Alexandre
Pantoja’s arm was dislocated and got set back to position
within seconds.
Pantoja put his flyweight title on the line against Joshua Van
in the main event at
UFC 323 this past December. It was less than half a minute into
the fight when Van caught a kick from Pantoja and dumped him. As
Pantoja put his left hand to the ground to balance, he fell back in
agony with a visibly dislocated arm. Pantoja gestured to referee
Herb
Dean to stop the fight just before Van was considering landing
follow up shots.
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Pantoja revealed that he had set his arm back in place just as Dean
intervened at 0:26 of the opening round. Pantoja briefly regretted
asking Dean to stop the fight. However, a firm believer in God,
“The Cannibal” believes everything played out the way it did for
his well being. Pantoja believes that while he could have fought
with an injured arm, it could have resulted in more serious
injuries.
Could Be Worse
“He knew I hurt my arm,” Pantoja said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “And then when he
understood I was starting to put my arm back, then he understand,
‘I need to try to punch Pantoja, because Pantoja could come back.’
But at that point, I’ve trained MMA all my life, and I knew if I
tried to fight with my arm dislocated like that, could be worse for
me… And then I say to stop the fight, and the time I say to stop
the fight, my arm back to its position. And I said, ‘Oh my God, why
I stop the fight.’… But I believe in God all the time. Maybe it
could be worse, maybe I could fight with one arm, but my arm would
be so much mess after that.”
Van (16-2) is now scheduled to defend his title against Tatsuro
Taira (18-1) at UFC 327
on April 11 at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida. Meanwhile,
Pantoja (30-6) is recovering well from his injury, and is expected
to get a title shot when he returns later this year.