Jose Augusto, who had replaced Yoel Romero in the fight against Anthony Johnson at Bellator 258, tasted defeat in his second appearance at the promotion.
In a post-match interview, Augusto reflected on his performance.
“I was doing well, I was happy, I was where I wanted to be. My strategy was to maintain distance, slowly hurt him and be careful with his hand because he has dropped many people like that,” he said.
“I wanted to catch him and finish the fight with intelligence and caution, and I ended up hurting my hand. I had to change the pace of the fight and he ended up growing, connected the hand and ended up knocking me out.”
In the fight, Augusto had hurt his hand. Upon his return to Brazil, the fighter went for further rounds of testing on his injured hand. Luckily, no fracture or fatal damage was detected. The fighter had, however, suffered a ‘ligament injury’.
In a statement made by his team, the Bellator fighter would be cleared to train again in a month or two if his recovery went as per plan.
“I did an X-ray today and the doctor said there were no signs of fracture,” Augusto wrote in a message after visiting the doctor.
“But there was some dust in the metacarpal that he said is a sign of ligament injury. He’s a very experienced doctor, he’s the same one that did Patricky’s [Freire] hand surgery, so he didn’t request a MRI right now. He told me to go back in 20 days for a new evaluation, if I’m still in pain by then he’ll request a MRI.
“I’ve been doing physical therapy since I arrived in Brazil. Ultrasound sections too, twice a day. He said to continue doing that for a proper recovery. If everything goes well, I will be cleared to punch again in a month.
“I’m happy with the news, because I want to fight two more times this year and it may still be possible. The time I’ll likely have off is the one I need to have as precaution because of the KO. I don’t feel any headaches or anything, so my mind and body seem to be fine too.”
Even though it will take quite some time for the fighter to get back to the octagon, he promised his fans to showcase a better performance in his next encounter.