Outside Source
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.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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