Augusto Sakai has revealed the injuries he sustained in his UFC Vegas 9 main event against Alistair Overeem.
Early on in the fight, the Brazilian in Sakai had success but in the third round, the tides started to change. In the fourth, Overeem used his wrestling to get the fight to the canvas and landed vicious ground and pound. The fight was almost stopped but in the fifth, Overeem got the TKO win with more ground and pound.
“In the second round, I was hit with a knee that dislocated two of my ribs,” Sakai said to AG Fight. “When he took me down, he hit me with an elbow that broke two more. So I was without four ribs, so to speak. That got in the way a lot. I could not defend takedowns. I could not show my jiu-jitsu. I could not defend myself very well. Kudos to him.
“I’m sure he used his experience in his favor, but I was expecting that. What made things difficult for me, and I’m not trying to come up with an excuse here, was the pain in my ribs. Even then, I tried to endure it as much as I could.”
It is obviously a disappointing loss for Augusto Sakai who was getting a step up in competition. If Sakai had won, he would’ve been a top-five heavyweight. Now, he will have to build himself back up once his ribs heal up.
