Henry Cejudo was expected to kick off the UFC 211 main card against Sergio Pettis, but was then pulled from the fight due to a hand injury.
The Olympian says the hand injury occurred two weeks before the fight, but originally wanted to fight with the injury.
“What happened was, I had thought about just getting a cortisone shot on the area where it was hurting and I went to go see the doctor,” he said on The MMA Hour. “I had hurt my hand two weeks [before], I had hit the top of one of my training partner’s head. And it just completely hurt my hand, all those eight metacarpal bones that are kind of in that area, just blew everything out. It got to the point where I was having a hard time opening doors or driving, you know little things like that. But I thought at the same time that my hand was getting better. I did PRP on it, I was doing rehab. I was putting it on ice. I thought it was getting better. I was like, alright, by the time fight time comes, we just have to hopefully kind of let the adrenaline takes over. Well, Monday night I wrap my hands professionally, just being cautious, and just started hitting pads and I just couldn’t throw the hand no more. It was probably the first or second punch I threw, I just knew it wasn’t 100 percent no more. I knew it was messed up and hurt because I would jog with my wraps on and I could feel my hand kind of separate from my wrist. I just kept hearing a bunch of little…just kind of the separation of little cracks in my joint, especially in my right hand. I just knew it wasn’t right.”
Cejudo was going to try and end a two fight losing skid at the event, as he recently dropped fights to Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez.
A visit to the doctor proved to Cejudo that the injury was far worse than he thought.
“And that’s when he showed me the separation of my hand, how I really jammed my bones pretty hard,” he said. “I don’t even know the whole terminology thing, but the doctor’s the one that said, you can fight, you may not feel anything, but I think if you fight and you hit hard a couple of times, your hand might can be permanently damaged, and you might need surgery after a fight like that.”
There is no timetable for the fighters return as of yet, but he’s expected to compete by the end of the year.
