Chris Brown-Drake Fight: All About Rihanna, Sparked By Middle Finger!

It looks like last night's wild fight between Chris Brown and Drake was, in fact, about the former's ex and the latter's rumored hookup, Rihanna. Imagine that.

Sources also indicate that while Drake's telling the truth when he says he wasn't involved physically in the epic melee that ensued, he definitely stirred the pot.

Drake gave Brown the middle finger, engaged in some serious trash talk, and recruited several other rappers to join his posse before the brawl, witnesses say.

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Tension started escalating, supposedly, when Drake gave the middle finger to one of Chris' bodyguards and shouted, "I'm about to go whoop that ass!"

Chris' entourage responded with a few hand gestures of their own.

Witnesses very close to the action say Drake felt disrespected ... even though he started the exchange. At that point the rapper went to get backup.

His boys Juelz Santana, Trav B and Meek Mill - the one who sources say hit Brown with a bottle and gashed his chin - then stepped into the beef.

At this point, the latest report says that Drake got loud and shouted at Chris something to the effect of "You be on that ho s**t on Twitter n***a!" 

That would be an expletive-laden, but clear reference to a recent Twitter war between Chris, Drake, and Meek ... all over who's banging Rihanna.

Raise your hand if you're surprised she played some role in this. Anyone?

Moments later, Chris' security guards became irate, more words were exchanged, pushing and shoving began, a bottle was thrown, and ... yeah.

By all accounts, Drake never got physically involved in the brawl and was about to leave at the time, which he claimed in a statement via his rep.

His middle finger and smack talk clearly played a role in it, however.

One quick question before we turn it over to your comments: Whatever happened ... aren't you almost surprised this hasn't happened before?

Whose side are you on in the Chris Brown-Drake beef?