Sorry, Mr. President-elect (and RFK Jr.).
Change is coming for Jhonata Diniz, who suffered the first loss of his professional career at UFC 309 this past weekend (Sat., Nov. 16, 2024) inside Madison Square Garden in New York City, surviving a brutal Marcin Tybura assault that resulted in a doctor’s stoppage.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) company officials confirmed to MMAmania.com that Diniz was transported to a local New York hospital after the bloody fight for a precautionary CT scan of his head and face.
The Brazilian was released Saturday night, but results are currently unknown. In the meantime, Diniz reacted to his first-ever mixed martial arts (MMA) defeat via Instagram.
What an absolute blood bath
— MMA Mania (@mmamania) November 17, 2024
“Passing by just to tell everyone I’m fine,” Diniz said. “It was just a bad day at work — nothing will change [with my goals]. I sat with my team and all my trainers. A lot will change from the base — everything.
“Anyone who was with me knows how much we agreed and how much we were prepared to be here, and it won’t be a fight that will lessen or change our plans,” Diniz added. “We know where we went wrong. We made some wrong decisions during the fight, which unfortunately cost a lot of money…. We need to redo everything. We need to be able to come back even better and stronger.
“So, wait for a new version of Johnny that will definitely bring something great in the next fight,” Diniz concluded.
While the former world champion kickboxer immediately hurt Tybura in the opening seconds of the fight, it was very apparent that he needs to work significantly on his ground game.
To be fair, Diniz was originally scheduled to fight Derrick Lewis at UFC Edmonton two weeks prior, but that fight was canceled at the last-minute during the broadcast. So, having a couple of weeks to completely switch up the gameplan from UFC’s all-time leading knockout artist to a Top 10 grappler is rough.
Nevertheless, Diniz is an exciting Heavyweight prospect. And when he learns some more wrestling, he’ll be even more dangerous.
For complete UFC 309 results, coverage and highlights click HERE.