UFC heavyweight Gabriel Gonzaga will undergo surgery to repair a broken hand suffered during his loss to Stipe Miocic at UFC on Fox 10.
The news was first reported by Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting.com.
Gonzaga, 34, suffered a one-sided unanimous-decision loss to Miocic. Gonzaga said after the fight that he believed he’d broken the hand in the first round of the fight, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports.
“That changed everything,” Gonzaga said. “Even though he was faster than me, I couldn’t fight well because of the pain I felt in my right hand.”
He also posted a gruesome photo of the injury on his personal Instagram profile. The heavyweight jiu-jitsu specialist, most famously known for his stunning head-kick knockout of Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, told MMA Fighting that the hand injury affected him greatly over the course of the fight:
I came back to Boston and I’m going to the hospital tonight to schedule the surgery. I’ll talk to the doctor today and get an answer (on when I’ll be able to return to training).
I was hesitating to throw other punches and take him down. I was hesitating to go for it or not. I didn’t know I broke my hand, but it was hurting a lot, so you think twice before throwing the punch.
Prior to the Miocic loss, Gonzaga scored consecutive wins over Dave Herman and Shawn Jordan. He is 5-2 since returning to mixed martial arts after a brief period of retirement, and he has a 16-8 career record overall. Outside of the win over Cro Cop, his most famous career moment came when he challenged Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort at UFC 74.
He was ranked 12th in the division but may fall out of the latest rankings with the loss.
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