Dominick Cruz had a rather hilarious response to news of an unfortunate training incident involving former UFC fighter Mateus Mendonca.
After going 0-3 under the UFC banner, Mendonca was handed his release earlier this year. However, that turned out to be the least of his concerns. During a recent interview, the featherweight out of Maranhao, Brazil revealed that he fractured his penis during a fairly routine jiu-jitsu training session.
“I went to train jiu-jitsu at my teacher’s gym the day before I returned to Sao Paulo,” Mendonca told AgFight. “During the second roll, [my partner] hit my private parts with his knee when I was trying to pass the guard. I felt an incredible amount of pain and ran to the bathroom. It started to burn. But then the pain went away and I kept going.
“A month later, training normally without pain, I started to notice some problems. I started to move and there was a lump. So I went to the hospital. When I got there, the doctor did an exam and immediately transferred me to another hospital for surgery.
Dominick Cruz chimes in on Mendonca’s trauma below the belt
While most guys were sympathetic to Mendonca’s injury — if not downright horrified — it was former two-time bantamweight titleholder Dominick Cruz who decided to find the humor in the situation by quoting ex-Navy SEAL and ultramarathon runner David Goggins.
“Goggins says: stay hard,” Cruz wrote in response to the news.
Though most BJJ athletes don’t wear protective gear while training as it often restricts their movement, Mendonca highly encourages every athlete to take the necessary precautions.
After all, you never know when someone is going to lift a knee and inadvertently break your penis.
“It’s a good idea to warn everyone,” Mendonca said. “All the guys who train jiu-jitsu, grappling, MMA, anything that involves contact: wear a cup to avoid accidents. This had never happened to me. It was the first time and look what happened. I had to have surgery. I had to be out of action for two months.”
