Invicta women’s bantamweight champion Tonya Evinger was looking to win mixed martial arts “MMA moment of the year” after defending her title with a unanimous decision win against Colleen Schneider.

After her trademark post-fight puke in a bucket, the openly gay Evinger grabbed announcer Laura Sanko by the face and smacked one on her lips.

Sanko laughed off the incident and took to Twitter afterwards in an attempt to prevent any negative discussion of the moment. “It’s all good,” she wrote. “Tonya Evinger is a heck of a prankster but we are friends.”

She also replied to several tweets about the incident to explain why no one should take offence to Evinger’s boldness. “Intention is 100% of the equation,” Sanko wrote. “If a male I knew was trying to be funny and did that I would still laugh it off.”

Evinger also defended her behaviour.

But there were still many who saw the situation as a double standard.

Others were just grossed out by the puke factor.