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MMA

29th Jul 2016

GRAPHIC: After seven-hour surgery, ‘Cyborg’ Santos shares photographs of his fractured skull

Surgeon did a terrific job

Darragh Murphy

Evangelista Santos’ skull is actually looking in pretty OK shape considering the fact that he suffered a compound fracture less than a fortnight ago.

‘Cyborg’ sustained one of the most serious injuries in mixed martial arts history when he was defeated by Michael Page at Bellator 158.

A flying knee from ‘Venom’ left the Brazilian welterweight clutching his face in pain and it emerged after the fight that it had left a considerable dent in Santos’ forehead.

Santos amazingly played down the horrendous injury, claiming he didn’t even spend the night in hospital and was able to wait until he returned to the United States for surgery.

“It’s only a fracture, it didn’t hit my brain. I’m fine,” Santos told Ariel Helwani last week. “Actually, I didn’t even stay in the hospital. I was there for five or six hours, and then I came back to the hotel. I couldn’t fly back to the United States on Sunday, but I’ll have surgery in the United States. I’ll be back soon. Thank God I had no brain damage. I didn’t feel dizzy or anything like that. I wasn’t knocked out. I felt the pain due to the fracture. It was superficial, so it’s fine.”

That surgery took place on Thursday and ‘Cyborg’ has since shared before and after pictures of his skull to MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz, as well as images of a very large scar.

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That is one tough human being.

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