Huvudkortet på UFC on Fuel 5: Struve vs Miocic inleddes tråkigt nog med en skada då amerikanske veteranen Duane ”Bang” Ludwig föll grimaserande till mattan på grund av en knäskada i matchen mot britten Che Mills.
Den 34-årige fajtern berättar om knäskadan och säger att även hjärtat brast när knäet inte höll i matchen.
”The knee is jacked up. It’s swollen up pretty bad. It looks like a big ball right now. I go for an MRI tomorrow at 2:30, so I’m just laying around, relaxing. I was not injured at all going into this fight. It was when we first tied up, and he did the outside trip. I felt my knee pop. It snapped right away, and I kind of yelped on the way down. When I was trying to get guard, I could just feel my knee moving around. There wasn’t much I could do other than roll around and try to minimalize the pain. I tried to get him a couple times, but I could feel my knee sliding a lot more than it was, so I was like. ’F*ck, I gotta figure this out’, and I finally just decided that I couldn’t do anything, so I pulled the plug. It happened in the first 10 seconds of the fight. It’s annoying. I had put so much into this camp. I’ve been trying to get back on track these last couple years, and it just doesn’t seem to happen. I don’t understand it. I try to be a good guy. I help tons of people and try to do all the right things in life. I dedicate myself to this 100 percent, then this sh*t happens. I don’t get it. Things like this make me question reality. It’s heartbreaking, for sure.”, säger Duane Ludwig till BloodyElbow.
Skadan resulterade i den tredje raka förlusten i UFC och sammanlagt har Ludwig förlorat fem av sina sju senaste matcher. Om skadan är allvarlig kan det innebära att ”Bang” är borta från sporten i ungefär ett år, något som ytterligare spär på det gällande ryktet att Ludwigs karriär som aktiv är över.