Last weekend, the UFC touched down in Kansas City, Missouri, with UFC on Fox 24. The card was an epic one, crammed to the edges with emphatic finishes.
In the main event, we saw flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson piece challenger Wilson Reis up to a third-round armbar win. With this win, he tied Anderson Silva for most consecutive title defenses in UFC history, at 10. In the co-main event, meanwhile, we saw Rose Namajunas clobber the game Michelle Waterson with a head-kick, and polish her off with a second-round rear-naked choke. The other big highlight of the main card, finally, was Robert Whittaker’s upset defeat of long-time contender Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, who he put away with a head-kick and punches in the second round.
The rest of the card, meanwhile saw finishes from talented fighters like Tom Duquesnoy, Anthony Smith, and Zak Cummings.
Given the plethora of finishes on this 13-fight card – many of which were set up or dealt with strikes – you’d expect many of the card’s fighters to be handed medical suspensions by the sanctioning athletic commission. This, however, was not the case.
According to MMAJunkie.com, who spoke with the Missouri Division of Professional Registration’s Office of Athletics, only four of the 26 fighters on the bill received medical suspensions beyond the standard week-long layoff issued to all fighters.
The most notable of these fighters was Jacare, who will be sidelined for 30 days as a result of his TKO loss to Whittaker. Patrick Williams and Nathan Coy, meanwhile, have also received 30-day suspensions for their losses to Duquesnoy and Cummings. Andrew Sanchez, finally, received the lengthiest suspension on the card, having been suspended for 90 days as a result of his head-kick induced knockout loss to Anthony Smith. The remaining fighters on the card received the mandatory minimum suspension of one week.
Are you surprised by the lack of medical suspensions stemming from the UFC on Fox 24 card? Sound off, PENN Nation!
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/17/2017.