The left leg of Ryan Benoit took a lot of damage during his preliminary fight with Zarrukh Adashev at UFC Vegas 33 last Saturday. The UFC flyweight suffered a fractured fibular head and was hospitalized over swelling concerns and possible compartment syndrome, per Benoit and his management team KO Reps.
The injury was initially reported by Brett Okamoto of ESPN and later confirmed by Mike Heck and Damon Martin of MMA Fighting. Benoit was expected to remain in the hospital until Monday for further observation.
Adashev repeatedly kicked the left leg of Benoit and it was clear how compromised it was within the first 90 seconds of the fight. UFC color commentators Michael Bisping and Paul Felder were already pointing out the damage Benoit was taking as was evidenced by both his switch in stance and immediate swelling. Around the three-minute mark of the fight, Adashev delivered another solid kick that had Benoit slightly limping.
Benoit remained in the fight and continued to press forward with hard shots, but it would not be enough and he went on to lose a unanimous decision to Adashev. Benoit took to Instagram to address the loss to Adashev and explain his injury.
“I’d still chase him around if we had more time to scrap!” wrote Benoit.
Benoit has now lost his last three fights. He was previously defeated by Alateng Heili and Tim Elliott at UFC Fight Night: Edgar vs. Korean Zombie and UFC on ESPN: Kattar vs. Ige respectively. The UFC veteran has alternated between wins and losses throughout his tenure with the promotion. His last win came against Ashkan Mokhtarian, who he knocked out with a head kick at UFC Fight Night: Werdum vs. Tybura in 2017.
There was no timetable of recovery revealed for Benoit at the time of this writing.
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