Mayra Bueno Silva made her UFC debut at UFC Fight Night Sao Paulo 2018, scoring a first round submission win over Gillian Robertson.
However, its a victory that came with its own set of consequences because Silva is going to have to get knee surgery for an injury suffered during the bout.
“It’s not too serious, but she needs surgery” Silva’s coach in Diego Lima said to MMA Fighting. “Nobody wants to have surgery, of course, but it’s a small ligament injury and we will have surgery.”
Silva did suffer the knee injury during the bout, but still managed to defeat Robertson.
An injured Silva did comment on what happened during the fight to the media when she got backstage after the preliminary card encounter.
“I twisted my knee in the first takedown she had,” Silva said. “When we started scrambling on the ground, I couldn’t do my guard game because I got hurt pretty early, but thank God I got that armbar and she tapped before the end of the round. I have a warrior spirit so I would come back (to the second round), but I can’t say if I would be be able to fight because I can’t put my foot on the ground. When I heard that sound [indicating the final 10 seconds] I started bending her arm and thinking ‘she won’t tap, she won’t tap,’ but when she tapped, thank God… It was the mercy shot.”
Lima says that Silva is going to be able to fight again by the first half of next year.
