Victoria Dudakova is coming off her second victory in the UFC as she defeated JInh Yu Frey via unanimous decision. Unfortunately, this victory is also marred with controversy just like her first UFC win. During her post-fight interview, Dudakova revealed that she was not able to wrestle because, for the past month, she had a staph infection.
Dudakova said that she has staph in places “that aren’t okay to announce to the whole world.” Furthermore, she revealed that during the fight an abscess popped leaving her backside bloodied up. The undefeated Russian fighter said that her manager had an argument with the doctor post-fight for hiding her infection.
By the way, she said she lied to the commission/doctors to keep the fight together, and they only found out post fight. I don’t imagine they’re happy. https://t.co/0gt8e0vXNR
— Oscar Willis (@oscarswillis) October 21, 2023
Her decision to lie to the commission and the doctors is receiving a lot of backlash from MMA fans. “This is called a suspension“, said an X user. Another user by the name of Durkios believes that the Russian strawweight will definitely be cut from the UFC. “I would cut her; she is risking other fighters’ health and was completely selfish in this decision”, said a concerned fan.
It will be very interesting to see what UFC president Dana White has to say about it. Furthermore, this is not the first mistake made by Dudakova this week.
Victoria Dudakova blames staph infection for her weight miss
Victoria Dudakova missed weight for her fight against Jinh Yu Frey by 0.6lbs. Due to this, she will be surrendering 20 percent of her fight purse to her opponent. However, Dudakova has now revealed that the staph infection was the reason for missing the strawweight limit. According to her, she passed out in the tub while cutting weight and even after multiple sauna sessions, she was not able to cut the last 0.6 lbs.
Hiding such a serious infection in an elite organization like the UFC won’t sit well with Dana White. However, she was not the only one on the UFC 294 card to hide her staph infection.
Just like Dudakova, Mike ‘Money’ Breeden admitted that he got a staph infection just before traveling to Abu Dhabi. He also missed the lightweight limit by 3.5 lbs due to the infection but went on to win his fight via TKO. Dudakova’s UFC debut was also marred by controversy when her opponent, Istela Nunes suffered a nasty elbow injury leading to a doctor stoppage.
While Victoria Dudakova is still undefeated, this crucial mistake can lead to the end of her UFC career. Do you think Dana White will give Dudakova a second chance? Let us know in the comments below.