Junior dos Santos became the first Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA heavyweight champion with a devastating knockout of Alan Belcher, but he didn’t walk away from the fight unscathed.
Early in the bout, as he battled with Belcher against the cage, dos Santos broke free but caught a punch that effectively sent his nose to the other side of his face. For the remainder of the fight, the former UFC heavyweight champion competed with a cut down the middle of his face and his nose disjointed in two separate places.
He vividly remembers when it happened, but surprisingly, the Brazilian didn’t feel a thing.
“The only punch that really connected on me was the one that broke my nose,” dos Santos told MMA Fighting. “When he broke it, I felt it. You can see in the video, I felt my nose go to the side [of my face] and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I broke my nose!’ I didn’t feel anything but, ‘I broke my nose again!’ Broken nose, a lot of blood, and it makes a very bloody fight, but that was it. It was bothering me a little bit because I couldn’t breathe through the nose anymore, but we handled it very, very well.
“That was crazy. You can see clearly, actually I know the moment — he threw a hook while I’m on the cage and I kind of pulled back and the hook only connected on the nose. I didn’t feel anything but I felt that [the nose] go to the side and I said, ‘Oh no, again?’ Then I was having trouble breathing through the nose. I said OK, I’ll breathe through the mouth, it’s normal.”
Dos Santos revealed the incident was actually the fourth time he’s broken his nose, but it’s the first moment when it happened in a fight.
Despite a long, tenured career competing in combat sports for nearly 20 years, dos Santos never dealt with a broken nose during a fight, but in an odd way, knowing what it was like in the past helped him face the adversity after Belcher’s punch left him unable to breathe properly.
“The other three times — two of them were in training, the first time and the third,” dos Santos said. “The second time, the doctor broke my nose because he was fixing it, but it didn’t work out because the second time he fixed it, I broke it again. I said I’m not going to fix it anymore until after I stop fighting. So now was the fourth time I had my nose broken.
“I didn’t feel anything. I just felt like it was to the side and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to have to breathe through my mouth now.’ But maybe the experience brought me something positive about it because if I never had my nose broken, I could get too excited or maybe a lot of fear or whatever. Because I already knew how to deal with that, I said let’s go. I didn’t feel anything when it got broken with the punch, he connected only on the nose. When they put it back, it went back to the right place, I didn’t feel anything too. It was easy. Maybe I was too warmed up, which was good because I don’t like feeling pain.”
In the aftermath of the fight, after the doctor once again put his nose back in place, dos Santos immediately started feeling better. Days later, he was breathing normally again.
Because his nose has been broken so many times, dos Santos understands there’s a good chance it could happen again, but that’s also why he’s decided not to undergo any surgeries to repair the damage done until his career is over.
“The doctor was telling me, ‘Oh my gosh, your septum is so messed up, we’ve got to do surgery or something.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry, doctor, it’s been like that for years already,’” dos Santos said with a laugh. “‘Don’t worry about it.’
“The way it is now is the same as it was before. I can breathe very well through the right side, and [the left side] is a little harder to breathe, but [the right] is great. So let’s keep that for a little bit more.”
Recovering from his injuries was made much easier once dos Santos left victorious by demolishing Belcher with punches in the second round. It was a special moment for the 40-year-old veteran, who faced a number of losses followed by a shoulder injury that put him out of action for more than a year until he made his return this past September.
Now riding a two-fight winning streak, dos Santos appreciates his latest accomplishment, and once his nose his healed, he’s excited to get back to work again.
“It feels very special,” dos Santos said. “I’m feeling great. I’m feeling like it’s new beginning for me again. The way I can see the fights now and I’m handling myself, not just physically but mentally, going into the fights — with all the fights, I’m doing that much better. Even during the fight, when I broke my nose, I’m finally having fun during the fights. I’m really enjoying my fights, because I never did before.
“Because all my fights before, I used to fight myself before the fight. Now, with the experience I have, I’m not putting pressure [on myself] anymore. I’m just going there to put on a good performance and to put on a good show for all the fans out there. Things have been in a completely different way for me. I’m really enjoying it, I’m having fun.”
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