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During their title fight at UFC 275, Valentina Shevchenko's headbutt broke Taila Santos' orbital bone. As a result, the Brazilian will be going under the knife after returning home.
MMA Fighting interviewed Santos’ manager Tiago Okamura on Sunday, who revealed that she will require surgery following her title challenge in Singapore. However, they've opted to have the procedure in her home country.
Okamura said:
“We had two options: to have surgery here, and God knows how long we’d have to stay and how the recovery would take, or wait two weeks for the swelling to reduce a little bit and then have the surgery... The doctors said the long flight [back to Brazil] would not be a problem, and we would have a better support back home, since [Santos] would only stay with one person [in Singapore].”
The UFC 275 co-headliner went the full 25-minute distance. While Shevchenko enjoyed a lot more success on the feet, Santos surprised many with her display on the ground.
Not only was she able to take ‘Bullet’ down, but also took her back and attempted a rear-naked choke on a few different occasions. This led many to believe that a new champion would be crowned. However, two of the three judges scored the fight in favor of Shevchenko.
Valentina Shevchenko fought with an injured foot
While Taila Santos suffered an injury during the fight, Valentina Shevchenko entered the octagon already hurt.
‘Bullet’ is known for her post-fight dance routine, which she performs after every win. This time, however, she didn't dance, as pointed out by a reporter during the UFC 275 post-fight press conference.
Valentina Shevchenko stated that she had to avoid her trademark dance due to an injury:
“I was ready to do that. Coming into the fight, I was injured. My foot was injured. And all week, fight week, the UFC Performance Institute physical therapist was working on my foot to get it back into the best shape. A few kicks that I… that were super strong, it injured my foot. That’s why I kind of, like… I was willing to dance, but I don’t know. We will have to do x-ray, I hope it’s nothing serious that could delay my return to the octagon. But this is the reason why I didn’t dance.”
This led another reporter to ask how extensive her foot injury was and if she considered pulling out of the fight. In response, Valentina Shevchenko said that she never thought about withdrawing.
“Actually, no. Considering to pull out of the fight, never. Every time when I have something, I try to deal with it first. And, actually, I couldn’t walk on my foot when I got this injury, and I couldn’t jump on it. Yes, but thankfully to the PT... they were able to get me back that I kind of, like, felt okay. And definitely, when you’re in the fight with all this adrenaline, and you just kick, no matter what. And you kick and then you think what’s gonna happen.”
Watch Valentina Shevchenko talk about her foot injury in the video below:
