Ilir Latifi’s first UFC win at heavyweight didn’t come without consequences.
At last weekend’s UFC Vegas 28 Ilir Latifi took a hard road to secure his first UFC win in the heavyweight division. The popular former light heavyweight went all three rounds with Tanner Boser to secure a split decision victory.
Along the way ‘The Sledgehammer’ received some cracking kicks to the body and a nasty poke to the eye. Fortunately for the Swede he was able to gut out that punishment and turn the tide with his wrestling, controlling Boser for large portions of the fight.
Days later Latifi has revealed that the fight with Boser was more punishing than we initially thought. Latifi took to Instagram to share a rundown of his injuries and included a picture that shows his arm in a sling.
“The sport is pretty crazy and it’s very hard to prepare for what can happen in a fight, early in the first round I fractured my arm in two places I am in the second round I got a nasty Eye poke that blinded me in that eye… we found the will to push through that and get the win.”
It’s unknown how long Latifi will be held out of action due to his broken arm.
The win over Boser was sorely needed for Latifi. Heading into that bout he was on the dreaded three fight losing streak (few fighters make it to four in the UFC). His previous losses came to Derrick Lewis—in his heavyweight debut—Volkan Oezdemir and Corey Anderson.
Prior to those losses Latifi had beaten Ovince St. Preux and Tyson Pedro. Latifi has been plying his trade in the UFC since 2013, when he stepped in as a late replacement for his teammate Alexander Gustafsson to take on Gegard Mousasi in the main event of UFC on FUEL TV 9 in Stockholm.
Latifi lost that fight but has since built a UFC record of 8-6.