Magana had been unresponsive since undergoing emergency surgery on her spine Tuesday night.
We have good news regarding the condition of former UFC strawweight Angela Magana.
After a nerve block procedure on a herniated disc in her back revealed she was suffering from cauda equina syndrome, Magana underwent emergency spine surgery on Tuesday night. Soon after the operation, her coach Gabriel Lamastus took over her social media account to reveal Magana had slipped into a coma.
Now we have word from Lamastus via MMA Junkie that Magana is slowly regaining consciousness. An earlier update had everyone cautiously optimistic, with Magana moving her fingers and blinking her eyes.
“Angela is responding to the treatment and is waking up!!!,” Lamastus wrote in a text message. “We are over joyed. She has been in and out of it. This started happening this morning.”
According to Lamastus, Magana has managed to speak as well.
Cauda equina syndrome involves damage to the bottom bundle of nerves located below the end of the spinal cord. It’s unclear how bad the damage was or still is, but Magana underwent the original nerve block procedure in an attempt to keep training for a fight on April 26th in Los Angeles.
Magana’s run in the UFC started via The Ultimate Fighter 20 where she lost to Aisling Day in the first round of the tournament. She’d fight for the UFC three times, going 0-3 before being released from the organization in 2017.
While she was never able to cinch a win in the cage, she did gain a lot of attention as one of the first women on the roster to embrace a full on pro wrestling heel persona. That may have caused her more pain than gain, as she was thrown out of her gym, hated by other fighters, and sucker punched by former women’s featherweight champ Cris Cyborg.
We were never fans of her Covington-level social media trolling, but we’re glad that she pulled through this scary incident and hope she sees a full recovery.