Ouch… This Had to Have Hurt. Jerome Rivera Suffers a Brutal Arm Break at LFA 39…
Some MMA injuries just make you hide your face in your hands and say no. Just no. There’s been a few of late. Jack Mason took a vicious knee to the face, cutting his head open to the bone the other day, while Ray Borg got glass in his eyes as a result of the Conor McGregor bus attack.
Move over guys, there’s a new contender for most gruesome injury of 2018 in town. It happened at Legacy Fighting Alliance 39. LFA is an American fighting promotion that hosts both professional and amateur fights. The event took place in Vail, Colorado and played host to one of the worst arm injuries we’ve ever seen.
Jerome ‘The Renegade’ Rivera is a professional fighter from Santa Fe, New Mexico. He took on Brandon ‘Raw Dawg’ Royval in a flyweight clash. The 125-pound fighter could never have expected his night to end the way it did. Warning: Viewer discretion is advised. No seriously. It’s not nice.
Brutal
After exchanging in the cage, Royval kicked Rivera towards the cage. He connected with Rivera’s elbow, bending his arm almost 90 degrees in the wrong direction. It looked like it was literally hanging off his body. It took Rivera a split second for the injury to register.
He ran towards the opposite side of the cage, clearly trying to call an end to the fight. However, Royval, in the heat of the moment, did not realize the extremity of Rivera’s injury and continued to chase him down, landing another kick and a knee to the dropped fighter’s face.
All respect between @BrandonRoyval and @RenegadeRivera after an unfortunate injury ended their fight early tonight at #LFA39.#MMA#LFANation@AXSTVFights pic.twitter.com/P672iKQlhH
— LFA (@LFAfighting) May 5, 2018
Nasty Injury
Arms are just not meant to bend that way. It brings back uncomfortable memories of Chris Weidman breaking Anderson Silva’s leg a few years ago. No thank you. Hopefully, Rivera is able to fully recover. This type of injury could potentially be career-ending and nobody wants that. Whether it was severely dislocated or broken, it’s not nice at all.
To add insult to injury, this is his second loss in a row. Before that, he was riding a seven-fight win streak and was consistently linked with a move to a bigger promotion like Bellator or the UFC. Now not only is his career on hold because of his crippled arm, but he’s going to have to start all over again in the wins department.
I think he broke the guys arm with a knee… @rkruck @patmiletich @AXSTVFights @LFAfighting pic.twitter.com/mLYhkNluIa
— Collin Cantrell (@CollinCantrell) May 5, 2018
Absolutely Grim
It’s rare that an arm is actually damaged in such a brutal way. It happens occasionally because a fighter refuses to tap to an armbar. However, Royval actually landed a knee to Rivera’s elbow, jarring it and bending it in the opposite direction. Not fun at all.
Also, from looking at the video, it looked like Royval landed his final knee to Rivera’s head, while the other fighter was grounded. It’s not inconceivable that he could have been disqualified or the fight overturned to a no-contest for this reason. Oh, regional MMA. You bring such joy into our lives.
