Richard Palencia’s Saturday night came to an abrupt and ugly end.
The bantamweight suffered a TKO loss in the second round of his preliminary bout with Cee Jay Hamilton at Bellator 286 in Long Beach, Calif., appearing to break his leg after having a kick checked.
Watch the footage of the injury below.
An unfortunate ending to the opening fight of the night
Tune in to the #Bellator286 prelims, brought to you by @MonsterEnergy and fueled by @Mirabito.
https://t.co/zMdsHRAwvX pic.twitter.com/3YN6B6N5MP
— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) October 1, 2022
In the video above, Palencia can be seen colliding with Hamilton as he attempts to kick low. Then, he immediately falls backwards and collapsing. The slow-motion replay shows his leg bending in awkward fashion.
Commentator John McCarthy speculated that Palencia’s leg is broken.
“His leg broke, no doubt about it,” McCarthy said. Breaking down the replay, he later added, “That was shin on shin. It is there when he turns his back. He felt it right here and it was shin on shin, so obviously it fractured at that point. You saw it buckle a little bit there as he took a last step on it. It was then that it fell apart.
Referee Jonathan Romero could also be heard saying, “His leg snapped.”
Afterwards, Hamilton was apologetic to Palencia’s team for how the fight ended and he and Palencia appeared to exchange respectful words.
Palencia was transported out of the arena via a stretcher shortly after.
Richard Palencia was transported out of the arena on a stretcher after suffering a serious leg injury at #Bellator286 pic.twitter.com/zEo5SNskE4
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) October 1, 2022
