Making UFC octagon debut, American fighter Brahimaj suffered a bruising night's work against opponent Max Griffin in their bout on the undercard at UFC Fight Night Las Vegas. 

Brahimaj had already taken a pair of low blows during the contest before serious swelling emerged under his left eye, which eventually split open and began to bleed. 

But the carnage was not done there as Griffin caught Brahimaj with an elbow to the side of his head, almost slicing his ear clean off. 

Despite his ear flapping around wildly, Brahimaj incredibly attempted to fight on – simply poking at it in a vain attempt to stick the displaced body part back into place. 

Referee Marc Smith was clearly less keen for the 27-year-old to continue, stepping in to stop the fight and award Griffin a TKO win at 2:03 in the third round. 

The gruesome images of Brahimaj's ear were soon being shared widely online – including by UFC boss Dana White. 

WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS / VIDEO 

White accompanied the image with a 'sick' emoji, and some were drawn to question why the UFC boss would send that kind of grisly content into fans' Twitter feeds.

"Why?" asked ESPN reporter Brett Okamoto, while Robbie Fox from Barstool Sports (jokingly) called White a "sicko" for spreading the graphic content.