Welcome to MMATorch’s Daily Top Five. Every weekday, tune in for a new Top Five list on a variety of topics; some will be regularly updated, some will be one offs, but we hope you enjoy them all throughout the week! If you’ve got an idea for a Top Five list you’d like to see, email mmatorcheditor@gmail.com and we may fit them into the weekly mix!
7/18/16: Five Scariest Injuries Suffered in Major MMA Fights
Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos was hit by one of the nastiest flying knees ever delivered on Saturday night in his loss to Michael Page at Bellator 158, so today we take a look at where it ranks among some of the worst and scariest in-cage injuries suffered in major MMA events.
5. Frank Mir breaks Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira’s humerus (UFC 140): Frank Mir is no stranger to snapping limbs, having captured the UFC Heavyweight Title earlier in his career by snapping Tim Sylvia’s forearm, but it was the kimura arm break on Nogueira that takes a spot on this list. After nearly getting knocked out, Mir took advantage of his recovery on the ground. He locked on a kimura, rolled through with it, and put ridiculous pressure on the arm. Nogueira refused to tap, and then the arm just snapped.
4. Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos gets skull broken by Michael Page’s flying knee (Bellator 158): The knee from Page landed with perhaps the most sickening sound you could imagine in that moment. Santos knew he was hurt and hurt badly immediately, and found out the extent of the damage afterward. So much force was delivered in that quick-twitch jumping knee that it smashed in Santos’ forehead, and will see the Brazilian undergoing surgery this week to fix it.
3. Shinya Aoki destroys Mizuto Hirota’s arm (Dynamite!! 2009): In a joint event in Saitama between Dream, Sengoku Raiden Championships, and K-1, a lightweight bout between Shinya Aoki and Mizuto Hirota ended with one of the worst intentional injuries ever delivered. Aoki was the better fighter immediately, and got Hirota to the ground and took his back. He had a hammerlock cinched up, but Hirota didn’t want to tap. Instead, Aoki rolled him, and purposefully snapped the arm with the hold. In one of the worst displays of sportsmanship, he then taunted Hirota and flipped him off while Hirota laid on the mat injured.
2. Anderson Silva’s leg break against Chris Weidman (UFC 168): Our final two are extremely similar injuries that came in almost identical fashion. Silva’s was the second, and though it was every bit as serious as the number one spot on this list, Silva’s recovery and return led to very different circumstances. In his rematch with Chris Weidman, after having been knocked out to lose his title in their first fight, Silva was throwing kicks at range when one was checked, and his leg just snapped. Silva went down in a heap and began screaming, and needed to be stretchered out to the back. It was a horrific injury, but he made his way back to competition in just over a year.
1. Corey Hill snaps leg against Dale Hartt (UFC Fight For The Troops): The late Corey Hill’s leg snapping on a leg kick at the UFC Fight For the Troops event in 2008 remains one of the worst images seen in a UFC cage. Hill’s leg wrapped around Dale Hartt’s in Gumby-like fashion, and he immediately dropped in a scene we’d see repeated by Silva. It was just Hill’s fourth fight, and though he made his return after almost exactly the same time away as Silva would several years later, he never fought in the UFC again. He’d hop around several other organizations in the following years before his untimely and shocking death from pneumonia in 2015.
If you must re-watch or see them for the first time, they’re linked here: (5), (4), (3), (2), (1)
Attention iPhone/iPad and Android users, if you’ve enjoyed our app in the past and followed us there, or if you’ve never checked it out, make sure to update to the latest version in the Apple store and/or Google Play store. We’ve launched a new look for the app, in line with our recent desktop overhaul. Make sure to check it out!
For current App users, swipe right to view next article, swipe left to view previous article.
Leave a Reply