Wild USC-Oregon fan fight erupts in stands after Dante Moore hit — with an ironic twist

Once again, “Fight On!” was taken a little too literally Saturday night at the Coliseum. 

As Oregon quarterback Dante Moore was being tended to by medical personnel following a brutal hit that sent him to a nearby hospital, a USC fan and an Oregon fan decided to stage their own heavyweight bout in the stands during the Trojans’ 41-27 loss to the 20th-ranked Ducks. 

And you almost couldn’t script the irony.

The USC fan was wearing a No. 8 jersey — the same number worn by Trojans linebacker Desman Stephens II, whose forearm shot to Moore’s head in the second quarter got him ejected for targeting.

Video of the altercation shows the two fans trading haymakers while spectators scrambled out of the way, watched or pulled out their phones. A woman eventually joined the chaos, appearing to throw her drink toward the USC fan while attempting to restrain the Oregon supporter.

“I remember my first fight!” one bystander can be heard yelling.

The whole thing lasted roughly 20 seconds before others finally separated the two men.

All the while, the far corner of the video provided a sobering backdrop: Moore was still on the field being transferred from a stretcher to a gurney before being taken away by ambulance.

Stephens’ hit had already ignited tempers below. Oregon players confronted him immediately after the play, USC players rushed in and a pushing-and-shoving scrum followed. Stephens only poured gasoline on the moment by celebrating afterward and exchanging high-fives with teammates on the sideline.

The hostility apparently survived the final whistle. The Athletic’s Ira Gorawara captured video of USC and Oregon players involved in another scuffle in the Coliseum tunnel as the teams headed toward their locker rooms after the game.

The fact that all of this was caused by a No. 8 on the field and another fight broke out with a fan wearing No. 8 in the stands led to some interesting comments as social media noticed the coincidence. 

“Buddy was in the stands too?!?!?” one commenter wrote.

“How many No. 8s on SC getting DQd at the game?” another joked.

It marked the second fight involving fans in the Coliseum stands in USC’s past two home games.

At this rate, “Fight On!” is starting to sound less like a school slogan and more like an instruction manual.

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