punch on Josh Koscheck at UFC 113, making his stance pretty clear: fighters should never put their hands on a referee.

The 44-year-old also faced punishment from the New Mexico State Athletic Commission, which handed him a one-year suspension through June 7, 2015, and fined him 10% of his fight purse: $1,900.

That history makes the bizarre footage from his 2018 PFL fight even more interesting. Jason High’s attempted knee toward Miragliotta appeared to be nothing more than an instinctive reaction after waking up from the choke, but given his past, the clip was always going to raise some eyebrows.

To make the optics look even worse, Jason High had already been involved in controversy earlier in the 2018 PFL season.

Jason High’s PFL 2 moment that led to a review

Just one month before the aforementioned viral fight, ‘The Kansas City Bandit’ faced Efrain Escudero and suffered another technical-submission loss at PFL 2.

But this one came with plenty of controversy, as there was no obvious sign that Jason High had actually tapped to Escudero’s guillotine, and he didn’t appear to be unconscious either.

The replay only made things murkier. High made a single movement against Escudero’s body that referee Mike Stewart seemingly interpreted as a tap. But High immediately continued trying to fight his way out of the choke, raising even more questions about the stoppage.

To no one’s surprise, the 44-year-old was furious once the fight was waved off. But then came the unexpected: he confronted Stewart, put his hands on the referee, and then knocked over chairs as he made his way toward the locker room.

The Illinois Athletic Commission later backed the stoppage, stating that “the referee determined the bout to conclude by tap-out,” while also confirming that High’s post-fight behavior was being reviewed.

After looking into the incident, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), which oversees the state’s athletic commission, chose not to overturn the result. Escudero’s technical-submission win officially remained on the books.

And despite Jason High putting his hands on the referee and knocking over cageside chairs during his angry exit, the commission ultimately decided not to hand him any additional fine or suspension.

Things didn’t get much smoother for High after the controversy. ‘The Kansas City Bandit’ was scheduled to face Johnny Case at PFL 5 in August 2018, but the fight fell apart after High missed weight. Case moved on toward the playoffs, while Jason High officially parted ways with the PFL immediately after the weigh-in fiasco.

The 44-year-old wouldn’t fight again until 2020, when he returned with the Fighting Alliance Championship. And he came back with a bang, picking up back-to-back wins over Josh Weston and Jake Lindsey. He stopped Weston with a second-round TKO in October 2020 before successfully defending the FAC welterweight title against Lindsey two months later, finishing him via fifth-round TKO in December.

Those back-to-back wins remain High’s most recent professional MMA fights, leaving him with a career record of 23-8. He did stay active outside MMA, though. In 2021, High stepped into the bare-knuckle boxing world and stopped Rocky Long with a first-round TKO at BKFC 21. He also competed in a grappling bout against Kody Steele later that year.

A planned bare-knuckle fight in 2024 was eventually canceled, and Jason High hasn’t returned to professional MMA since his December 2020 victory over Lindsey.

As of 2026, the former UFC and PFL fighter is no longer an active professional MMA competitor, but it seems like his bizarre referee-related moments clearly haven’t been forgotten.