We’ve seen that in the heat of battle, just about anything can happen, and as long as a fighter is conscious, they will keep working towards victory. Cuts, bruises, broken hands, and broken faces are all the name of the game in MMA, but it’s tough to bite down on a mouthpiece and continue on when your foot is bent at a 90-degree angle while you have another fighter in your guard.
That’s what happened to fighter Vyron Phillips at Hard Knocks Fighting Championship 54. In the second round, he took a knee from his opponent and fell back awkwardly on his foot, heel to ass, and shattered his ankle. Usually, fighters notice when this type of thing happens, but Phillips scrambles away and brings the opposing fighter into his guard, where the referee has to let him know that the fight is done. Let’s take a look:
*Warning* This is graphic. It’s just… Not good.
WARNING GRAPHIC. Fighter (Vyron Phillips) breaks leg at HKFC 54 last night. pic.twitter.com/UB5YJQ8T8J
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) March 18, 2017
This is a good time to show the ref some praise. The job is notoriously difficult, and more often than not, a late or early stoppage usually has fans on Twitter mocking the ref mercilessly. But, in this case, he recognized the injury almost immediately and put a stop to the bout as soon as he could.
It seems like Phillips didn’t believe he really had a broken ankle for a few moments. You can see the conversation go down between him and the ref:
“Dude, look at your ankle.” — what I think the ref said.
