Hunter Boone, amateur fighter, severely injured by exposed MMA cage bracket
WARNING: The photos below are graphic in nature – Viewer discretion is advised
Saturday night was just an ordinary fight night, until it wasn’t.
While the majority of MMA fans were keeping their eye on the UFC middleweight title bout that headlined UFC 271 in Houston, Texas, a smaller, regional event was being held about 7 hours north in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Martial Combat League was hosting their third event, MCL 3, at the FireLake Arena when an amateur mixed martial artist was severely injured just moments into the contest.
The injury that occurred was not caused by punch, kick, submission, or takedown but from the cage designed to provide the competitors their office for the night.
MyMMANews.com has been in contact with Hunter Boone, the fighter who unfortunately was on the receiving end what could potentially be a life-changing injury, one that could prevent him from ever competing in combat sports again. We will be speaking with Boone shortly to get his side of what went down. Right now his main priority, obviously, is resting and healing as he has a long road of recovery ahead of him.
The below information has been posted online by Boone’s friends and teammates, as well as a response from the promotion that held the event on February 12.
From statements posted on social media, it appears as just seconds into Boone’s fight against Jordan Brown is when the mutilation occurred.
According to those in attendance, Brown took Boone down just moments after the initial bell toll. That’s when Boone’s head struck a cage bracket that had been exposed, resulting in a massive tear on the top of his head that would require 17 staples to close the wound.
Jason Greer, Head Coach at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Altus, was in Boone’s corner when the tragedy occurred.
“A few seconds after the bell rung Hunter and his opponent spun into the cage,” Greer said in a post on Facebook as he tried to describe what went down. “His opponent had a collar tie and as they hit the fence Hunter’s head slammed into the gate resulting in Hunter suffering a 20 centimeter gash across the front of his hairline from the left to the right, down the right side and towards the back basically scalping him. It knocked him unconscious immediately but he had regained consciousness before he hit the ground. Knowing he had just received a fight ending blow he started scrambling from the cocoon with the idea of a triangle. Fighting for the win against all odds! I had no idea in the moment what had even happened after the ref stopped the fight and immediately called for the Doctor.”
Statement from Martial Combat League below via the promotion’s Facebook page below:
“We’d like to address the incident that occurred during a fight at last nights event. We understand and appreciate everyone’s concern on what happened and our hearts are with the individual who was injured in this incident. We were in just as much shock as anyone when this occurred. We assembled our cage no differently than we have for each of our previous events. It is our understanding that the sanctioning commission of the event inspected the cage prior to the show. No issues with the cage where brought to our attention by the sanctioning commission. There was a very unfortunate event that occurred during a takedown near the the door of our cage. How the injury occurred is still undetermined and there was no clear sign as to what or why this injury took place. After the cage was cleared of the incident, our cage was fully inspected by multiple individuals of the sanctioning commission and our cage was deemed necessary to continue. We don’t have an answer as to why this injury occurred and we’re, without a doubt, extremely sorry to the individual who suffered this injury.
“We’re not sure how or why concerns were brought up about us not taking care of the injured athlete, this certainly is not the case. We take required action and secure proper coverage to make certain qualified injuries occurred are covered prior to every event we promote.
And to address the concerns of the injured individual’s opponent being declared the winner, that issue has nothing to do with our promotion. We have no control, nor does the person declared the winner, over who the sanctioning body determines the winner of any fights that take place on any of our events, including last night.
“Anyone who has ever been apart of our shows, as a fan or an athlete, knows the the effort we put into producing top tier shows for combat athletes to showcase their skill. We would NEVER knowingly put on a show if there was ever any doubt whether or not the athletes competing under our banner were fully protected.
“And again, our hearts, thoughts, and prayers are with the individual involved in this incident.”
MyMMANews.com wishes Hunter Boone a speedy recovery.
