UFC star rushed to hospital after elbow leaves him with horrific eye injury
Rongzhu’s second UFC debut ended in a complete disaster.
The Chinese fighter was cut by MMA’s promotion following a 1-2 run in 2022 – but he earned his way back to the Octagon with three ‘Road to UFC’ wins.
Rongzhu faced off against Chris Padilla at UFC Vegas 97 on Saturday night.
The 24-year-old gave a good account of himself during an extremely competitive fight that ultimately came to an end after one hellacious shot in round two.
Padilla landed an elbow perfectly on Rongzhu’s eye socket, which immediately swelled up and left the lightweight fighter with a huge hematoma over his left eye.
The fight continued for a few brief moments, but then referee Kerry Hatley spotted the damage and stopped the fight so a doctor could assess the injury.
Unsurprisingly, Rongzhu was deemed to be in no fit state to continue.
The fight was waved off and UFC fans, who are known for being blood-thirsty, took to social media to agree with the cageside physician’s call.
One person tweeted: “Omg this looks bad !!!! I hope he is ok.”
Another said: “He may have lost that eye.”
A third fan commented: “Never seen eye swell shut that fast. Something else must have broken, nose or orbital?”
This fan added: “Brutal elbow.”
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According to MMAMania.com, ‘Little Yama’ was transported to the local hospital following his fight for a precautionary scan of his face.
Later, Rongzhu’s manager confirmed that the stricken fighter suffered multiple fractures in a worrying update that also revealed ‘he still cannot open his eye.’
Padilla wasn’t particularly concerned about his opponent post-fight.
After stretching his MMA record to 15-6 ‘Taco’ just wanted to be rewarded with one of the four $50,000 bonuses Dana White gives out after every event.
“I think I’m worth $50k, man,” Padilla said at the UFC Vegas 97 post-fight press conference.
“Who’s splitting someone with an elbow, swelling their eye up? That’s why in the cage I was saying, ‘No mas’ because he was saying ‘Eye poke, eye poke’.
“Come on, boy! I eye-poked you with an elbow. I don’t got fingers on my elbows. You know that s*** smushed your eye.
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“That’s why I was like, ‘Ah! I must kill you now’ and when they called the [doctor] in, I was like, ‘He don’t want no more’.
“This is no disrespect to him because I think I really smushed his eye, personally. I felt that b**** mush, excuse my language.
Shockingly, Padilla was overlooked by the powers at be when it was time to give out bonuses.
Steve Garcia and Cody Durden each received an extra $50,000 ‘Performance of the Night’ bonus for their stoppage wins against Kyle Nelson and Matt Schnell.
Former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade and rising star Natalia Silva also got an additional $50,000 cheque after their three-round barnburner was declared ‘Fight of the Night’.