In an XMMA bout over the weekend James Vick had his orbital bone broken and his jaw displaced.
James Vick suffered a brutal knockout at the hands of Andre Fialho in the main event of this past weekend’s XMMA card. The loss was Vick’s first fight since leaving the UFC. His UFC tenure ended with a four fight losing streak.
After the loss to Fialho Vick took to Instagram to list the terrible injuries he suffered in that fight. The 33-year-old also announced that he would now be retiring from the sport.
Idk where to start this. Few days ago I took the worst loss of my career. I went out on my shield like I always have like a warrior. I am very sorry to everyone who helped and believe in me so much this last year. The truth is I haven’t felt that passion/love for fighting the way I use to in a long time. But I have always been disciplined and trained hard no matter what. One of my main reasons for still fighting was to prove to my son that you can’t just give up when things get hard in life. But this is not the way to teach him that. This is not like failing a test or losing a basketball or football game. This is combat sports and this shit can be permanent. One of the last punches he landed i knew something was seriously wrong. I’m glad the ref stepped in because lord knows I would have been to tough and dumb to do that. My orbital is broke on my right side, the fracture went all the way through to the other side causing a Bi lateral break plus my jaw is completely displaced so tomorrow they are finally doing surgery to fix it. It really was a perfectly placed shot. The Doctor said i could definitely fight again after this if I wanted to but this was my last fight. I can’t keep putting my family through this. I have reached the top of where I was going to get in Combat sports in becoming a top 10 fighter in the UFC. Honestly that was probably a major over achievement considering I didn’t even start training until I was 20 yrs old, worked a full-time job for almost half of that and had several major surgeries after that. Trying to catch these guys that have trained their entire lives has seriously been the hardest thing I have ever done. The highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Thank you to anyone who has been there to support me, teach me or cheer me on along the way. I have made life long relationships in this martial arts journey I will always be so grateful for. It bothers me that my 3 year old son has to see his daddy with his jaw wired shut for 4 to 6 weeks because of all this. He is so little and doesn’t understand. Time to move on and focus more on my family and raising my son to be a great man.Thank you everyone and thank this sport for the memories
“One of the last punches he landed I knew something was seriously wrong,” wrote Vick. “I’m glad the ref stepped in because lord knows I would have been to tough and dumb to do that. My orbital is broke on my right side, the fracture went all the way through to the other side causing a Bi lateral break plus my jaw is completely displaced so tomorrow they are finally doing surgery to fix it.”
Vick said that a doctor had told him he could “definitely fight again” after he recovers from surgery. However Vick said he “can’t keep putting (his) family through this.” After announcing that this would be his last fight Vick said he would now focus more on his family and raising his young son.
Vick entered the UFC through The Ultimate Fighter: Live in 2012. Vick, while being coached by Dominick Cruz, made it to that show’s semi-finals before losing to eventual winner Michael Chiesa.
He had his pro debut for the UFC the following year, beating former TUF finalist Ramsey Nijem with a guillotine. Vick then won his next four fights, over Valmir Lazaro, Nick Hein, Jake Matthews and Glaico Franca.
In 2016 he suffered the loss of his pro career—a KO defeat to Beneil Dariush. Vick rebounded, though, with another four fight winning streak. In that run he beat Abel Trujillo (by submission), Polo Reyes (by TKO), Joe Duffy (by TKO) and Francisco Trinaldo (by unanimous decision).
That quartet of victories launched Vick into the top ten of the UFC’s lightweight rankings. Vick was then matched up against Justin Gaethje, who was coming off back-to-back KO/TKO losses to Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier, in the main event of UFC Lincoln.
Vick lost that bout due to a vicious first round KO. After that bout he lost a decision to Paul Felder and then took back-to-back KO losses to Dan Hooker and Niko Price. He was then cut from the UFC.