'I'm not a bad person': Dione Barbosa adamant illegal kick didn't change Melissa Gatto fight at UFC Vegas 115

Dione Barbosa is happy and healthy days after her third UFC win. But her bubbly demeanor belies what could've been a costly mistake this past Saturday at UFC Vegas 115.

Controversy struck early in the second round of her flyweight bout against Melissa Gatto, when Gatto attempted to stand from a grounded position. The sequence opened Barbosa's opponent up for a blatantly illegal soccer kick — which Barbosa swiftly delivered, resulting in a point deduction. Gatto appeared to go unconscious from the kick after briefly staggering around on her knees, one of which was down by the slimmest margin during the offending sequence. Despite that, the fight continued, leading Gatto to suffer a majority decision loss rather than a disqualification win or a no-contest.

Barbosa, however, insists the strike was unintentional — and didn't even connect with Gatto's head.

"It's crazy," Barbosa told Uncrowned.

"I didn't feel it at all, any part in my foot. When you kick solid parts on the body, especially when you kick the [head] ... your foot hurts, 100%. This strike? No. So I didn't feel it at all, [and] inside the cage the commission told me all the impact was on her chest. But once you see something come to you, you protect yourself, so [kicking] her neck, a little bit in her neck — neck is illegal. But [they said], 'You had no intention to kick her head, so because of that we'll take one point from you.' I understand, I took the risk.

Que situação! Dione Barbosa acabou acertando um chute ilegal no pescoço de Melissa Gatto, lembrou bem mesmo Petr Yan e Sterling. Mas dessa vez a luta seguiu com Dione perdendo 1 ponto. Mas que perigo, hein! #UFCVegas115pic.twitter.com/Uj0hBMCY1b

— Luiz Brownie (@luiz_ff92) April 4, 2026

"Fighting is a risk," Barbosa continued. "Everything's happening in an MMA fight — it's contact, emotion and everything. It is a risk. You need to protect yourself all the time. But at no moment did I want to [illegally] kick her head. I never did [before] this in my life."

A judoka since age 7, the now 33-year-old flyweight veteran said she's never trained kicks like the one she threw on Saturday. Raising her striking aggression is something Barbosa focused on heavily after her August 2025 loss to Karine Silva. That was on full display in the first round of her encounter with Gatto, and it carried over to a dangerous degree in the subsequent round.

In past similar cases, fights have been stopped from illegal strikes like Barbosa's. Instead, she claimed Gatto was willing to continue, which ultimately saved Barbosa from missing out on her own win bonus.

"I'm not crazy. I'm not a bad person," Barbosa said. "[It was] the commission, the referee, who talked to me about it. Whether she was out or not, I'm not here to judge. The doctor stepped in there, watching her at the time, talking with her, and the doctors and judges said she's good to [continue]. She didn't look [unconscious] to me, and she said, 'I want to keep fighting.'

"After that, they said it's not a DQ because [the foul wasn't intentional]. I didn't kick her head — it touched her neck, which is illegal, but not intentional as well."

The question then becomes: How much did the illegal kick change the fight, if at all?

Barbosa argues she already set the tone of the bout with her first-round effort, though the backlash from the MMA community since UFC Vegas 115 has been loud.

"Online was like, 'The kick changed the fight.' I'm like, 'No. In my first round, I showed her what's going on, what's coming. It's just the beginning.' [It was going to be] a long night for her," Barbosa said.

"I'm not this bad person. I saw so many memes about me — I'm like, 'Jesus, oh no.' But of course [it was] not intentional. I said sorry to her after the fight. I'm grateful, too, because for the fight to happen, we need to have both [fighters] inside the Octagon, so I always say thank you to my opponents. Nothing against her. I [didn't] try to soccer kick — I don't play soccer."

Rule changes within MMA have been fairly steady over the years, with the most recent allowing the use of the long-banned 12-to-6 downward elbow strike. Throughout this process, a level of clarity has been established regarding the concept of a downed opponent, which now states that any part of a fighter's body — other than their hands or feet — must be in contact with the canvas to be considered downed.

Although Barbosa has been the focus of attention this week for her questionable mid-fight action, she insists that Saturday's offending strike should not be legalized.

"I don't think they need to be legal," Barbosa said. "I like the rules the way they are because we'll be able to fight more. The rules try to protect us, so we're able to fight more times a year."