Felipe Bunes submitted Azam Gaforov twice at ACA 209 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and only the second one counted. The former UFC flyweight locked Gaforov into a twister midway through the first round and got the tap. Referee Maxim Protasov didn’t stop it. Bunes released the hold, believing he’d won, then had to scramble his way back into a finishing position and make Gaforov tap again. Protasov finally called it at 4:13 of Round 1, according to MMA Junkie, which reported that the crowd in Dushanbe went silent.
Clips spread on X almost immediately. One user, @Grabaka_Hitman, posted the sequence and wrote: “Azam Gaforov tapped but the ref didn’t call it.” That post described Bunes as keeping the position before getting the second tap. MMA Junkie’s account has him letting go first, thinking the fight was done, before working his way back to the finish. Either way, Gaforov tapped twice and Bunes left with one win.
If you haven’t seen a twister up close, it’s a spinal crank. You take the back, trap a leg, and twist the head and neck away from the trapped hip. It’s rare at every level of the sport, and Bunes now has one on his record, even if it took two attempts to make it official.
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Where Bunes stands
The win moves Bunes to 15-9. Gaforov came in listed at 16-6. ACA 209 was Bunes’ first fight since leaving the UFC earlier in 2026, after a 1-3 run with the promotion that ended with consecutive losses. The last of those was a split decision loss to Edgar Chairez at UFC Fight Night 268 on Feb. 28, 2026. Losing a split on the way out stings, and he answered it in his first fight back by finishing a 16-win opponent inside a round.
He wasn’t the only UFC alum on the ACA 209 card. Saidyokub Kakhramonov was booked against Bakhtovar Yunusov, and Klidson Abreu was scheduled against fellow UFC veteran Hamdy Abdelwahab.
MMA Junkie suggested a submission this flashy could put Bunes back on the UFC’s radar, but added that he’ll probably need another win or two before matchmaker Mick Maynard picks up the phone. That’s fair. One highlight doesn’t erase a 1-3 stint. It does hand him the best clip of his career to send to anyone who’ll watch it.
Now the part that bugs me. A twister cranks the cervical spine. If an official misses a tap on an armbar, the guy on the bottom risks his elbow. Missing one on a twister puts his neck at risk. Gaforov got lucky that Bunes was sportsman enough to let go the instant he felt the tap. A lot of fighters would have held on and kept cranking until the ref stepped in, and nobody would have blamed them. Protasov had one job in that moment, and Bunes ended up doing it for him. Then he had to win the fight again. ACA should pull that footage and review it with its officials before the next card.
