MMA fighter ‘provided £370k to combat a chimp’ however warned of ‘catastrophic’ accidents
Amateur fighter Cole Johnson claims to have organised a fight with an ape for Friday, September 11, but has been warned he risked “catastrophic injuries” and even death if it goes ahead
Cole Johnson said he had organised a fight with a captive animal
An MMA fighter claims to have been offered more than $500,000 (£370,000) to scrap with a chimpanzee. Amateur brawler Cole Johnson said he had organised a fight with a captive animal for Friday, September 11.
It came after he bizarrely claimed he could ‘beat a chimpanzee in a fight’ in a viral social media post that has garnered almost eight million views on TikTok. But he was warned he risked “catastrophic injuries” if the fight went ahead.
Dr Kimberley Jane Hockings, Associate Professor in Conservation Science at Exeter University, said: “The physical risks to the human participant are very real.”
(Image: wavychimp.com)
Johnson claimed in a podcast he had been offered $500,000 to fly to an unnamed country and fight a chimp. And though the funder backed out of the deal, Johnson claims he has now found a ‘less sketchy’ group willing to pay even more to arrange the event.
The chimpanzee will not be sedated and left with its claws and teeth intact, with the fight taking place in a large, grass–based cage, he claimed. And he added there will be “people with tranquillisers” to try to stop the chimp before it kills him.
Johnson said his original video was made as a joke and that while he believed he could defeat a chimpanzee in a fight, he never thought he would actually do it. He later claimed to be en route to the Democratic Republic of Congo to ‘work out a deal’.
He was warned injuries from a scrap with a chimp could be ‘catastrophic’(Image: Shutterstock / Danita Delimont)
Dr Hockings told the Daily Mail: “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.
“Chimpanzees are extremely powerful animals, with substantially greater upper–body strength and dynamic muscle performance than humans. When chimpanzees do attack, the injuries can be catastrophic.”
Meanwhile world renowned chimpanzee expert Professor Michael Wilson, from the University of Minnesota, said there are “so many reasons” trying to fight a chimpanzee is a bad idea.
As well as their long, sharp teeth, chimpanzees also use their hands to twist and tear parts of their opponent’s body(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
He told the Mail: “The chimpanzee is unlikely to understand that the fight is a kind of game, rather than a struggle for survival. ‘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.”
Besides their long, sharp canine teeth that can cause “severe bite wounds”, chimpanzees also “use their hands to twist and tear parts of their opponent’s body,” he added.
