Jeff Dunbar
20-year-old amateur MMA fighter Jeff Dunbar’s life was changed forever after a risky move attempted during a fight back in 2011.
Dunbar had only started competing a few months earlier and was going up against another relative novice, Rudy Bahena, when the incident occurred.
During the fight, Bahena took Dunbar’s back and caught him in a standing rear-naked choke submission.
In desperation, Dunbar dropped forward onto the mat in the hopes of dislodging his opponent, but only succeeded in spiking his own head into the canvas.
The awkward landing broke the C4 vertibrae in Dunbar’s neck and would leave him paralyzed from the neck down for life.
“The doctor didn’t sugarcoat anything,” his coach Jeff Bulak told MMAjunkie. “They told him he’d never walk again. It was a crushing blow.”
