Cyborg says he’s fine, will donate funds raised to noble charity
Injured fighter wants to donate $25,000 raised to kids charity
There is a classic scene in the comedy ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ in which King Arthur cuts both of The Black Knight’s arms off, and is then told “It’s just a flesh wound!”
Something like that unfolded in mixed martial arts recently. At Bellator 158 in London, Michael Page landed a flying knee to Evangelista Santos’s head.
https://twitter.com/BellatorMMA/status/754419055788904449
The impact fractured Cyborg’s skull, visibly, alarmingly. His ex wife Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino alerted the MMA community, and set up a fundraiser.
The GoFundMe has raised over $24,000, but the fighter says he is fine. He is in fact waiting for his condition to stabilize sufficiently to travel back to the USA for surgery to have a plate put in his head. But Bellator is covering his medical expenses, and paid him his show plus his win money.
Now, in a testament to his extraordinary,extraordinary character, the 38-year-old fighter wants to donate the funds raised to a charity in his native Brazil that is near to his heart.
People exaggerate, said Cyborg to Christian Stein for MMAjunkie. I’m fine. I’m at my hotel. I’m feeling fine. I chose not to go to the hospital. I opted to have my surgery in Houston. I’m fine. Nothing happened. I wasn’t knocked out. I only felt the pain from the fracture. At no time did I have any symptoms like convulsions or dizziness. It wasn’t a knockout. It was a fracture. It didn’t affect my brain. Everything is OK. People are crazy. I don’t need anything. At no time did Bellator refuse to help me.
When I was 11 years old, I started shining shoes to help support my family. I had six siblings. My father worked the land, and my mother was housekeeper. I would come home from school at 11 a.m. and stayed out in the streets until 10 p.m.
This time of my life had a tremendous impact on me, as I started attending an institute called Casa do Menor Trabalhador de Rua – the home for child street workers in Rondonopolis, Brazil. It was supported by business owners and nuns. They had a library, a foosball table, soccer balls and hourly prayers.
Ever since I was a child, I’ve wanted to repay, from my heart, the sense of security and direction I received at this project. Today I’m the fruit of their labors. So I wish to use the money that has been raised to launch a great dream of mine, to offer martial arts, literature and English classes. That way, we can prepare new champions for the fight that is life, and encourage them to use their full potential – intellectual, physical and technical.
Bellator took responsibility for my hospital costs. They paid my win bonus. As such, I don’t find it fair that I should use the money for my own benefit. Even in a loss, I was blessed by the prayers and care of everyone in the fight world.
May God bless each and every person for their positive thoughts, prayers and contributions. May the blessings also reach your families. And may God also bless Cris, who was so shocked by those images. Thank you for your friendship and concern.
Hillary or Trump? Forget the natural-born-citizen clause of the US Constitution – Evangelista Cyborg for president.