UFC fighter Terrannce McKinnney has raised questions about Bellator MMA and its fighter Cris Lencioni, who recently suffered a cardiac arrest, on social media.
Lencioni was preparing for a fight for the Bellator 298 card when, during a jiu-jitsu practice session, 'Sunshine' went into cardiac arrest and was taken to a hospital. According to MMA Fighting, Lencioni has woken up from the coma and is responding to stimuli, but there is still a long road of recovery ahead of him.
The Bellator fighter's wife, Marca Lencioni, revealed that the medical bills have already stacked up more than $300,000. Marca said that she was hoping for insurance to cover some of the medical expenses.
She added that in order to get his husband the right treatment, she was willing to put her house up for sale:
“I’m hoping that he’ll be able to get state insurance that will help cover some of the bills here. I’m ready to sell my house if I have to, to get him treatment in another country.”
A 'GoFundMe' has been arranged on the 'Sunshine's behalf to $250,000. So far, a sum of $29,000 has been raised to help the fighter.
UFC lightweight McKinney chimed in on the issue, wishing for a speedy recovery for the 28-year-old.
'T Wrecks' also asked whether Bellator MMA would provide financial support to Lencioni to help him with the recovery process.
"I wonder if @BellatorMMA insurance gonna cover any of this"
Fans respond to Terrance McKinney's tweet about Cris Lencioni and Bellator MMA
Terrance McKinney's question regarding Bellator MMA providing insurance to Cris Lencioni attracted several responses from MMA fans on Twitter.
One individual said that Lencioni might not be able to avail Bellator MMA insurance as the injury did not take place inside the cage.
McKinney replied to the tweet, sharing that UFC fighters are provided health insurance up to a certain sum during their time in a training camp.
"We get health insurance during camp if it happens during training up to a certain amount. This happened during training so it’d be cool to see bellator at least put something on it since he was training for a fight."
But there were some who were pessimistic about Cris Lencioni getting financial aid from his fighting organization.
A few more replies to McKinney's tweet can be seen below: