UFC flyweight contender Taila Santos will not go under the knife after all, her manager Tiago Okamura told MMA Fighting.
Santos fractured her orbital bone under the right eye after clashing heads with UFC queen Valentina Shevchenko in the third round of their title bout at UFC 275 in Singapore back in June, and was advised by doctors in Singapore to undergo surgery before returning to Brazil.
Santos opted to return to Brazil to have her procedure performed there, however further testing by her specialists and doctors led Santos not to proceed with the surgery.
According to Okamura Santos “is already well and is training for the next challenge .”
“After we arrived [in Brazil],”, the manager stated that “[Santos] had consulted specialists who gave us additional information and suggested ways to make the fracture healing without surgery. After two weeks of observation, the specialist advised that we not perform the surgery .”
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Santos was ahead on the scorecards for two of the three judges going into championship rounds, after accidental clash of heads, and lost both rounds four and five in all scorecards. In the end, Shevchenko was declared the winner via split decision (48-47, 49-46, 47-48).
It’s not clear when Santos can re-enter, or if the UFC will grant the Brazilian a chance at the belt immediately upon her return.
Speaking to MMA Fighting podcast Trocacao Frankca three days after the setback Santos stated that he was still waiting for [Bruce Buffer to announce] his name. Deep in my heart, I was expecting to hear ‘Taila Santos,’ but that’s not the name he said.”
” I believe that [I won] was up to the third round when my eye was still okay, but she still fell in the fourth,” Santos stated. I was able to take her down four times, even though she fell in the final round. The first [three rounds] I saw were my .”
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