She might not have been victorious but no one can say that Paige VanZant walked away from her UFC Fight Night clash against Jessica-Rose Clark looking like anything other than a supreme badass. And now she’s got the x-rays to back that up.
23-year-old VanZant flyweight division debut ended in a unanimous points defeat, with Clark getting the win on all three judge’s scorecards, 30 – 27, 29 – 28, 29 – 28.
But as it turns out, VanZant copped a horrific injury in the first round that would’ve stopped the vast majority of other fighters.
An attempted spinning back fist from VanZant caught Clark square on the scone, snapping a bone in Paige’s right arm almost clean in half. The fighter shared a photo of the gnarly aftermath from her hospital bed following the fight.
Despite the injury, PVZ gamely finished the fight out before received treatment.
Peep the stomach-churning injury in the images below.
Well… I broke my arm in the first! I was able to finish the fight but as you can see, had a hard recovering and throwing my right. I’ll be back better and stronger than ever! 💪🏼🦁 it’s all apart of the fight game. God had other plans for me. 🙏🏼 darn spinning back fist. pic.twitter.com/v5DhSv5YxD
— Paige VanZant (@paigevanzant) January 15, 2018
Ahh yep. She’s ahh… she’s pretty broken alright.
The defeat was VanZant’s second consecutive loss, and sends her career record plunging to 7-4.
It’s not like the injury slowed her down in the fight either. Here it is right at the start of this sequence, posted by the UFC, which is immediately followed up by a flurry of attempted punches and a double-arm grapple which VanZant pulls off like nothing had actually happened.
Spinning back fist from @PaigeVanzantUFC lands, then she gets JRC to the ground! #UFCSTL pic.twitter.com/xh50dh4W4t
— UFC (@ufc) January 15, 2018
Tough as nails, that one. Tough. As. Bloody. Nails.
