UFC 293, headlined by Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland, saw fans witnessing a freak accident in the prelims itself. The featherweight bout between Jack Jenkins and Chepe Mariscal had to be cut short in the second round due to the prior dislocating his shoulder mid-fight.
Jenkins was coming off a highly controversial decision win in his second fight in UFC over Jamall Emers. That said, Jack was looking forward to extend his winning streak going into the fight in front of his hometown crowd. Meanwhile, his opponent Chepe Mariscal made his UFC debut in June this year and was also coming off a decision win.
Given, that the fight was in Sydney, Australia Jack had the whole Australian crowd rooting for him. He even managed to get an edge over Mariscal in the first round of their bout. However, later on in the second round, Chepe managed to score a vicious takedown on Jack.
Chepe Mariscal gets the victory via TKO after an arm injury to Jack Jenkins #UFC293 pic.twitter.com/ttYXYef5xG
— UFC (@ufc) September 10, 2023
His elbow ended up taking the whole brunt of the takedown and Jenkins dislocated his shoulder. The featherweight fighter ended up verbally submitting the fight receiving his second career loss. Meanwhile, Mariscal won his second fight in UFC, which means he gets to progress further in the division.
Given the brutal nature of the injury, many fans and fighters felt bad for Jenkins. However, there might be a silver lining for the Australian fighter as his injury could heal rather quickly.
MMA world reacts to Jack Jenkins’ freak injury
After facing a vicious shoulder injury in the second round of his fight, Jack Jenkins is now 12-2 in his professional fighting career. The Australian fighter was the crowd favorite and the betting favorite going into the fight. While Jenkins had the fight under control for the first round, he could not have expected the freakish outcome.
The rising Aussie star lost his first fight in UFC after verbally submitting due to dislocating his shoulder. Fair, to say no one was expecting the result and as such were taken aback by the outcome of the fight.
Look away now 😳
Chepe Mariscal hands Jack Jenkins his first UFC loss after a gruesome arm injury 😱#UFC293 | Live on TNT Sports & discovery+ pic.twitter.com/0kTkfnID2H
— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) September 10, 2023
“That was nasty landing, the arm took all the impact and weight there,” tweeted former bantamweight champion, Aljamain Sterling. “I hope Jack Jenkins has a fast recovery because that arm snap was insane, ” tweeted yet another fan.
Despite the horrible injury, Jack might heal pretty quickly. The elbow seemed to go back in pretty easily and he might not have to go through a bunch of different surgeries. Regardless, many feel sorry for the Aussie fighter after the unexpected injury at UFC 293.