The accidental clash of heads that left Taila Santos with
significant swelling near her right eye in the
UFC 275 co-main event will force the Brazilian to go under the
knife in the near future.
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Santos’ manager, Tiago Okamura, told
MMAFighting.com that Santos suffered a broken orbital bone
under her right eye as a result of the collision with Valentina
Shevchenko that occurred in the third round of their flyweight
championship clash. Shevchenko would go on to win a
closely-contested split-decision triumph to retain her belt. Santos
will travel home to Brazil to have the surgery.
“We had two options,” Okamura said. “To have surgery here [in
Singapore], 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].”
In defeat, Santos gave Shevchenko the most difficult test of her
125-pound title reign, as she controlled much of the fight through
clinch work, takedowns and positional control. The injury appeared
to hinder Santos down the stretch, while Shevchenko did some of her
best work in the champioship frames. The setback ended a four-bout
UFC winning streak for Santos.
It’s currently unclear if the UFC will book an immediate rematch
between Shevchenko and Santos after the Astra Fight Team product
recovers from surgery.