Marcos Rogerio de Lima opened up about his wellbeing following his loss to Derrick Lewis at UFC 291.

The heavyweight was stopped in the bout in the most brutal of ways. Lewis managed to connect with a flying kick that shook de Lima, as the latter hit the canvas. Thereafter, Lewis followed up with a ground-and-pound stoppage to end the bout. 

The win was key for Lewis following his recent losses to Serghei Spivac and Sergei Pavlovich.

Although that may have been the case, the same cannot be said for de Lima. The latter suffered some after-effects from the fight, which he outlined.

After all, prior to the defeat, he had won four out of his last five UFC fights. And yet, the defeat was not the main thing that impacted him. 

De Lima’s Comments

"There’s a lot of people sending me messages, emails. I’ve never received that many messages. I lost one fight and instead of supporting me, people from my country, my fans, are bothering me.

"I took a hard knee. My teeth are all loose. I can’t eat properly. It’s a hard moment. Let’s support our fighters and motivate them," de Lima said

The health of the fighters is key, something even Lewis outlined recently. During the media build up at UFC 291, the heavyweight recalled blacking out as he prepared to make weight for Spivac.

And things were so strenuous that he recalled feeling like he had "actually died." Although the star did manage to recover, the Nevada State Athletic Commission did state that they were not aware of such a thing.

This was vital since Lewis competed against Spivac and ultimately lost in the first round. 

"The Nevada State Athletic Commission Staff and Nevada State Athletic Commission medical team were not made aware of this," The NSAC executive director Jeff Mullen 

And in a sport where the health of a fighter can change at any given minute, it is vital that fighters get the requisite care that they need to prevent problems later down the line. And there is no getting away from that.