Alexandre Pantoja (featured photo), Brazilian flyweight champion (up to 57 kg), seriously injured his arm at the start of his title defense against young challenger from Myanmar, Joshua Van, at UFC 323, held on Saturday evening (6/12).
The champion attempted a high kick, but was knocked down and suffered the most serious injury of his career.
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Pantoja was injured in the arm.
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The Brazilian was unable to continue the fight.
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After the Brazilian’s injury, Joshua Van took the flyweight belt.
Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
The extent of his injury is not yet known, but upon leaving the octagon, Dana White, president of the organization, assured that the UFC will take the best possible care of the Brazilian fighter.
Merab Dvalishvili lost his bantamweight belt (up to 61.3 kg) to Russian Petr Yan, in a fight decided by the judges.
Petr fought a near-perfect fight, defending 26 of Merab’s 28 takedown attempts, knocking him down twice and breaking his nose in the first round. With several hard blows to Merab’s body, Petr showed why he deserved to become champion again.
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Rest of the card
Former two-time champion Henry Cejudo, retired after losing to Payton Talbott, received a tribute during his farewell.
“Fighting Nerds” athlete Marlon Santos scored a knockout in the first fight of the evening. Karine “Killer”, also from “Nerds”, lost in the judges’ rankings. The fight was marked by an illegal strike on his opponent, Mayce Barber.
Brazilian Hulk Brunno Ferreira defeated Marvin Vetori by unanimous decision. Interestingly, it was his first decision victory in 9 fights in Ultimate.
Edson Barboza, Brazilian MMA legend, lost by technical knockout to Jalin Turner, an American who had retired after a bad phase in the organization, but decided to return citing new motivations.
Iwo Baraniewski made his debut with Ibo Aslan. The two men engaged in a brutal fight that lasted 1 minute and 29 seconds, but the newcomer won by knockout.
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