Among the UFC’s brightest young stars is hurt, and according to the company president she’s likely to be out of commission for a couple of years. It was yesterday revealed by UFC Tonight which TUF 18 winner Julianna Pena suffered a devastating injury to her right knee during training that resulted in tears to her ACL, MCL, LCL, meniscus, and hamstring. MMAFighting.com reported that the injury happened during a grappling session Monday in Sikjitsu gym in Spokane, Washington. In accordance with UFC president Dana White, the injury is so severe that the 24-year-old Pena is expected to miss two years of actions. She’s set to get surgery on the knee following week when the swelling goes down. This is quite sad news and everyone in the MMA world ought to want Pena a quick recovery because she embarks on what will be a dark time in her life as she won’t have the ability to compete in the sport she loves just at the time she was starting to get really good at it. According to her official biography on UFC.com,” Pena said,”After I found MMA I understood it was the outlet I needed and was looking for.” About fighting in the Octagon,” Pena stated:”It means the world to me to be fighting in the UFC. This is as large as it’s, it will not get any higher, and I have made it. It is a great achievement for myself.” However, for the upcoming time, she won’t have MMA in her entire life. Nicknamed”The Venezuelan Vixen,” Pena entered TUF 18 with a 4-2 record and has been matched up against veteran Shayna Baszler in the preliminary round after defeating Gina Mazany to enter the house. Despite being a massive underdog into Baszler, Pena managed to rally after being down early to defeat Baszer via second-round submission. She subsequently submitted Sara Moras in the semifinals to earn a birth in the finale, and she won the show this past November with a dominating first-round TKO win over Jessica Rakoczy. Currently ranked in the top 10 of those women’s bantamweight division, Pena was set to face Jessica Andrade at UFC 171 this March before being forced to pull out this knee injury. Andrade will face Raquel Pennington. UFC Tonight’s Ariel Helwani managed to talk to Pena’s coach at Sikjitsu, Rick Little, who said the injury Pena endured was the”most grisly” he had ever seen in sports. According to Little, Pena’s harm was the consequence of an over-aggressive training session, which seems odd given the seriousness of this accident. According to White’s tweet that”what occurred at her gym is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard,” there is obviously much more to the story. There is already speculation that this was not just an crash, but that somebody in Pena’s camp held to some entry overly long, possibly a heel hook that’s highly frowned upon to perform while training with teammates. That’s just speculation for now, though, although I don’t by for a minute that this injury was just an accident based on what White’s tweet. It was much more likely carelessness was the cause. This is extremely disappointing news as I believe Pena was a future title contender from the UFC women’s bantamweight division. Pena’s wrestling is exceptional and she is improving her entire game so rapidly that she would be a serious contender for the UFC bantamweight name within the next couple of years. Remember her beef with UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey from the show meant she would have been pushed up the ladder quicker than others. But this injury will obviously delay that opportunity to struggle for the belt, and it is possible that the injury renders that fantasy impossible. For somebody who’s only 24, it’s not reasonable that Pena has needed to cope with all these injuries and bad fortune as such a young age. Before TUF 18 was first filmed, Pena was involved in a nasty car accident that left her with a broken nose. She had also suffered a broken arm in one of her struggles, as well as the previous two ACL tears earlier in her career. But that’s life, and life isn’t fair. Pena was employed as a waitress before TUF and also living at home with her loved ones. Together with her career just going to remove, Pena was anticipating moving out and embarking on a promising career in the game. Now, she’ll be out sitting on the sidelines for up to another 24 month after enduring among the worst knee injuries ever into a UFC fighter, and she’ll have difficulty making a living while doing this. I hope that the UFC assists out Pena financially through her time off since, after all, she is an investment to the corporation. The UFC does have an insurance plan which should pay part of Pena’s operation, but it’s capped at $50,000 yearly and might not cover most of Pena’s medical-related costs. So the UFC can do exactly the perfect thing and help her out in her time of need. Hopefully we get the full story about what happened to Pena soon, but for today let’s all desire Pena great luck on her operation next week and let us hope she is able to beat the projected two year layoff and get back into the cage earlier than later because she is a tremendous fighter and has a bright future in the sport.
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