UFC star Benoit Saint Denis suffers horrific injury as toe ‘splits in two’ and is left covered in blood
UFC lightweight Benoit Saint-Denis nearly SPLIT his big toe in two in his clash with Gabriel Miranda.
Saint-Denis, 26, picked up his second octagon win on Saturday night with a second-round TKO victory in the MMA promotion's long-awaited French debut.
But it came at a cost as he suffered a horrific injury to his big toe on his left foot.
Saint-Denis' left hallux nearly split after he landed a series of kicks on Miranda.
Blood began to pour from the toe but Saint-Denis fought through the pain barrier to pick up a spectacular stoppage victory.
UFC fans were quick to comment on the gruesome injury, with one saying: "That looks like a piece of tuna on his toe."
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Another said: "Looks like salmon on some sushi."
And another said: "Bro, what??"
In his post-fight press conference, the Frenchman said: “After a couple of kicks, it split in two, almost. "It’s just the fight game.
"You never have a perfect preparation. There are always small injuries.
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"It’s a part of life for athletes, so now, I will take time to heal it up.”
Saint-Denis' toe was already compromised going into his latest training camp.
He said: “I could not lift my toe anymore, but I wanted to fight.
“We did no surgery. It was OK, I just had a lot of times where my toe was going into the ground. It injured me a little bit, so I had to train with shoes.
“Just after the fight with Niklas, I got surgery, but six weeks without any sports, I had only three weeks to prepare for this fight.
"It was the best and hardest camp I ever had, because obviously, three weeks, the first two weeks you feel like s***, because you haven’t trained for a long time.
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"The last week, I was starting to feel great, but the toe was a bit open."
Victory over Miranda stretched Saint-Denis' UFC record to 2-1 since his debut last October.