Gabriel Benitez’s shin is doing much better than it was a couple days ago.
Despite having his shin bone exposed to the entire sports world on ESPN+ Wednesday night, the Mexican fighter is now stitched up, recovering from the cut, and most importantly free of any major injuries.
Benitez (21-8 MMA, 5-4 UFC) suffered a big shin split in his lightweight bout with Omar Morales, which went down at UFC on ESPN+ 29 in Jacksonville, Fla. ‘Moggly’ lost the contest via unanimous decision.
The cut shocked the entire MMA community as it looked very deep and wide, exposing the shin bone. Although it was a gruesome injury, Benitez is in good spirits and expects to recover quick.
“(Thursday) I got to San Jose at noon and I went directly to my doctor,” Benitez told MMA Junkie in Spanish. He saw the results, he saw the X-ray. There’s nothing broken, everything is good and there was no injury.
“It was just the cut that was deep and the doctor said they would remove the stitches in seven to 10 days and it’s going to take three, four weeks for it to fully heal, so I can start kicking.”
Benitez said it took five or six stitches to close the wound. The doctors on site in Florida gave him crutches, but he said he doesn’t need them and is walking fine.
Looking back at the fight, Benitez remembers getting cut during the fight, but didn’t realize the severity of the split until after the fight.
“Image me being a striker, kickboxer and I kick a lot, so the little that’s covering the bone is the skin,” Benitez said. “So any cut the bone will be exposed, but yeah it looked very bad.
“The cut actually started at like two centimeters and I noticed it after the second or third kick. Then I forgot about my leg and then I didn’t notice again until the end where it was fully open and then I was like, “Oh, that’s deep.’ I remember when it opened up but I just kept kicking, kept kicking, and it just opened up even more.”
Benitez said the cut did hurt, but it didn’t affect his performance against Morales. He feels he has a high tolerance for pain given his profession, and wasn’t going to let a cut hinder his fighting style.
“I did realize in the first round that there was a little blood and it was open, but there was no effect,” Benitez said. “I didn’t realize it was that big until the very end of the fight once it was over.
“I remember my foot was hurting and they started grabbing my leg and saying, ‘Don’t move, don’t move,’ and I was like, ‘No, I’m good. It’s just a cut,’ And then when I saw it and looked at the bone I was like, ‘ahh thats deep.'”
Benitez wants to return to the cage as soon as he gets medical clearance and is able to compete. He plans on doing the bulk of his work at 145 pounds, but is open to keep taking lightweight fights.
Below are photos Benitez sent to MMA Junkie, the stitched-up version and how it looked before it was stitched:
