Petr Yan injures himself badly with a win

Out of my group of friends I am one of only 2 people that have ever engaged in sparring with a martial art. I am the only one that has ever fought in a paid promotion even though it is was very low-level and probably not worth it. I retired with a record of 1-2 and was kind of alarmed at how even though I put a ton of work in to get to that point at how difficult it was. After my last loss where I was advised by a doctor to "stop doing this or you could die," I stopped doing that.

Petr Yan is one of those fighters that had a bad stint but looks far from finished as far as his career is concerned. I thought that his "back was against the wall" in UFC 299 because after 3 straight losses, the UFC appeared as though they were going to turn their backs on him if he didn't pull off a win. His opponent Song Yadong looked fantastic as well and at points it appeared as though UFC might have been hoping for a Yan loss in order to give Yadong a "push" to the top flight. I say this only because this is what UFC commonly does with stars who appear to be fading.

Yan pulled it off though and when his hand was raised at the end of 3 rounds, I don't think there was any doubt that this was going to happen. It came a tough price though and it just goes to show that this sport is no joke at all.

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Although I am extremely out of practice I will often tell my friend that "if you ever find yourself in a potential fighting situation, you should really try to find a peaceful resolution, any resolution other than fighting." I say this because of the fact that even if you win, there is a really good chance that you are going to get injured as well. It might seem heroic to punch someone in the face that is starting trouble in public, but skulls are hard, and especially if you don't know how to throw a punch, you are likely going to injure you hands.

With Yan the injuries are pretty severe and it just kind of shows how tough these world-class athletes are. After his win over Song Yadong, he went as you do, to get checked out by doctors to see what sort of damage has been done. In Yan's case, the damage was rather extreme: He has a groin injury, an ACL rupture, and a meniscus tear. Just so you know, a meniscus is part of the knee and commonly comes along with ACL injuries.

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Perhaps it is the adrenaline pumping that makes these guys not realize how badly they are hurt after a fight but I have to admire a man that can stand there with rather extreme injuries and give an interview after basically shattering his leg. Yan will have to undergo surgery to fix this, and there's no telling how long it will be before he is back or if this will have some long-standing impact on his future in the sport. I bet he is thirsty to get back in the octagon as soon as possible so that he can ride this wave back into the championship picture at the bantamweight division.

This brings about another issue with UFC that is less than awesome. Guys that are not really healed up will often fight anyway because UFC will turn away from you if you can't fight for a certain amount of time. Obviously this doesn't apply to the huge names like Jon Jones and McGregor, but for just about everyone else and especially the non native English speakers, they need to get their asses back in the fight as soon as possible lest the fans forget who they are.

It is going to be a tough choice for Yan because UFC is probably very willing to give him at least one more fight in 2024, perhaps even 2. If he goes back too early and hasn't completely healed though, it could spell the end of his career. This must be a very tough decision for these fighters to make!