Today, MMA fighter Cole Johnson (1-0), better known as Wavy MMA, was scheduled for what was perhaps the most fascinating encounter in the sport’s history. He was set to participate in a showdown with a chimpanzee at an undisclosed location. From the get-go, the event faced serious scrutiny, with many questioning its legitimacy. Now, the organizers have reportedly canceled the event for safety reasons.

The City Kickboxing fighter promoted the website wavyvschimp.com, where the clash was supposed to be streamed. But the website was taken down by online content monitoring platform Lovable’s Trust & Safety team just before the stream was scheduled to start.

“This website has been taken down by Lovable’s Trust & Safety team,” the message read. “If you see suspicious sites on the lovable.app domain that attempt to steal data, impersonate others, or distribute malware, please report them immediately at lovable.dev/abuse.”

With the streaming platform now completely down, the event has effectively been canceled. A report from Bloody Elbow also pointed out that the website allegedly tried to peddle a cryptocurrency scheme, which could have contributed to the monitoring platform taking the site down

Besides that, not much has been revealed by the organizers regarding the cancellation of the MMA fighter vs. chimp event. But Cole Johnson disclosed that he made the video of himself fighting the wild animal as a joke, only to start receiving offers as high as $500K. Later, he realized he was dealing with a “bulls—er.”

“I just made that original video as a joke,” Johnson told Brendan Ruh on Instagram. “Do I think I could beat a chimp in a fight? Yeah, I do. But I never thought I was actually going to do it. And then, all of a sudden, all these people in my DMs were offering you $500K, so I took this guy’s offer to go and fight this chimpanzee in a country that I can’t speak about. But he ended up being a bulls—er. So I told everyone, like, ‘All right, I can’t fight. I’m not fighting this thing anymore. This guy f—d me over.’”

Even though Wavy’s fight against the chimpanzee has been canceled, it’s still surprising that he believes he could beat the mammal in a showdown. But he’s definitely not alone in that belief. UFC middleweight contender Bo Nickal also once claimed he thought he could beat the animal in a fight.

In the future, if anyone else tries to bring such a fight to life, experts have issued a warning that encounters with chimpanzees can potentially become life-threatening. 

Professors warn MMA fighters not to engage with a chimpanzee

For those who may not know, an average chimpanzee is reportedly 1.5 to 2 times stronger than a human. That might seem small when compared to a gorilla, but a wild animal can seriously harm a person for the simple reason that they don’t know when to quit.

Though chimpanzee attacks on humans are very rare, they can definitely let their instincts take over when deliberately engaged in a combat situation. Because of that, Professor Michael Wilson, a chimpanzee expert from the University of Minnesota, pointed out that a battle with the animal could lead to several serious injuries, and even death could be a possibility.

“The chimpanzee is unlikely to understand that the fight is a kind of game, rather than a struggle for survival,” Wilson said, as per Bloody Elbow. “Chimpanzees appear easily provoked to extreme violence. A chimpanzee threatened by a human opponent might escalate to a severe fight that could end up with the human injured or dead.”

After that, another expert, Dr. Kimberley Jane Hocking, explained how behavioral changes in chimpanzees when provoked could trigger them to attack relentlessly.

“Chimpanzees are wild animals with sophisticated social and behavioural responses, and when they perceive a threat to themselves or other members of their community, they can respond with extraordinary aggression,” Dr. Hocking stated.

With those very apparent consequences in mind, along with Johnson’s website getting flagged, the event has been called off. And it would be great if animals were spared from being forced to fight humans simply for putting on a spectacle.