The following surreal scene took place at the Beijing Olympics on August 22, 2008. Cuban taekwondo fighter Angel Matos was battling Arman Chilmanov for a shot at the Bronze medal. Matos was actually leading on points (3 to 2) but hurt his toe, thus the contest was stopped.

And that’s where things went south.

See, the Olympics’ procedure for these kind of incidents is to allow an injured fighter one minute of recovery. The official doctor checked on Matos’ injury, but the Cuban seemingly wanted to recover for a bit more. Bad idea. After the reglementary minute, the referee harshly disqualified Matos, who was not pleased, to say the least…

Matos, upset by the disqualification, immediately got backed up and started to lose his temper. Mato’s trainer then stepped on the tatami to contest the referee’s decision. Matos pretends to leave the scene… only to come back and throw a violent kick to the referee’s face, OUT OF NOWHERE.

The pissed off Cuban fighter then shoves another official, before his trainer breaks up the altercation. Witnessing an athlete lose his temper is not an uncommon sight, but few athletes have ever crossed the line in such a violent way. Matos, as well as his trainer, have unsurprisingly been banned for life from taekwondo competition.

Matos’ kick to the referee remains one of the most violent and insane scenes in the history of any sport. The Olympics are supposed to promote fair-play and sportsmanship, not the kind of behavior the Cuban fighter exhibited on that day.

“>

About the author: Reda is an MMA and soccer nerd who spends way too much time watching fights, anime and TV series. He is also a self-declared chef and kind of a procrastination connoisseur.

You can stalk him on Twitter @RedaJaNai. Keep it to cats videos, please.