If you’re a UFC fighter for a living, a few bumps and bruises are just going to be part of your daily life, unfortunately, no matter how good you are.
However, picking up serious injuries to your hands from an unprovoked brawl in the street isn’t going to do your career – or anyone involved for that matter – any favours.
Though it could be seen as a professional fighter just getting in a bit of extra practice while out about – some of us just can’t stop working – this is definitely not the case. In fact, the fighting should always be left in the ring.
MMA fighter Jared Gordon has shared disturbing CCTV footage an altercation he was involved in a few months ago, leaving his hands disfigured and requiring 21 stitches.
The incident took place in Gordon’s hometown of Queens, New York, back in December, but he has only just shared the footage.
The video shows Gordon, 29, standing on the street with his friend Jeffrey Gallardo. Gallardo had seen a guy he used to give jiu-jitsu lessons to, and the three men were chatting on the pavement, as MMA Fighting reports.
Gordon said:
As we’re walking back, my friend sees this kid that he used to teach jiu-jitsu to. […] So we start walking back towards the barbershop and they’re talking, I’m just drinking my coffee, minding my business. I’d never met the kid in my life. And those [other] two kids came out of nowhere, I guess they must’ve had some problems with him, and they attacked him. But I was just standing there watching.
As the two men walk past, who Gordon believe to be part of the G Stone Crips, according to the Daily Mail, a violent fight breaks out after one of them takes a swing at Gordon’s mate.
The fight seems to break out of nowhere and escalates quickly. A shop window gets broken, making the workers inside come out to try and intervene in the incident.
Gordon added:
When my friend jumped in and the kid kinda pushed my friend and was posturing like he was going to hit him, that’s when I decided to take matters into my own hands.
Of course we hit into the f*cking storefront window and it comes crashing down on me and cuts my hand wide open, my fingers.
Luck of the draw for me, as always. I got 21 stitches.
Check it out:
If you look closer at the video, you might notice something else, too. The younger guy never gets involved, and actually benefits from the whole thing.
As Gordon says:
He stepped back and then my friend throws the kid on the floor, and the kid’s phone who my friend was fighting falls out of his pocket, and the kid that we were sticking up for actually picks up the kid’s phone and runs away with it!
Also, Gordon dropped his coffee, which is always painful to see.
Thankfully, though his hand is a little scarred, the MMA fighter is all healed now.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.