Junior Dos Santos and Fabricio Werdum faced off inside the cage on Friday night at Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred Bareknuckle 5 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.
It was the second time that the former heavyweight champions went head-to-head in mixed martial arts, but this time there were no gloves involved.
That’s right, Werdum and Dos Santos faced off in a bare-knuckle MMA bout, and the results were gruesome.
In their first meeting, Dos Antos scored a first-round TKO victory over Werdum and earned Knockout of the Night at UFC 90 in 2008. This time around, Dos Antos once again scored the victory after leaving Werdum bloodied and with a gnarly eye injury that had Werdum’s eyelid “falling off” his face.
Fabricio Werdum takes an L against Junior Dos Santos in bareknuckle mma. Damaged eye looked gnarly during the fight. #MMA #Boxing #GamebredBareknuckle pic.twitter.com/AuZASltVE7
— Abe (@AbeMorales209) September 9, 2023
All you can say is “ouch,” and hopefully the 46-year-old Werdum will begin looking for less violent pastimes.
As for Dos Santos, he enjoyed his time in the cage for his bare-knuckle debut and seemed to imply that he would be willing to do it all over again.
“That was my first time [fighting bare-knuckle MMA] and I loved it, that was amazing,” Dos Santos said, via MMA Fighting. “I feel good. Feeling a little sore but I think that’s OK. I’m fighting someone who was really well-prepared. Everybody knows the legend that he is.”
If you missed out on Gamebred Bareknuckle 5, we have you covered.
A full look at the results from the event can be seen below.
Gamebred Bareknuckle 5 Results
Junior Dos Santos drops Fabricio Werdum and should secure round one! #GamebredBareknuckle | @GamebredFC pic.twitter.com/4ePdOAvs2R
— Combat Sports Today 📰 (@CSTodayNews) September 9, 2023
- Junior dos Santos def. Fabricio Werdum via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 30-27)
- Joel Bauman def. Maki Pitolo via TKO (punches) at 2:36 of Round 2
- Joshua Weems def. Irwin Rivera via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Ago Huskic def. Brandon Davis via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Anthony Njokuani def. Brandon Jenkins via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
- Joey Ruquet def. Joe Penafiel via TKO (strikes) at 3:01 of Round 2
- Jhonasky Sojo def. Tyler Hill via TKO (punches) at 4:52 of Round 1
- Reggie Northrup def. Cody Herbert via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
- Shahzaib Rind def. Carlos Guerra via TKO (punches) at 2:40 of Round 1
- Juan Alvarez def. Christopher Wingate via submission (heel hook) at 0:13 of Round 1
