Amanda Ribas’ father Marcelo has revealed that she suffered a rupture biceps tendon less than a month out from her split decision loss to Katlyn Chookagian at UFC On ESPN 36 this past Saturday night.
“A very stressful month,” Marcelo wrote on Instagram. “A golden opportunity to fight world number one. At 25 days, an injury ‘total rupture of the biceps tendon’ comes in, then physical therapy 3 times a day to try to get [her] to fight. … 25 days without training our strength which is jiu jitsu and judo. And we’d arrive in Las Vegas not knowing if we’d be able to handle grappling or wrestling on the ground.”
All things considered Ribas performed very well despite her less than ideal preparation, keeping up a high pace throughout the fight on the feet, while also securing a couple of head and arm throws to go with some control time on top in the first and second rounds.
However, it wasn’t quite enough in the judges eyes at the end of 15 minutes of fighting that earned the two ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors, with Chookagian’s cleaner and more damaging strikes on the feet helping her edge out the split decision verdict.
Nevertheless, Marcelo Ribas is rightly proud of his daughter’s performance and has assured her fans that she’ll be back soon.
“[Amanda] did what she loves to do and gave her heart, even though she was in a lot of pain she overcame herself and made this beautiful fight,” Marcelo wrote. “And came what is independent of the result. The best fight of the night. Pain and injury are fleeting, but honor and memory are eternal. … soon Amanda will be back.”