Alexandre Pantoja earned a unanimous decision win over the now retired Neil Seery at UFC Fight Night: Glasgow.
The fight almost didn’t happen for Pantoja, who suffered a dislocated elbow prior to the event.
"I was training in the United States, right after they booked the fight, when I suffered this injury,” Pantoja told MMA Fighting. "I was training with a middleweight, which is not the ideal, when I put my hand on the ground to get up and ended up dislocating my elbow. I felt it move and get back into place. I thought I’d be able to continue training, but then I felt the pain."
Pantoja did suffer some serious injuries after the dislocation, including one ligament tear and two partial ligament tears.
However, a meeting with the legendary Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira inspired Pantoja to stay in the fight.
"I met ‘Minotauro' at the retreat and I knew he fought with this injury before,” Pantoja said. "My head coach Eric Albarracin talked to me about it, so I did a ARP (accelerated recovery performance) wave treatment, at PCI wellness in Scottsdale, to fix it. It was very painful, but helped me a lot in my recovery."
Despite the injury, the fighter has expressed interest in returning to action around the fall.
