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Life as a UFC fighter is not as glamorous as some might make it out to be. After all, you’re getting punched in the face for a living while guys try to break your limbs and render you unconscious. Don’t believe us? Well then just ask light heavyweight Dustin Jacoby, who suffered a gnarly injury before his recent victory over Vitor Petrino at UFC Tampa on Dec. 14.
Jacoby earned a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus after knocking out Petrino in the third round. But he nearly didn’t even make to the fight to begin with.
“Three weeks prior to the fight, I completely ripped my right big toe off my foot,” Jacoby told MMA Fighting. “I could not run, walk, train, nothing the entire week. I was really nervous that I was not going to be able to make the walk to the octagon. In over 50 pro fights between MMA and kickboxing, I’ve never not once shown up on the day that I was going to when I sign the contract and I take a lot of pride in that.”
So, what exactly does “completely ripped by right big toe off my foot” even mean. Well, unfortunately for Jacoby, it was as painful as it sounds.
“I grabbed my toe to see how bad it was, and my entire toe just came off my foot,” he said. “It was like a door hinge. I freaked out, I pushed it back and I looked around and I was like ‘I have to go somewhere right now.’ Immediately at that point I’m like, I’m not fighting. My fight’s done. I have to fight in three weeks.”
Thankfully for Jacoby, the injury looked worse than it actually was. After going to the hospital, doctors told him the toe had dislocated. They reset it in the socket and stitched it back up. Two weeks later, he was as good as new. Three weeks later, he was fighting on ESPN.
So you wanna be a UFC fighter? Well you’d better learn how to deal with your entire toe coming off of your foot.