Drakkar Klose Suffered Whiplash, Concussion Due To Stephens Weigh-In Shove

The UFC Vegas 24 co-main was scrapped at the last minute after Klose woke up on fight day suffering from concussion symptoms. Doctors later confirmed the injury.

As if losing endless fights to COVID-19 on fight week wasn’t bad enough, the UFC still has to deal with ridiculous last minute fight cancellations due to a variety of other nutty reasons. Take for example Saturday’s UFC Vegas 24 event, which lost its co-main between Jeremy Stephens and Drakkar Klose after Stephens shoved Klose during the weigh-ins.

It turns out that unexpectedly shoving someone who has just severely dehydrated themselves to make weight is a bad idea, because the push resulted in a cervical neck sprain (whiplash) and brain concussion.

All of this was confirmed by a CT scan and diagnosis from the hospital Klose was sent to after he woke up disoriented and throwing up on fight day.

Here’s Klose’s statement shortly after the fight was officially called off at the start of the UFC Vegas 24 broadcast:

So an entertaining 5 seconds of drama during the weigh-ins cost us the co-main event. It just doesn’t seem like a fair trade, and we have to wonder if the UFC is going to crack down some more now on pre-fight hostilities like this.

I mean, not like we expect the UFC to punish Jeremy Stephens or anything … remember when he was arrested for assault and UFC president Dana White was trying to bail him out of jail in time to have him headline a UFC Fight Night? We’re past the days of individual punishments, at least for the fighters White likes. But certainly the law can be laid out regarding any funny business during weigh-ins when nobody’s had a chance to properly rehydrate.