Shortly after Ryan Bader and Cheick Kongo’s Bellator 226 title fight was ruled a no contest due to an inadvertent eye poke, Bader and Kongo’s training partner Quinton “Rampage” Jackson nearly got into it. UFC legend Tank Abbott, an other Kongo stablemate, attempted to join in the fracas, but couldn’t make his way to the cage.

“There was a little skirmish after the fact, and I was trying to make my way into the cage but I couldn’t get over the railing,” Abbott told Submission Radio (via MMA Mania). “I was going to throw down with Rampage and Cheick, but the barrier seemed to be too significant for me to get over at the time and I was kind of freaking my wife out, so I calmed down, but I was definitely on my way.”

Abbott hoped to teach Bader a lesson, but things didn’t work out the way he planned. That’s lucky for Bader, he says.

“I was just gonna show them what a real thumb up looks like,” Abbott continued. “The one you kind of deliver on the street, you know what I mean? But things were in my way I couldn’t get over. So, things happen for a reason once again. So, [Bader] lucked out.”

Tank Abbott, who is currently 54 years old, has not fought since 2013, when he was stopped by Ruben Villareal. His next most recent fight occurred in 2009, when he knocked out Mike Rourke. Since his last fights, Abbott underwent a liver transplant. He suffered several strokes during the procedure but thankfully emerged from the operation.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/27/2019.