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Hey, my ghouls! For our final injury report of the year, I thought we could discuss some of the most gruesome injuries in mixed martial arts (and other sports!) that may have been forgotten as we head into 2024. There were a lot of them, so I tried to whittle this list to an entry for each month. After reading through it, please leave a comment! Did I forget something? Did I scar you for life? Tell me!
Warning: Graphic photos and videos are throughout this post, so please proceed with caution. Special shoutout to X users NeoValeTudo, Pelunaton and Grabaka_Hitman for providing us with some clips.
MMA’s Worst Injuries of the Month
January
For its first event of 2023, the UFC originally had Kelvin Gastelum vs. Nassourdine Imavov scheduled a Fight Night card in Vegas. One of the primary storylines of the booking was how Gastelum would fare after spending more than a year away from the Octagon due to various injuries. Well, we had to wait even longer for that answer because the former Ultimate Fighter winner was forced to withdraw against Imavov. Why? Another injury.
Michael Wonsover on X (formerly Twitter) reported that Gastelum got hit with a knee during a sparring session. That knee shuffled around some of his teeth, so the 32-year-old had to undergo surgery to sew them on again. Ouch. A few months after surgery, Gastelum returned to the win column at UFC 287 with a decision against Chris Curtis in a ‘Fight of the Night’ appearance.
February
I had to add Marcin Wrzosek to my ‘Hate to See It’ list (hi, Zane Simon!) this year because we really do hate seeing a fight end this way. Heading over to Krakow for Fame MMA 17, which featured Wrzosek and Piotr Szeliga in a kickboxing bout (in an MMA cage with MMA gloves). At the halfway point, Szeliga swept Wrzosek off his feet with a leg kick. As the ‘Polish Zombie’ fell, he posted his arm to try and catch himself. You see where this is going, right? Right.
Instead of catching himself, Wrzosek fell on his arm, snapping it in half. Immediately, the 36-year-old and the referee realized something was wrong, and the fight was waved off. After the event, Wrzosek shared a photo of himself with his arm in a sling, with a caption that said he would love to rematch Szeliga after he recovers. He did exactly that, and seven months after their first fight ended due to injury, Wrzosek finished Szeliga at FAME MMA 19 via third-round (T)KO.
March
It’s a different breed of fighter that responds to a gruesome gash on their face with a simple shoulder shrug—looking at you, Luca Lombardo. During the preliminary portion of ONE Friday Fights 10 (watch Petrov vs. Lombardo here around the 33-minute mark), Lombardo and Anton Petrov were involved in a Muay Thai fight. Things were going great for Petrov, who was catching Lombardo with some heavy punches, one of which stunned his opponent. After receiving a count from the referee, Lombardo signaled he was ready to continue—and he did for a few more seconds.
When the fight resumed, Petrov sliced Lombardo up with an elbow. The ’Sicilian Warrior’ paused, wiped the blood from his face, licked it (?!) and continued. That was until the referee got a glimpse of the gash, went ‘nope’ and waved off the fight. In response, Lombardo gave us a ‘what are you doing?!’ shrug, but honestly? It was for the best.
April
I was serious when I said Joel Sanchez Paredes was officially on the ‘Worst MMA Injuries of 2023’ list. This doozy came to us from Xtreme Knockout 61, which had Paredes versus Gilberto Melara on its preliminary portion. In the second round, Melara connected with a flying knee on Paredes, who was sent to the canvas immediately.
Some ground-and-pound from Melara followed, and the fight ended shortly after. In a series of videos, Paredes gave us an account of what happened after eating that knee. Though he wanted to continue because he thought all he had was some broken teeth, it turned out he had a broken jaw. ‘El Gallo’ has since undergone surgery and spent the rest of the year recovering.
May
For the first of three (!) ear-related injuries, we lead with José Peñaloza, who was already tempting fate coming into his fight at UWC 43 against Dorian Ramos with a severe cauliflower ear. Ramos, the reigning Ultimate Warrior Challenge Mexico featherweight champion, would target it throughout the fight and the ear got worse after every minute.
The already swollen ear grew twice its original size, which almost led to the fight getting waved off ahead of the second round. However, after referee Luis Cobian got the all-clear from the cageside physician to allow Peñaloza to continue, he did—until he found himself on the ground with Ramos again. There, Ramos elbowed his way to a win, which came after the aforementioned ear exploded. Since then, Peñaloza has fought twice, losing to Mehdi Zeidvand and Gerico Platon, respectively.
June
Jade Bornea tried to stay in his fight against Fernando Martinez, but that proved difficult to do with an exploded ear. Challenging Martinez for the IBF super flyweight championship, Bornea fared well early, finding a home for his jabs. However, when it came to the power punches, those were all Martinez, who continued to pop Bornea, with his right hands doing the most damage. In fact, it was a right hand that did the fight-ending damage, who was now dealing with a popped ear.
Though he continued for the tenth and eleventh rounds, the writing was on the wall for Bornea. An aggressive Martinez ended the fight early in the eleventh when he teed off on his challenger until referee Charlie Fitch saw enough. In an update from Sean Gibbons of Knucklehead Boxing, Bornea needed a few stitches to sew the cut in his ear. He has not fought since the loss.
July
I always say no one could ever dethrone Marvin Eastman for the worst cut in MMA history, but Nemanja Nikolic came close. Really close. Crowned as the No. 1 moment from KSW 84, Nikolic suffered a cut after getting clipped with a knee from Bartosz Lesko. Nikolic continued, but the end of the fight was near after Lesko connected with a spinning kick that sent him crashing to the canvas.
From there, Lesko followed him to the ground and poured on the pressure for the finish, which came after Nikolic rolled over and gave Lesko a chance to secure a rear-naked choke. After the fight, we got to see how gruesome the cut on Nikolic was, courtesy of KSW in a since-deleted post (not by them, but by X for violating community guidelines). We have a screenshot, though, so enjoy.
August
Any fighter that competes twice in a night is really ramping up their chances of suffering a severe injury. A recent case in point? Bahram Rajabzadeh after his two fights during the qualifiers for the GLORY Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament. In his semifinal against Mo Amine, the Azerbaijan representative found a home for a front kick to the face of Amine. Though Amine ate it, there was some damage done. As Rajabzadeh went in for the finish, he noticed that the bottom of his foot was bleeding.
He went on to earn a second-round stoppage against Amine, but because this was a tournament, Rajabzadeh had to fight again—this time, in his final against Uku Jürjendal. As you would expect, the bottom of his foot continued to worsen, but Rajabzadeh was undeterred. After three rounds, the 32-year-old won via decision. In his post-fight interview with Joseph Valtellini, Rajabzadeh literally sprayed the ring with his blood.
September
Dylan Reischman suffered a ‘super rare’ injury during his first professional fight at Combate Global: Ferreira vs. Morales. Reischman was defending a takedown attempt from Jamie Mora-Muñoz when the latter lifted the former up and started to slam him down. Well, Reischman had his leg caught underneath him, so as soon as Mora-Munoz completed the slam, the leg collapsed.
Immediately, the 21-year-old signaled to the referee that he was injured, as evidenced by the protruding bone above his knee, leading to the fight’s end. We have had two updates from Reischman since, one that shared he successfully underwent surgery and one that revealed he was starting physical therapy.
October
With the end of the year closing in, a lot of reflective ‘look-back’ lists are floating around. Usually, categories such as ‘KO of the Year’ or ‘Sub of the Year’ are featured, so I thought to nominate something that could (and should) find its way on the ‘Fight of the Year’ and ‘Worst Injury of the Year’ categories. Please give it up for Petgarfield Jitmuangnon vs. Numpangna Eaglemuaythai, which gave us not only a great fight but also a gross injury.
There was rarely a pause in Petgarfield vs. Numpangna, so it was no surprise to see both men sporting a ton of damage after their Muay Thai fight at ONE Friday Fights 38 in Thailand. Petgarfield got the worst of it though, as he was left with several cuts, including one on his lip that could rival Robbie Lawler and Alistair Overeem.
November
For our third (and final) ear-related injury on this list, we go to ACA 166 in Russia, where Vinicius Cruz had his ear nearly detached from his head. In the fourth round of his fight with Edil Esengulov, the Brazilian got hit with an ear-popping elbow while on the ground. Upon impact, the ear was nearly severed, forcing the referee to pause the fight and request assistance from the cageside physicians.
To the chagrin of Cruz, they decided that he could no longer continue.
December
After a year of rattling off wins on the amateur and professional circuit, Nikolay Samusev saw his undefeated run come to an end. For his first appearance in BRAVE Combat Federation, Samusev fought Adilet Nurmatov at Brave CF 77, where he suffered an eerily similar fate to that of our February entry, Marcin Wrzosek.
At the start of the second round, Samusev raised his leg, slipped and fell to the canvas. On his way down, he posted his arm and it snapped. Realizing what had happened, Nurmatov responded by trying to help Samusev, who rolled over in pain before the referee got to him.
Enjoy the rest of the holidays, ghouls! See you next year.