First comes the knockout. Then the celebration.
For Tai Tuivasa, a victory means it is time for a shoey, his version of a victory cigar.
The fun begins when Tuivasa climbs up and straddles the top of the Octagon. With adrenaline rushing through his veins, feeding off the energy from the crowd, he holds a beer in one hand and a shoe–typically a sneaker–in the other. He dumps the beer into the shoe and then, to the delight of the paying customers, guzzles the drink.
“It’s the fastest way for me to start getting drunk,” said Tuivasa, who shared that the move is far more common back home in Australia.