An amateur MMA fighter claims he has been offered more than $500,000 (£370,000) to fight a chimpanzee. Cole Johnson said he had organised a fight with a captive animal for Friday, September 11.
The claim follows a viral social media post in which Johnson said he could 'beat a chimpanzee in a fight' – a video that has garnered almost eight million views on TikTok. However, he has been warned he risks "catastrophic injuries" if the fight goes ahead.
Expert warnings over fight risks
Dr Kimberley Jane Hockings, Associate Professor in Conservation Science at Exeter University, said: "The physical risks to the human participant are very real."
Johnson claimed in a podcast that he had been offered $500,000 to fly to an unnamed country and fight a chimp. Although the original funder backed out of the deal, Johnson says he has now found a 'less sketchy' group willing to pay even more to arrange the event.
Fight details and conditions
Johnson claimed the chimpanzee will not be sedated and will be left with its claws and teeth intact, with the fight taking place in a large, grass-based cage. He added there will be "people with tranquillisers" on hand 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'.
Experts describe potential consequences
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," she added.
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. 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," he added. 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 said.
