2024 has been a year that Mateus Mendonça will be glad to see the back off as we head into 2025. The Brazilian featherweight kicked off his year with a split decision loss to Jesus Aguilar in Mexico City that brought his current run in the UFC to an end.
The 25-year old was cut from the promotion after suffering three consecutive losses off the back of earning his spot on the roster via the 2022 season of the Contender Series. However, he has already returned to the win column by producing a kneebar submission in just 20 seconds at CFC 23 in Rio de Janeiro this past October.
Whilst Mendonça is clearly a very talented grappler, he has been forced to make some serious adjustments to the way he trains on the mats. In a recent interview with AgFight, he revealed how a grappling session without any protection led to an injury that is eye-watering through reading about it alone.
The 14-fight pro revealed how an unintentional knee led to him fracturing his penis as if he didn’t already have enough on his plate this year.
“I went to train jiu-jitsu at my teacher’s gym the day before I returned to Sao Paulo,” Mendonça told AgFight. “During the second roll, [my partner] hit my private parts with his knee when I was trying to pass the guard. I felt an incredible amount of pain and ran to the bathroom. It started to burn. But then the pain went away and I kept going.
“A month later, training normally without pain, I started to notice some problems. I started to move and there was a lump. So I went to the hospital. When I got there, the doctor did an exam and immediately transferred me to another hospital for surgery.”
For every setback both in life and in combat sports, there is always a valuable lesson to be learned. For Mendonça, he has come away from this experience with one clear message that he is using to warn others. If you don’t want this to happen to you, the solution is simple.
“It’s a good idea to warn everyone. All the guys who train jiu-jitsu, grappling, MMA, anything that involves contact: wear a cup to avoid accidents. This had never happened to me. It was the first time and look what happened. I had to have surgery. I had to be out of action for two months.”
