The UFC returned to Austin, TX yesterday for an outstanding fight card. Nine of the twelve fights ended inside the distance, with only 3 going to decision. As with most fight cards, there were injuries to observe. For me, the most notable of injuries (besides the KO brain trauma occurrences in five of the finishes) occurred in the Julia Avila vs Miesha Tate fight.
In the image above, Avila is shown with a bandage on her right knee. She confirmed post-fight that her knee was injured when she was taken down for the first time in round 1. When I re-watched the fight, there was no specific moment where injury to Avila’s knee was obvious. As she was backing into the cage in the early seconds of the 1st round, she did stumble and drop to her left knee as Tate pressed her against the cage just before executing the takedown. It is interesting to note that this was Avila’s first fight since having ACL reconstruction on her left knee.
As the fight ended, Miesha Tate displayed an obvious limp favoring her left leg. At first, I suspected an injury to her ankle. But in the image below, taken from her Instagram story in the hours following the fight, her left knee is wrapped.
So it appears that both women suffered injuries to their knees. It is a good sign that neither of them seemed to be avoiding weight bearing on the affected legs after the fight, and neither was using crutches. I’m a bit concerned for Avila, simply because she has recently had ACL surgery, albeit on her left leg. There are studies1 that suggest that female athletes are up to 6 times more likely to suffer an ACL injury to the opposite knee (the contralateral knee), once they have had an ACL surgery, when compared to male athletes.
We should know more about the severity of injuries that both fighters suffered in the coming days to weeks.
Paterno MV, Rauh MJ, Schmitt LC, et al. Incidence of contralateral and ipsilateral anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury after primary ACL reconstruction and return to sport. Clin J Sports Med. 2012; 22(2): 116-121.