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Welcome to MMA & combat sports FOTN IV!
(WARNING: Graphic images and videos throughout this article!)
Happy MMA Halloween!
I have returned with the fourth installment of Fright of the Night, a series I created to highlight some of the worst injuries we have seen during the month of October. For returning FOTN readers, good to see you again! For new FOTN readers, good to have you! Here, I show you some pictures and videos of these injuries and rank them from bad to worst. Fun, right?
Now, we have a few things to discuss ahead of our dive into this list. First, injuries that did not happen while in MMA or combat sports competition are excluded. For example, the cut that forced Charles Oliveira out of UFC 294 is not here. Second, I want to reiterate that this list only has injuries that happened in October. I had some questions on my other FOTNs about why specific injuries did not receive a mention, and the examples given were all things that happened earlier in the year.
Although I would love to include some injuries, such as Ulric Bokeme getting his teeth knocked out at GLORY Collision 5 or Jeamie Tshikeva suffering his first loss due to a horrific cut on the Dubois vs. Rodriguez undercard, they are also excluded. I could save those for an end-of-year list, though.
Ready? Get gross, my ghouls.
No. 5: Linus Udofia’s eye at Wood vs. Warrington undercard
Linus Udofia waited around five months for his fight with Kieron Conway. Kieron Conway needed around five rounds to leave Linus Udofia with a horrific eye injury.
On the undercard of Leigh Wood vs. Josh Warrington, these two squared off in a fairly competitive fight, but Conway was finding success moving forward and tagging Udofia here and there. Things got hairy for Udofia in the fifth round as he ate a left hand from Conway and started to swell around his right eye. At the start of the sixth round, referee Howard Foster saw it was swollen shut and waved off the fight. Though initially disappointed in the decision, ‘Lightning’ Linus came around after realizing he could not continue in that condition.
After the fight, Udofia gave us an update on his eye, which was surprisingly (!) not fractured or broken. “The ref made the right decision, my eye was shut, I felt I boxed to a T,” posted Udofia on X (formerly Twitter). “It’s boxing. We’ll be back. Thank you [Kieron] and [Matchroom Boxing] for the opportunity and congratulations.” Recently, Udofia revealed he was cleared to fight again near the end of the year in what he calls a ‘Christmas Cracker’. Fingers crossed, Santa Claus leaves him with something other than an eye injury.
No. 4: Maciej Rozanski’s cut at Bellator 300
MMA fighter Maciej Rozanski was on his way to a loss to Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov. At Bellator 300, the ’Spartan’ spent most of his time underneath Yagshimuradov, trying to fend off punches and elbows. Most of them got through, but Rozanski was lucky enough to avoid any serious injuries…until the final five seconds of the fight.
His luck ran out as Yagshimuradov sliced up Rozanski with an elbow that left a cut on his forehead. As the horn signifying the end of the fight sounded, a badly bloodied Rozanski returned to his feet and gave us a glimpse of the cut that Bellator commentator Mauro Ranallo called ‘nasty’. Nasty, indeed.
Though he gave us a few words on his loss, Rozanski left us hanging on the details of what happened with his cut. I was hoping to find some before and after pictures of it being stitched up or something, but no such luck.
No. 3: Ashley Yoder’s cuts at UFC Vegas 81
Ashley Yoder came into her MMA fight against Emily Ducote with one set of eyebrows and left with two sets. Let me explain.
Yoder returned to the Octagon from a two-year layoff at UFC Fight Night: Yusuff vs. Barboza, where she started off strong against Ducote in the first round. However, all of that changed in the second and third rounds, as ‘Gordinha’ caught the ‘Spider Monkey’ coming in repeatedly. Her primary weapon of choice? Elbows! Whenever Yoder came in, Ducote would respond with one or two of them, and they wound up doing some significant damage. At the end of the fight, Yoder was left with two cuts — one over each eyebrow — that were sure to require several stitches.
The loss to Ducote was her final UFC appearance, as Yoder was cut from the promotion a few days later.
No. 2: Jeremie Holloway’s teeth at BKFC 52
Believe it or not, this is our first entry from a bare-knuckle boxing bout, which is surprising given the type of injuries we have seen come out of that sans-glove world. For this entry, we hit up Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) at BKFC 52, an event that featured Jeremie Holloway vs. Cameron VanCamp.
This was a strong showing for Holloway, who poured on the pressure against VanCamp over the course of five rounds. ‘Hit Em’ Holloway left with his first BKFC win, but that was not the only thing. Shortly after their fight, VanCamp shared a photo of him and Holloway together that showed off their respective injuries. And that is how we saw Holloway and two of his teeth seemingly rearranged.
Though Holloway said he was healthy and hoping for another trip to the Squared Circle soon, he may need a detour to the dentist.
No. 1: Petgarfield Jitmuangnon’s lip at ONE Friday Fights 38
When Robbie Lawler got his lip split against Rory MacDonald at UFC 189, I thought nothing in MMA or combat sports would outdo that injury. Around four years later, Alistair Overeem had his lip severed in two after a perfect punch from Jairzinho Rozenstruik at UFC on ESPN: Overeem vs. Rozenstruik. I thought the same thing again — nothing would outdo this injury, right!? RIGHT!?
Wrong. We are around four years removed from the Overeem incident, and there is a new split lip injury that we have to add to this group. This past Friday, ONE Championship held ONE Friday Fights 38, where a ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate went down. Petgarfield Jitmuangnon and Numpangna Eaglemuaythai went to war for three rounds. In the end, Petgarfield won via unanimous decision, but it came at a cost.
His lip was split, and it is one of the grossest things we have seen this year. As I watched his post-fight interview, I swear Petgarfield separated his lip even further whenever he responded to every question. He went on to receive stitches to repair the lip, which already looks a lot better.
Guess now all that is left to do is wait another four years to see who joins Lawler, Overeem and Petgarfield in their group.
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