Stefan Struve had his jaw broken in his UFC on Fuel TV fight Sunday in Japan, and he seems to be in pretty good spirits despite the injury.
The Dutch 7-footer lost to Mark Hunt by third-round TKO. After the fight, he tweeted that he wanted the referee, Herb Dean, to remove his tooth from his cheek so he could continue fighting. That plan quickly was abandoned after he realized his jaw was broken.
Thanks for the support everybody, I wanted Herb to take the tooth out of my cheek and continue but then it turned out my jaw was broken..
— Stefan Struve (@StefanStruve) March 3, 2013
He joked to UFC boss Dana White that he needed morphine while riding in the ambulance to the hospital. He also shared a photo of his X-ray that shows his fractured jaw (seen above), and he talked about his pain:
45 minutes to the hospital without painkillers.. Man, please choke me out.. Jaw is hurting like crazy.. :(
— Stefan Struve (@StefanStruve) March 3, 2013
Despite the pain, Struve was still cracking jokes on Twitter and even busted media personality Ariel Helwani’s balls for never having him on his radio show as a guest.
Struve says he will share his thoughts on what went wrong with the fight. His cardio is usually an advantage, but he says he felt gassed after the first round. Maybe he punched himself out when he had control on top.
Below are highlights from the fight:
H/T LBS contributor A. Hull
Photo credit: Twitter/Stefan Struve
