Fight fans witnessed one of the most unique and equally gruesome injuries last night at Bellator 292 from San Jose, Calif., when Goiti Yamauchi suffered a nasty patella tendon rupture at the hands of a Michael “Venom” Page leg kick (watch HERE).
Yamauchi was riding a three-fight win streak coming into this fight, but it didn’t matter for the veteran fighter once the main card bout got underway. Page stalked Yamauchi down in just 26 seconds and launched a whipping leg kick. The kick caught Yamauchi flush on the knee and he immediately collapsed in pain, forcing the referee’s stoppage.
Check it out again below:
That kick…
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Upon replay, fight fans could see the moment Yamauchi’s knee burst when the kick made contact. It was pretty gruesome to say the least and easily one of the most cringe-worthy injuries we’ve seen in a while. Maybe not as brutal as Page’s skull-crushing knee against Evangelista Santos back in 2016, but it’s pretty damn close.
At Bellator 292’s post-fight press conference, Bellator president, Scott Coker, spoke about the severity of Yamauchi’s injury. According to Coker, the Japanese-Brazilian veteran suffered a serious “patella tendon rupture.”
“Based on the x-ray, it’s a patella tendon rupture,” Coker said (via MMA Fighting). “So that sounds very painful.”
Yamauchi, 30, is still 14-5 under the Bellator MMA banner despite this brutal loss to “MVP.” It’s certainly going to take the welterweight fighter quite some time to recover from this patella injury, but Yamauchi should have a home at Bellator when he’s ready and able to fight again.
For more Bellator 292 results and coverage click here.