Anthony “Lionheart” Smith wasn’t the only light heavyweight on Saturday’s UFC Vegas 37 card that impressed. Ion Cutelaba delivered quite the beating on Devin Clark in the co-main event of the evening, pummeling him so badly that Clark had to be helped onto the stool between the first and second rounds.
Clark is one tough dude, though. He survived a rough round two trapped in full mount for minutes, and then ate a massive knee to the jaw that messed him up bad. Photos from cageside showed Clark’s bottom teeth going up and down in all sorts of unnatural directions.
Devin Clark’s mouth was in rough shape after his fight with Ion Cutelaba at #UFCVegas37 pic.twitter.com/g1V9RIlp2f
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) September 19, 2021
Somehow the ringside doctor didn’t stop the fight … and Clark managed to win round three on two of the judges’ scorecards. It wasn’t nearly enough, and Cutelaba won a unanimous 30-26, 29-26, and 29-27 decision.
Following the fight, Ion Cutelaba was very happy with the results of the fight but not so happy about having hurt his opponent that badly. When asked if he’d seen the pictures and video of Clark’s injuries, his smile disappeared.
“It’s very very … yeah,” Cutelaba said. “I looked and … I’m not happy. I’m not happy.”
Clark took to social media on Sunday to share an update on the state of his teeth.
“They were able to pull the teeth back into place temporarily, now,” he said. “Temporary braces. A little better. Doing all right, though. Thank you all for your love and support.”
Devin Clark injury update pic.twitter.com/FhPHQ7fRx3
— Amy Kaplan (@PhotoAmy33) September 19, 2021
Our favorite ringside physician turned YouTuber, Dr. David Abbasi, laid out what happened and the kind of jawline fracture he thinks Clark experienced.
“On the bottom the teeth are attached to a bone called the mandible bone which gives you the profile to your jaw,” Dr. Abbasi said. “And the teeth arise from that on the bottom row. So to have a chunk or portion that is free floating from that, one of two things is going on: either you have two separate displaced fractures or a segmental fracture of the mandible with that portion that is displaced.”
“Or you can have what’s called a dentoalveolar fracture where basically just a chunk of it is displaced and is floating up. But one of those two definitely happened to Devin Clark and it was nasty, man.”
“All the respect to Devin Clark for continuing to go on with that fight despite that injury, but that’s a very severe and unstable injury,” Dr. Abbasi concluded. “I think most ringside docs would have stopped that fight. I think I would have stopped that fight for sure.”
What do you think, Maniacs? Should Clark’s corner or the ringside physician have stepped in?