Back at UFC Fight Night 113, Alexandre Pantoja had a decision to make.
Push forward and face off against Neil Seery in a hostile environment with a serious injury, or back out and risk losing it all for his family.
Pantoja went on to fight Seery and win despite having a ruptured ligament in his arm.
“The tests done by the UFC are usually for doping, like blood and urine,” Pantoja told FloCombat. “I didn’t do any physical exam. My arm injury is superficial. I had a ruptured ligament, no one besides me knew this and could say whether I could fight or not. I felt relatively good in training, but what forced me to fight even without being at 100 percent was a financial issue. I’ve got two children, and my family depends on me.
“I didn’t tell the UFC about my injury, and I didn’t think it was necessary. But as I said, I only knew if I could fight or not and my only concern was to win. If I had spoken about my injury, it would’ve been viewed as an excuse. The injury was not even revealed by me, it was ‘Minotauro’ (Nogueira) who spoke about it. He himself said that he already did this type of treatment and he managed to fight as well, which encouraged me.”
Pantoja (18-2) has won both of his UFC appearances, including his third round submission of Seery in Scotland. He also scored a decision over Eric Shelton this past January and holds a second round submission win vs. Damacio Page to his credit.
