Gruesome injuries are part-and-parcel of the UFC unfortunately and there was no let up in 2020.
The coronavirus pandemic may have halted most sports around the globe but Dana White powered through.
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He made creative alternatives to keep fights going during the peak of the pandemic earlier this year, which included staging fights on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi.
A packed schedule through the year also meant some pretty nasty injuries to fighters.
Look away now if you’re squeamish.
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Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Jedrzejczyk and Weili Zhang put on a battle for the ages in the UFC 248 co-main event and left the Polish fighter with some nasty looking injuries.
The fight went the distance but was a super, super tight affair. Two judges scored the bout 48-47 in favour of Zhang, while the third saw it 48-47 Jedrzejczyk.
Jedrzejczyk face looked disfigured by the end with a large hematoma on her forehead. Things like ‘alien’ and ‘Megamind’ were trending on social media at the time.
Luckily she didn’t suffer any lasting damage and was discharged from hospital shortly after.
Niko Price
The prelims often provide some of the most entertaining fights in the UFC and this battle between Price and Vincent Luque at UFC 249 was brutal.
The pair had met before, in 2017 with Luque getting the submission victory, but this time around, the doctor was forced to intervene.
A brutal left-hand from Luque seriously damaged Price’s eye and the call by the doctor to call and end to the fight appeared to be the right one.
Price had taken plenty of heavy shots prior to that final shot, but he was very much in the fight and had probably won the first round.
Ramiz Brahimaj
Brahimaj made his UFC debut against Max Griffin in November, but it quickly went from a dream scenario to a nightmare.
The 27-year-old welterweight entered the UFC octagon for the first time with an 8-2 record, but in the third round of his bout vs Griffin he took an elbow during a clinch and it was immediately clear something was terribly wrong.
As the American backed up against the cage, his ear was flailing around and the referee had to jump in and stop the bout.
Dan Ige
Nasty eye injuries are unfortunately common place in the UFC and can be from punches, kicks and the occasional finger in the eye.
Dan Ige took a number of heavy blows during his defeat to Calvin Kattar in the main event of night two at Fight Island.
Kattar was the aggressor from the get-go and stalked Ige around the octagon. Ige did he best worst on the counter and that seemed to be his plan from the start.
However, as a consequence for letting Kattar take the assertive, he had to eat a lot of shots. At the climax of the contest, Ige’s brutal eye injury was there for all to see.
Joe Pyfer
This gruesome elbow injury took place in Dana White’s contender series and ended up looking a lot worse than it turned out to be.
Pyfer was given a painful reminder that sometimes it is better to let yourself be taken down than try and break the fall with a single, vulnerable limb.
When it became apparent he wouldn’t be able to continue, the fight was stopped and his opponent given the UFC contract.
White later wrote on Instagram he was pleased to know it was only a dislocated elbow, rather than a break.
The slow motion version makes it look even worse and his opponent Stoltzfus was clearly stunned by the injury.
