Bryan Battle embraced fighting in enemy territory, but he wasn’t necessarily trying to make enemies after his latest win at UFC Paris.

But viciously knocking out local favorite Kevin Jousset immediately put him at odds with the crowd so the former Ultimate Fighter winner took advantage of the moment by erupting during his post-fight interview and offering the fans a two-finger salute as he celebrated his victory. Following his win, a message on Twitter went viral claiming that Battle was being fined $ 250,000 for his actions and he was being banned from competing in France again.

The only problem? The post came from a parody account on Twitter, but the truth never stopped anybody from overreacting and even Battle got caught off guard when he heard the news.

“I knew it wasn’t a real thing or it wasn’t something I had heard of,” Battle told MMA Fighting. “I’m like $ 250,000 fine, banned from Paris? That’s crazy. I was like I wonder who gave them this information?

“But as the day goes on, people are leaving comments and it’s growing, growing, growing and then one of my friends said no [that was a parody account]. I saw Chael Sonnen did a whole video [talking about the punishment] and people in the comments were like ‘Chael, you need to check your sources.’ That was funny.”

While it didn’t take him long to figure out the message came from a parody account, Battle already had an idea that he was dealing with fake news thanks to another fighter who followed him with an equally inflammatory post-fight interview.

“I knew there was no way I was getting fined, and [Renato] Moicano wasn’t getting fined,” Battle said referencing the UFC Paris headliner after he finished Benoit Saint Denis. “He actually was talking about the government.

“I said some goofy shit. I was being silly as hell. Moicano was talking about real life things so that’s the real heel of the night, in France at least. But that was funny as hell. Again, any kind of attention, any kind of energy, we’ll take it. I’m not being picky about what goes out.”

Parody or not, Battle had fun with becoming notorious for at least one night.

“It’s one of those things, I have not openly denied it one time,” Battle said with a laugh. “I’m just like letting it ride. It is funny. People think I’m at war with the country of France! People thought it was dangerous for me in France.

“Now granted, they were throwing stuff at us when we were walking back through the tunnel, but once I got through the tunnel, all the French people were cool as hell.”

Many of the responses to the supposed fine and ban from France praised Battle for the viral moment in the octagon with a lot of fans excited to see him embrace his new “heel” persona.

In professional wrestling, the term heel effectively means villain or bad guy and Battle had a feeling he would have to take on that role no matter what when he agreed to face a fighter from France on the UFC Paris card.

“People are like ‘Bryan with the crazy heel turn,’ but the reality of it is, there’s no one who’s mad at me for real,” Battle said. “If I’m the heel, I’m the cool heel that people root for. It’s a funny thing, too, in that situation you have no choice but to be the bad guy. You’re in someone else’s house.

“I wonder what it’s going to be like going back to Las Vegas. Like I’m not going to be a dickhead for the sake of being a dickhead. That would be the difference between me and a lot of guys. I’m not going to go out of my way to be a heel. I’m not going to go out of my way to be obnoxious and mean but if it’s what it calls for, I’m going to let them have it.”

Battle won’t have to wait long to find out about how the crowd is going to react to him with his next fight already booked for UFC 310 on Dec. 7 when he faces Randy Brown on the final pay-per-view show for 2024.

Don’t expect him to go out of his way to rile up the crowd just so he can keep playing the bad guy but whatever gets people excited is what he wants to give to them.

“I think it’s less me being a bad guy and more just speaking my mind,” Battle said. “People are identifying with what I’m saying.

“Good guy, bad guy, heel, face, all that stuff, I’m here for the energy. Whatever’s going to get the crowd the most invested into the fight, that’s what I want. It elevates the fight. I loved it.”

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