Rafa Garcia got a win at UFC Vegas 66, but it came at a cost after a cut opened on his head which actually nicked an artery that caused excessive bleeding throughout the fight.
It appeared that an elbow landed by Maheshate opened the gash on Garcia’s head as he began pouring blood all over the octagon. Thankfully, the bleeding was on the side of his head, so Garcia didn’t suffer any issues with his vision as a result, but he definitely felt the aftereffects as medical personnel looked to stitch him up following his victory.
“Rafa Garcia had a cut artery on his head,” Garcia’s teammate and cornerman Cub Swanson posted on Twitter. “It took the UFC medical staff almost two hours to get it to stop bleeding. He is OK now.”
Garcia revealed on the UFC post-fight show that he had no idea how severe the cut was until the medical staff attempted to stop the bleeding and stitch up the wound.
“They told me I lost 20 percent of my blood,” Garcia said. “I got a cut artery. They told me they had never seen that before.
“When they were stitching me up, Cub told me sit down and just chill because you lost 20 percent of your blood, chill a little bit.”
Despite the cut and the blood loss, Garcia still put on a strong performance as he earned the unanimous decision win, with all three judges giving him the fight via 30-27 scorecards.
After falling to Drakkar Klose in his last outing, Garcia knew he had to make some changes to his strategy and it paid off with his performance at UFC Vegas 66.
“I feel like I stepped it up,” Garcia said. “I was walking always forward and it worked great for me.”
