Mixed martial arts has a price beyond many other sports. This is something professional athletes learn day in and out. While it’s ok to poke fun at Tito Ortiz and Brendan Schaub on occasion, it’s important to not overlook the impact training and doing MMA professionally has on athletes.
This past Saturday in Buenos Aires, Argentina, an athlete from Circuito Argentino de MMA (CAM) learned this tough lesson.
The promotion was holding its ninth event when the accident occurred. The card was scheduled to have seven bouts, with the main event being a middleweight showdown between Ezequiel Ricci and Pablo Rios.
While all six earlier bouts ran fine, the last caught everyone by surprise.
Both Ricci and Rios were in good shape at the beginning of the first round. Both started with several leg kicks followed by boxing.
But a couple of seconds after, Rios went down after landing a leg kick which was apparently checked by Ricci.
Ricci then followed up the action with ground and pound which prompted the referee to stop the contest.
While Ricci was celebrating his win, the camera panned at Rios’ snapped leg akin to injury suffered by Anderson Silva, Chris Weidman, and Conor McGregor.
Ricci was then announced as the winner via TKO, 17 seconds into the first round.
‘El Cino’ successfully extended his winning streaks to two, even though things didn’t exactly go according to plan. His other win was back in 2017 when he outpointed Ezequiel Vicente Rivera.
Rios must swallow another loss and a lengthy rehabilitation period.