Fighter paralyzed following risky escape attempt
At UFC 111, in the first round Fabricio Camoes had a sunk rear naked choke on Kurt Pellegrino, and the…
At UFC 111, in the first round Fabricio Camoes had a sunk rear naked choke on Kurt Pellegrino, and the fight appeared to be over. Pellegrino executed a stunning defense, snapping forward, and nearly leaving Camoes unconscious. Pellegrino went on to win the round, and tap out his opponent in the second.
It was not the first time the escape had been used in a high profile fight. At UFC 72 Clay Guida had Tyson Griffin in an RNC, and Griffin dove forward slamming Guida’s face into the mat, escaping the choke. Griffin eventually took a split decision.
Last Saturday however, the move had a different end. In Joliet, Ill., 20-year-old amateur fighter Jeff Dunbar found himself in the same position, and tried the same escape. This time the escape didn’t work, the opponent finished the choke, and Dunbar is in a wheelchair for life.
His trainer, Josh Bulak, who’s operated Chicago’s No Comment Martial Arts gym for the past half decade, still struggles to find the words.
“They went down,” he told MMAjunkie.com. “Jeff’s opponent didn’t know what happened, and he just finished the choke. But then the paramedics rushed in, and he was taken away on a gurney.”
Dunbar could speak after the injury, and he had some movement in his arms, but something clearly was wrong. The thought of paralysis crossed Bulak’s mind, but the paramedics soon returned and squelched concerns.
“They said he’d be fine,” Bulak said. “They said, ‘Everything should be OK.'”
Bulak arrived at the hospital and was shocked by what he learned: Dunbar was badly injured. The aspiring pro fighter was paralyzed, and doctors said he’ll never have use of his legs again and will be bound to a wheelchair. He may get some use of his arms back, but there’s a 95 percent chance he’ll never get to use his hands either.
“We’ve never practiced that in class,” Bulak said. “He just sort of pile-drived himself. That probably would’ve been the third or fourth way I’d teach him to get out of that. It’s more of a desperation move. You can’t really practice it. You don’t practice stuff like that. It’s just a freak thing.
“He should have tapped. I just wish he would have tapped.”
Dunbar is making progress. The team’s resident jokester is upbeat following a recent surgery, and he vows he’ll fight again. He even laid into Bulak during a recent hospital visit.
“I got yelled at by Jeff because someone said my passion was gone, that I sort of checked out,” Bulak said. “It’s been hard for the gym to go back there, though. It’s hard to teach after that. Life is supposed to go on, but to see someone so young injured like that, it hurt. It hit me hard.
“Broken arms, broken noses – that’s about as worse as I thought it was going to be. I never thought something this serious would happen.”
“He knows it’s going to be a long road,” Bulak said. “I don’t know if it’ll happen, but it’s his goal: Like every other fighter, he still just wants to make it to the UFC.”
This is not the first time a choke escape attempt has left a fighter paralyzed for life. in 2009 Zach Kirk shot for a double leg in the main event of an amateur show, and got caught in a guiillotine. When the fight hit the ground, Kirk’s fifth cervical vertebra shattered, bone fragments ground into his spinal cord, and his muscles went limp forever.
Kirk’s injury was the catalyst for Iowa finally regulating amateur MMA. While Bulak does not believe that regulation would have changed anything, whether amateur or pro, there are genuine risks involved. Amateur MMA is not governed as for example USA Boxing is, by a not for profit body.
Amateur fights are put on by promoters, who are in business. Pro fights are put on by promoters, who are in business. In this sense, the main difference is the amateurs simply do not get paid. In this sense, as UFC President Dana White has said repeatedly, amateur MMA does not exist. In sum, amateur MMA needs to be regulated.
The government cannot be relied on to prevent injury however. It is up to the coaches and the fighters to develop on awareness that some aspects of the sport are exceptionally dangerous, and that catastrophic injury can result.
In 2010 Braulio Estima was temporarily paralysed while shooting for a single leg. In early 2010 Franco Lescano was training at Argentina’s Tiger Gym for his MMA debut when he attempted a takedown while caught in a guillotine. The resulting injury left him paralyzed from the neck down, and he died 21 days later.
The rate of catastrophic injury rate for MMA is less than that for a number of physical activities, including cheerleading. However, catastrophic injury is possible, and with now multiple cases of permanent paralysis and a death resulting from escape attempts from a standing choke, trainers and athletes need to heighten their awareness.