Menifield Fought Through Mangled Thumb In UFC 331 Upset
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Alonzo Menifield fought through a mangled thumb to upset undefeated prospect Iwo Baraniewski at UFC 331 on Saturday night in Los Angeles.
Menifield, a sizable underdog at +240, survived a brutal first round that saw Baraniewski hurt him repeatedly before turning the tide to win a split decision. Per MMA Fighting's live blog, a cageside doctor examined Menifield's visibly damaged thumb before the third round but cleared him to continue. Broadcast footage showed the injury bleeding profusely.
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Menifield's Toughness On Display After Early Adversity
The 205-pound veteran revealed afterward that he suffered the thumb injury in the opening frame but never considered stopping. "If this thumb, the whole wrist, all fingers would have broken, I would have kept going," Menifield said in his post-fight interview, as reported by Sherdog. He connected the moment to his childhood, saying he saw his mother digging through trash cans when he was young. "So where I come from, this is my backbone," he told the crowd at Crypto.com Arena.
Baraniewski entered the fight 9-0 with three UFC finishes, none lasting longer than 90 seconds. He dropped Menifield multiple times in the first round and took top position late, but the veteran weathered the storm. Menifield rallied in the second round, rocking the Polish prospect and closing as the aggressor. The third round turned into a grinding affair punctuated by clinch work against the fence.
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Judges scored the bout 29-28, 29-28, 28-29 for Menifield. The win marks his second straight upset after knocking out China's Zhang Mingyang in May. Menifield has now won four of his past five fights and improves to 19-7-1 overall.
Photo: MMAnytt / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Original reporting:
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