Fighter taken out of UFN 74 by acupuncture needle
Mitch Clarke: “I’m going to fight again, so I don’t care if I have no feeling in my hand. I just want to know I can still use it and go from there.”
Canadian lightweight Mitch Clarke was ecstatic to be on the UFC’s first-ever in Saskatchewan. The event is just minutes from his childhood home.
However, as is so common in this sport, he suffered an injury.
A weird injury.
In June an acupuncture needle broke off in his arm. His muscles then contracted, and the needle was pulled deep inside the tissue.
Hours later the UFC officially announced UFN 74.
The fighter had to undergo surgery, and still lacks feeling in part of his hand. He plans to test his body out at a Canadian grappling competition on Sept. 12, but there is no fighting for now.
“It’s devastating,” he said to Dave Deibert for The Starphoenix. “It would have been a dream come true to be able to fight in the first Saskatchewan card,” said the 29-year-old alum of Walter Murray Collegiate and the University of Saskatchewan. He now trains in St. Albert, Alta.
“It’s super disappointing,” he said. “It wasn’t to be, apparently.”
“I’m going to fight again, so I don’t care if I have no feeling in my hand. I just want to know I can still use it and go from there.”