The leg breaks keep happening in 2022.
We have another broken leg to show you, folks.
This one happened in South America, where Circuito Argentino de MMA (CAM) held an event this past Saturday — CAM 9 in Buenos Aires, Argentina — that featured seven fights. One of those was between Ezequiel Ricci and Pablo Rios, and it was over as soon as it started.
Ricci and Rios took to the center of the cage and started slinging leather. It was clear that Rios’ course of action was to spam the lead leg of Ricci with low kicks, but the final one he dealt would be devastating for him — not his opponent. In the midst of a wild exchange, Rios threw a low kick and immediately fell to the canvas. Ricci followed him and delivered two more punches before the referee waved off the fight, but the real reason of the stoppage was concealed by a bad camera angle. That was until a second camera panned over to Rios, who was now seen holding up his severely bent leg.
Rios was tended to by the cageside physicians and had his leg stabilized. Ricci embraced him and implored the audience to cheer for the fighter before he was removed from the cage.
You can see the finish below, courtesy of the legendary Twitter user Barrele La Pierna:
Warning: Video below is graphic. Please proceed with caution.
Uff horrible lesion de Pablo Rios #CAM9 pic.twitter.com/VoEIkgePH1
— Barrele la pierna (@Barrelelapierna) May 1, 2022
“The leg was already hurt when he kicked,” said one of the CAM commentators, who pointed out the eerie similarity to some of the worst leg breaks in MMA. “It’s an oblique fracture. Something similar to what happened to Anderson Silva against Chris Weidman in their second fight. What happened to Chris Weidman against Uriah Hall. It happened today.”
Ricci earned a first-round technical knockout of Rios, which was his first win as a professional in over four (!) years. The 36-year-old was elated to return and expressed gratitude to Guido Cannetti, the UFC bantamweight who helped prepare for his fight.
“I felt better than ever,” said Ricci during his post-fight interview. “I want to thank my brother, Guido Cannetti, if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here today. I want to give a round of applause for my brother, Guido. He’s my oldest brother in life, an example. Guido, I love you with all my heart.”
Ricci has improved to 6-3, while Rios fell to 0-2. An update on the 23-year-old has not been given yet.